The True Face of Luxury Watchmaking
Luxury
Watch making is possibly the most beautiful and engaging craft on earth. Over
centuries developed procedures and techniques are combined in masterpieces
where only a few outstanding craftsmen can stand their ground. Swiss and German
watch making companies dominate the true high end of this sector. Everything is
wonderful to the eye; it touches the inner child in us admiring mechanisms far
beyond our understanding. It is a beautiful and complicated craft.
After the industry got finally over the first slump in the 1970's due to
battery watches it finally has completely recovered in the 1990's growing
stronger by the year. Profits rise to Billions with a B for each of the
manufacturers and it seems the thirst to still the need is higher than any
production can satisfy. Thanks to modern computer designs previously thought
impossible designs of mechanical watches are possible. Becoming more
complicated and even much more expensive reaching into the millions of dollars
per wristwatch.
Market leaders in this industry retain super stars in sports and the arts as their
"Ambassadors" as they like to call them. What they actually are is
paid spokespersons to push their respective brands to even higher profits.
Usually this is done by wining and dining the already spoiled ambassador and
showering the same with gifts. I have witnessed myself where high end brands
give hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise away to already filthy
rich spoiled sportsman and movie actors. It's all fair game champ! Who would
have guessed that there are people behind all this doing all the assembling,
quality controlling and tedious work for hours, days and years. Nobody knows
them, their faces and their stories. Well, this is about to change. I am here
to tell you about one of such person working in the Swiss Repair Watchmaking roam.
Barry a true watchmaker was working for Audemars Piguet in New York for 25+
years. During his tenure he held many different hats. He started as a regular
bench watchmaker doing all the servicing of highly complicated watches worth
tens of thousands of dollars each. As a matter of fact he was such a fine
watchmaker where when the business for AP finally took off in the 1990's he was
promoted workshop manager in New York. This is in most companies titled the
Technical Director of the respective country the are in. Harry was not that
lucky he remained work shop manager. Allegedly, this was the same time Arnold
Schwarzenegger was a brand Ambassador for Audemars Piguet. Hey, if the
Terminator "I'll be back!"likes the Swiss repair watches they must be good. And so
it was, business was really good. In the 1990's a series of takeovers took
place in the industry where big business conglomerates like Richemont now own a
big chunk of high end watchmakers. Same goes for the Swatch Group and LVMH Moët
Hennessy • Louis Vuitton S.A., better known as LVMH. Not Audemars Piguet
however, business was that great for them where those big conglomerates did not
even make an offer to them. It stayed private a shrewd move and probably the
best for them. This makes them less susceptible to HR controls and standards I
would imagine. Over the 25+ years of dedicated service Harry saw a mirage of
CEO's come and go each trying to reinvent the wheel so to speak. One of those
CEO's had a great idea. Why not move to Florida with the service department?
Wages are cheap there. More profits for us. That is exactly what they
did. Needless to say Harry had his family set up in New Jersey and was not
ready to go. In the end he was they only one allegedly striped of his title and
stayed behind in New York. Either way they needed somebody to stay behind to
take care of minor quick adjustments I figure.
Years went by and many more "Ambassadors" joined to represent the
firm. They even dedicated whole watch lines to likes of Lionel Messi and LeBron
James. The range of so called "Ambassadors" grew that every
conceivable sport in every continent was covered from Michael Schuhmacher to
Rory McIlroy, Sachin Tendulkar, Cristie Kerr and many countless more. This time
coincided with the creation of Boutiques. In the 90's and early 2000's Jewelry
stores where responsible to sell the merchandise. Profits had to be shared then
and now the Boutiques run by the brands themselves took this out of the
equation. More profits were made. In the Billions with a B. I am almost certain
they found new things to do for Harry with the Boutiques and all. It just
happened that Harry really got sick and became a dialysis patient due to kidney
disease. Then there came a day in 2013 where Harry was allegedly fired. No
golden parachute, no big deal, he is left like so many others to fend for
himself.
Coincidentally in 2013 one Audemars Piguet Ambassador was seriously hurt. His
name is Michael Schuhmacher the seven times world champion in Formula One.
Audemars Piguet did publish on their respective Facebook and G+ sites best
wishes and thousands of fans complimented AP's well wishes. I guess it makes
perfectly good business sense to show compassion. Not so much for Barry. He
died alone in the fall of 2014.
Official Time Watch
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Phone: 801-792-3125
E-mail: officialtimewatch@gmail.com
Website:http://www.officialtimewatch.com/
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