It is tempting to interpret the trade's renewed obsession with slim, albeit large, timepieces, as a metaphor for expectations. Having absorbed the financial lessons of 2009—cash is king, suppliers are vulnerable, and margins and market share must be protected at all costs—the Swiss have tempered their characteristic bravado with a surprising degree of trepidation.
This was evident at the Baselworld watch fair held last month in Switzerland, where numerous brands introduced collections whose chief concession to the post-recession mindset was a more realistic approach to pricing.
Zenith made one of the most drastic statements. Under former chief executive Thierry Nataf, the brand earned a reputation for extravagant marketing; its chunky, avant-garde timepieces boasted prices to match. The 2010 introductions, however, broke several molds. The brand unveiled the El Primero Striking 10th, a chronograph with ultra-accurate tenth-of-a-second measurement display, for an entry price of $10,700, as well as the Elite Ultra Thin for a more modest $3,900.
Indeed, “value for money” has become something of a mantra in the business. Nowhere is that more evident than among the fashion brands, which experienced a healthy surge in revenue during the boom years, and found themselves struggling to sustain that momentum in the wake of the recession.
Until last year, Versace, for example, had been positioning itself at the high end. Its new focus, according to spokesperson Federica Franz, is the middle segment—or watches costing around 1,000 euros.
The redux in pricing became evident as an earnest trend earlier this year, at the Salon de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva, where plenty of brands touted models with entry prices around $7,000: Audemars Piguet, IWC, and Ralph Lauren chief among them.
That left brands including—but not limited to—Oris, Raymond Weil, Frédérique Constant and Chronoswiss, whose major debut at Basel was the Pacific, a sports watch that retails for around $3,900, scrambling to protect their traditional territory.
All the focus on affordability, however, has obscured the fact that some brands are still targeting the über-high end. Concord, for one, showed its new C1 Tourbillon Eternal at Baselworld. Loaded with 25 carats of diamonds, the watch required six to eight months to set and costs $1.2 million.
“Because this year is about understatement,” said Alex Grinberg, worldwide president of Concord, jokingly before adding in all seriousness: “We're confident it will be sold by the end of the fair.”
