Truth Tellers

Brace yourself for a taste of harsh reality.
There was a time when some watch companies routinely lied to their end consumers. Sounds shocking, I know, but it's true. In the days before the Internet, some of the watch companies in Switzerland felt that they were far enough away from their markets to be able to get away with just about anything and everything.
"Do you make everything yourselves?" they would be asked.
"Of course we do," came the answer.
And there was no way that they could be caught in the lie.

I remember one of my first tours of the Swiss watch industry, about 20 years ago. I went to Manufacture after Manufacture and they all told me that they were making the watches themselves. 100% themselves. Then, at the end of my tour, I toured the workshops of Christophe Claret, and I saw that he was making most of these movements – and I knew that the watch companies had lied to me.

I guess I was pretty naive back then and the years have probably jaded me, but I still don't really understand why those companies felt the need to lie. It was no disgrace to use –Claret – he made these complicated movements better than anyone else, and continues to do –so – but the watch companies wanted to take credit for it all.
Thankfully, this has changed. Companies are more transparent about what they are doing and who is doing it, and the watchmakers and artisans are being credited for the incredible work they are doing. I think some companies were worried about confusing their consumers, so they felt that what the buyers didn't know couldn't hurt them.

With the Internet and the free flow of information today, it's hard to keep a secret and it's even harder to perpetuate a partial truth or a downright lie. Not too long ago, a watch company unveiled a brand new movement to watch journalists at a big, splashy press conference, claiming it as 100% its own.

We watch journalists applauded the accomplishment, drank the Kool-Aid/champagne and went home to read through the press release and get ready to write our stories.
Within a day, the movement was unmasked, not by the watch press, but by collectors on forums, as something entirely –different: an existing movement to which that the company had purchased the rights.
Sure, since the company had bought the movement it was "technically" theirs, but this attempt to mislead was met with swift negative reaction and the company's president had to make a statement acknowledging the error and setting the record straight.

Thank goodness for the Internet and the watch lovers who obsess over the smallest things, because they keep the watch companies honest. Today, if a watch company only tells part of the truth, somebody somewhere in this great big world is going to catch them on it.
And then there will be hell to pay.