The Breitling Watch Source Forums

The most pragmatic response yet. Love it, Terry.

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SHARKMAN

Acknowledge the price increases were purely artificial and modify the pricing structure...

Indeed.
I certainly am not one to state that I know anything about what the heck has happened over the past few years in terms of ballooning prices. However, I'm a collector and have been for almost 30 years and have relegated this compulsion to previously owned options. It simply isn't personally viable to purchase pieces new anymore.

+2 Love it!!

If the CEO is making decisions such as satin finishing or the color of stitching on straps then the company is in serious trouble. I think a CEO needs to think much more strategically than making such minor cosmetic decisions which is why I think it is critical that a CEO of a watch company surrounds himself/herself with a capable design team to delegate these decisions to so he/she can focus on bigger picture items such as company vision, direction, innovation, profitability, etc. That's just my take on it

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"I don't own any watches, I just lease them"

Taking the thoughts of Serge and a couple others above, with which I completely agree, I would probably call in the design team for a meeting to make sure I fully understand their short and long-term development plans. I would ask the questions I wanted in terms of size, materials use, product lines, the like. At the close of that meeting I would decide whether they kept their jobs and if an if an investor/buyer should be pursued.

I am cheating a little. I would want to know from the CFO how we were doing and our R&D budget.

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Scott

AP Royal Oak 15400, silver
Zenith Chronomaster El Primero Classic Cars
Vintage gold Corum
Rolex DJ 36 TT, oyster dial, oyster/smooth
Baume & Mercier Riviera 200m, silver dial/aquamarine bezel
Breitling Superocean 57, rose/stainless

I would make an offer which couldn't be refused to the head of design at Omega and tell him or her to produce a series of subtle, modern makeovers of the many classics in Breitling's back catalogue just as [s]he has done so successfully at Omega.

When I look at something like the new Speedmaster Mark IIs I want to weep that Breitling aren't producing a reincarnation of something like the 1970s Chrono-matics.

1) cut the ambassadors -- all of them, we don't wear watches based on them, target demographic doesn't read people.
2) reinvest into evergreen digital marketing, SEO. they are not doing well on search and that is important now
3) reinvent their Social Media: Stop Posting movies, and encourage people to post with tags and gamifcation
4) IMPACT. Hit ESPN and NFL network hard from 12-6am every night every day. Men don't follow celebrities, they follow sports, a lot of impact on target market for little cash
5) Naming consistency. from now on there will not be any non-linear models

Firstly I'd arrange a nice little away-day for the design team to the Breitling museum and the Breitling library, to look at vintage models from say the 50's through to the 90's.

Then I'd get them to look closely at the reissues that Omega and others have produced in recent years to see how to create new models that sypathetically draw on the design cues of the past.

I'd also ask the design team to spend a bit of time on various watch forums, just soaking up the prevailing likes and dislikes of the members.

Then I'd ask them to imagine that DLC hadn't been invented, and that rubber was only available for straps and nothing else. (I'd also tell them that if they tried to produce a dive watch without a lumed pearl they'd be sacked).

Then finally I'd tell them to get their pencils and paper out and start coming up with some new damn watch designs that take all of the above into consideration. Should only take a day to completely turn things around!

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Driver8

Site Moderator

+1 to that!

Your 'away day' differs slightly than mine but I like your thinking. I would also demand that the design team work very closely with R&D to advance the B01 and B04 movements into different dial configurations and variations, especially a three-hand model. I would seek an infusion of cash into the company (if needed, we don't know their financials) either through selling a part of the company, or possibly making the company publically traded (if that's even possible) in order to use those funds to increase the amount of inhouse movement models and material innovations such as ceramics, grade 5 titanium, liquid metal, etc.

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"I don't own any watches, I just lease them"

This forum has changed since the days of Ling Man.

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ffeelliixx,
Bentley Supersports Light Body | Bentley GT | Navitimer World | Navitimer 50th Anniversary | Montbrillant Datora

Never a truer word said!

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Driver8

Site Moderator

instruments for professionals. hopeless.
http://instagram.com/p/nq_JIYhms7/

I would make diamonds an option on every Breitling model

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5 Super Avengers
1 Super Avenger 2
1 Super Avenger limited edition
1 Super avenger night mission
1 Limited edition chronomat Boston Celtics
Navitimer GMT
Transocean Chronograph Unitime
2 Omega planet ocean chronographs
1 Tag heuer Monaco

That's awesome. The spirit of Ling Man lives on...

sent from my Note 3

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ffeelliixx,
Bentley Supersports Light Body | Bentley GT | Navitimer World | Navitimer 50th Anniversary | Montbrillant Datora

Not sure if this tag line also applies to B4B. Not for me anyway.

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