The Breitling Watch Source Forums

The Swiss today formally pegged the Franc to the Euro. It's about time, as the next round of price increases probably would have put the SuperOcean Chrono on par with a new Audi A7, as expressed in US Dollars.

Things are getting hot in Bern. This is not going to end well for anyone, except maybe the gnomes living under the Pyranees guarding all of the gold

I don't think that the Swiss central bank had much choice. It was seen as such a safe haven currency that the gains were going to have a huge impact on what is essentially an export based economy. I suspect that the watch firms are very happy about this.

well its gonna stabilize the pricing for sure, thats good.

any chances we will start seeing some DECREASES??? lol

Breitling (and other manufacturers) have done country specific decreases to reflect currency fluctuations. Canada and Australia spring to mind in recent years.

isn't it normal the the same watch costs the same everywhere in the world ?

And if you run the currencies you ll end up at approxamitly the same prices ... so if they don't increase the price , they actually loose money because of currency exchanges ....euro to dollar this is +-40%. !

And don't forget here (i can only speak for Belgium) you can't even ask for a discount! The best discount you can negotiate is that your warranty card isn't stamped and dated...and don't get me started on free goodies... they simply don't excist....

Price jumps for Breitling watches with ETA movements will continue to rise. Mr. Nicolas Hayek before his death this year and his son "head of the swatch group stated they where going discontinue the sale of ETA movements so companies that use say the 7750 like Breitling have to develop their own moments (B01) this translates to higher costs for in house R&D and it gives companies a chance to make there own parts and movements so there reliance on ETA would stop. . Most great watch companies are movement manufactures .

Well yes, but that was announced 10 years ago and companies have had plenty of time to adapt so not sure how it affects pricing of non in house pieces. Breitling have been producing many parts of the ETA designs themselves for several years in order to reduce their reliance on Swatch Group.

If R&D costs go up due to increased in-house development, that would explain higher prices in watches that feature in-house movements, not ones that still have ETA-based movements. The patents on ETA movements have long since expired, so companies are able to use the ETA designs, making them with parts furnished by other manufacturers. As Roff explained, the Swiss watch industry has had ten years to adapt to the change, and other companies have stepped in to meet the demand. Given how many variables there are in the mix, it's hard to know exactly how the discontinuation of ETA ebauches affected pricing of watches containing ETA-designed movements.

And they are surely not alone. However, Swiss watch manufacturers were among those that performed best of Swiss exports. In fact, the numbers were exceptionally good in spite of the high value of the Swiss franc.

http://journal.hautehorlogerie.org/en/e ... 2011-2700/

http://www.fhs.ch/en/statistics.php -> July report

Having said that, Credit Suisse and UBS are diametrically opposed to the measures taken by the National Bank of Switzerland.

Credit Suisse' Urs Rohner is in favor of the measures and expect the euro to go up at 1.25 within 3 months and at 1.30 shortly after that. (the jury is still out though on what the dollar will do).

UBS' Oswald Gruebel is opposed to the measures estimating that Switzerland is not up to this strategy which will damage Swiss prosperity in the long term. He also thinks that the Swiss government reacts too emotionally which will result in weakening the Swiss financial market.

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