[Agriz]

Сообщение от Neoselcev

Нет ли у вас еще какой-либо информации по этому вопросу?
Приложенная ссылка 2013 года, наверняка с тех пор были еще какие-то новости.

Новостей об изменении упомянутого решения COMCO (конца 2013) года до сих пор не было.
Хотя раз раз срок уже продляли, могут, конечно, и еще раз продлить (но пока это не случилось)... — это мои домыслы.

Сообщение от Neoselcev

Было бы здорово, если бы кто-то из форумчан пролил свет на то, какими последствиями уже обернулось это незавершившееся событие на деятельность других часовых компаний.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/theres-s...ove-1426682173

Ну и на форуме периодически обсуждаются поползновения/прорывы разных марок, в перспективе уводящие их от ETA.

P.S. Статья 2015 года. Но что-то прямая ссылка на Wall Street Journal не работает, попробую вставить текст цитатой

There’s Something in the Way They Move
More than a decade ago, a Swatch Group announcement about the supply of movements shook the watch industry. We assess the ongoing consequences

By MICHAEL CLERIZO
March 18

THE EXCITEMENT AND the difficulty that Johannes Jahnke, a 31-year-old German watchmaker/engineer working in Switzerland, experienced designing and manufacturing a watch movement comes bubbling down the phone: “If you make an original design you start with a white sheet of paper and you have millions of possibilities. It is hard to find a way through all these possibilities. You know the size you want and the functions you want but if you make one wheel a different size it changes everything.”

Mr. Jahnke created the SH21, the first in-house movement for British brand Christopher Ward. “Finishing the first drawings takes one year,” he explains. “First prototypes, another six months, then making changes to the prototypes takes another six months. Every time you change the prototype you have to make changes to the machines that make the components. And you have to think about future possibilities: What complications will you add? To get to the SH21 took about four years, and the process never ends.”

He is talking about producing movements for one reason: In August 2002, Nicolas Hayek—self-made billionaire, creator and chairman of the powerful Swatch Group, who died in June 2010—announced that one of the group’s companies, ETA, would cease supplying ébauches (unassembled movements without escapements, mainsprings or balance springs) to companies outside the group by 2006. At the time, ETA, according to estimates, churned out about 70% of the roughly 5 million ébauches manufactured in Switzerland per annum. ETA’s products were robust, reliable and reasonably priced. Brands bought ETA ébauches then assembled and finished the movement in their own workshops or contracted specialist companies to do the job. The announcement also specified that ETA planned to continue selling finished, assembled movements, which could not be altered after leaving the factory.

The watch industry gulped, and gulped again. The recriminations started. Hayek, some argued, wanted to eliminate competition and achieve total market domination. His decision would prevent new brands entering the marketplace and cause existing brands to collapse. He was power- and money-mad. Switzerland’s Competition Commission, Comco, started an investigation.

Then Hayek answered his critics. His first argument made perfect business sense. ETA invested millions in research, development and manufacturing facilities to produce movements for the group’s watch brands, which at the time included Omega, Breguet, Blancpain, Glashütte Original, Hamilton, Tissot, Rado, Longines and Jaquet Droz. By using ETA movements, brands outside the group benefited from that investment. The Swatch Group, said Hayek, was in an absurd position, subsidizing the competition.

His other arguments were more emotional. Hayek believed that the creativity of people who understand and love watches made for a thriving industry. As long as ETA continued as a near-monopoly supplier, obliged to sell to everyone, entry costs were low and knowledge of marketing was enough to achieve success. He wanted entrepreneurs to plug the gap caused by reducing the flow of ETA movements. Hayek was willing to countenance competition and a reduction in ETA profits to strengthen the industry. If the idea of a billionaire exhibiting altruistic behavior seems incongruous, think ofWarren Buffett’s plea to pay more taxes.

The emotion intensified with Hayek’s other argument, Swiss patriotism. Looking back in 2010, a few weeks before his death, he said (in the pages of WSJ. magazine): “The watch industry of Switzerland sells, in fact, the message of the culture of Switzerland, of everything you have heard about: our love for freedom and peace, our democracy, our chalets, our fields, our mountains.” The dominant position of ETA was not only bad for the watch industry, Hayek believed, it was bad for Switzerland.

Comco agreed with Hayek, but extended the period during which ETA had to supply ébauches to 2011 from 2006. Further negotiations extended the date again, allowing ETA to gradually reduce the supply of ébauches and finished movements until 2020. After that, ETA is not obliged to sell to any brand outside the Swatch Group.

What has happened to the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth heard in 2002? Eyes, throats and jaws in Switzerland are more relaxed now.

Mr. Jahnke’s work at Christopher Ward is only one example of independent movement manufacturing cropping up since 2002. The biggest new player is Sellita, a Swiss company which, in 2002, was the most prominent assembler and finisher of ETA movements. In 2003, Sellita decided to compete directly with ETA by manufacturing its own movements. In 2013, Sellita movement numbers hit 800,000 per year; the company plans to produce about 1.4 million annually by 2020.

The results of Sellita’s efforts are evident in the revival of Waltham Watches, the most illustrious name in American horology. Antonio DiBenedetto, the CEO of the new Waltham, explains: “The base movement for our watches is a Sellita. We knew that ETA would not be taking any new clients so we did not go to them.”  Mr. DiBenedetto and his team, in a move that may become increasingly common, chose another specialist company, Dubois-Dépraz, to add complications to the movement. In 2014-15, Mr. DiBenedetto plans a total of 2,000 watches.  

Sellita is not the only new player in the Alpine republic. Soprod, owned by Spanish entrepreneur Miguel Rodriguez, does not reveal figures but is estimated to produce about 200,000 movements per annum. A third company, Concepto, today produces 80,000 movements a year and plans to hit 200,000 by 2016. Other, smaller companies—Technotime, La Joux-Perret, Vaucher Manufacture—are producing movements and adding to the vocabulary of watch writers.

ETA maintains the right to deliver movements to its historic customers. No one expects the supply to Richemont brands to stop, and the revival of Tudor by Rolex, using ETA movements, will certainly continue. But other brands such as TAG Heuer, Maurice Lacroix and Carl F. Bucherer have invested millions to develop their own movement-manufacturing facilities, while three of the famous luxury brands—Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Ulysse Nardin—were never dependent on ETA.
Twelve years after Nicolas Hayek’s controversial announcement, the repercussions are still not fully evident or understood. One thing is certain: The possibility exists for more people, like Johannes Jahnke, to become excited.