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“The ‘quartz crisis’ killed off so many Swiss watchmakers that by the end of the 1970s, the number of workers in the industry had shrunk to 30,000 from 90,000.”
by Eric_WVGG 11y ago
“The ‘quartz crisis’ killed off so many Swiss watchmakers that by the end of the 1970s, the number of workers in the industry had shrunk to 30,000 from 90,000.”
Define “survive.” The article doesn’t state what to what extent the industry recovered, but surely not to pre-seventies levels.
[edit damn but that Ressence is dope]
- raverbashing 11y agoThe first graph is pretty enlightening (Market Share by units and volume) http://www.wthejournal.com/en/pages/swiss-watch-industry-figures http://www.wthejournal.com/en/pages/swiss-watch-industry-fig... Also the Most Valuable brands graph
- Zigurd 11y agoThat would be an interesting study. As China develops a significant upper middle class, lots of niche pursuits, like handmade shoes, fine wines and distilled spirits, hand-made clothes, fine art, etc. should experience a global boom. The expansion of pursuits like keeping horses should boost, literally, the buggy-whip industry. So maybe fine mechanical watches will come back the same way, on the wave of wealth in populous countries.
- gaius 11y agoThe Chinese boom has already happened, and busted. The market over there is saturated with Omegas and Audis and cases of fancy French wines.
- amyjess 11y agoThing is, smartwatches are going to mostly eat market share from quartz watches; the people who stuck with mechanicals during the quartz crisis are going to stay with mechanicals now.