...9 -7 1 6 -4 0 1 JUNE 25, 2015 DAVID B. YOFFIE ERIC BALDWIN Apple’s Future: Apple Watch, Apple TV, and/or Apple Car? Since the release of the iPod in 2001, Apple had been probably the most successful technology company in the world. It revolutionized three businesses in the next 10 years: music, smartphones, and tablets. When Steve Jobs died in 2011, it was up to his successor, Tim Cook, to revolutionize the next set of industries. In 2015, Cook appeared to have three potential targets: watches (wearables), television, and cars. All three were bets on highly uncertain futures. Watches were off to a promising start in their first quarter of shipments, but it was far too early to declare victory. Television seemed ripe for disruption, but many firms had tried and failed to change the TV landscape. And cars, of course, represented the biggest opportunity as well as the biggest leap for Apple. Financially, Tim Cook and his team were unconstrained: Apple was the most profitable company on the planet in the fourth quarter of 2014, generating $18 billion in net income (Exhibit 1). However, Steve Jobs had famously said that Apple’s success came “from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.”1 The big questions for Tim Cook and his team included: Were watches, TVs,...
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...SWATCH Watch U.S.A.: Creative Marketing Strategy “Vision is the art of seeing things invisible” - JONATHAN SWIFT INTRODUCTION As speaker after speaker paid tribute to the extraordinary skills that had earned him the award of “Marketing Executive of the Year”, Max Imgruth, President of Swatch Watch U.S.A., grew more and more uneasy. Fully confident that the product that changed the watch industry forever, the Swatch watch, would enjoy continued success, Imgruth nonetheless left the need to change gears, The competition, which was at first slow to react, had begun to implement strategies that stood to erode Swatch’s position. Gazing from his privileged plane on the dais, Imgruth saw an audience that was content to rehash past successes for a night, which was nice, but no at all his style. Imgruth had recently guided his company through a fast paced and, some would say, controversial diversification program. Having already achieved spectacular success with the Swatch watch, Imgruth spearheaded a plan to establish Swatch as a total fashion enterprise. This move was accompanied by a good deal of skepticism from colleague and competitor alike. His next objective was to make sure that this year’s # 1 marketing executive did not become one of the decade’s more memorable disappointments.1 BACKGROUND-THE SWISS WATCH INDUSTRY 1985 was a good year for the Swiss watch industry. The number of finished watches shipped abroad rose 41 percent to 25.1 million and the value of watch exports...
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...22, 2004 YOUNGME MOON The Birth of the Swatch Ten years ago, the people on the original Swatch team asked a crazy question: Why can’t we design a striking, low-cost, high-quality watch and build it in Switzerland? The bankers were skeptical. A few suppliers refused to sell us parts. They said we would ruin the industry with this crazy product. But the team overcame the resistance and got the job done. — Nicolas Hayek1 In 1993, Swatch was the best-selling watch in the history of the watch industry. In 1992 alone, it sold 27 million units, while cumulative sales surpassed 100 million units (see Exhibit 1). In addition, it was widely acknowledged that the entire Swiss watch industry had been on the brink of disaster when the Swatch had been introduced 10 years ago; the phenomenal success of the Swatch was considered by many to have been a key factor in its resurgence. At the management level, much of the credit for the turnaround had been directed toward Nicolas Hayek, CEO of the Societe Suisse de Microelectronique et d’Horlogerie (SMH), which controlled nine global Swiss brands including Swatch. Over the past 10 years, Hayek had led the way for the success of the Swatch by committing SMH to a business strategy that in many ways defied industry wisdom about how global watch companies should be run. This strategy was based on a strict commitment to vertical integration (the company assembled all of the watches it sold and built most of the components for the...
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...INDUSTRY OVERVIEW 1.1. WRIST WATCH INDUSTRY Wrist Watches form an integral part of the personality of individuals in the present era. Earlier seen as a luxury item, they are now witnessing a fundamental change in perception, and are now gaining respect as an essential utility item. For the watch industry, time seems in its favour what with the liberalization of the Indian market coupled with the rising purchasing power of the young and consumerist Indians. Indian watches market was for long dominated by public sector organisations like Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd. (HMT) and Allwyn (also famous for its refrigerators once upon a time!), and has now left the pioneers far behind or nowhere in market by private sector enterprises like Titan, Sonata, Ajanta and Timex along with foreign entities jostling for display space in the smallest of shops selling these products. Before the establishment of HMT as the dominant player in the Indian markets initially, the country was solely dependent on imports to meet the internal demand. However, establishment of HMT as the leading player in the wrist watch segment in the 1960’s, changed the scenario. In post liberalization India, the market stood to witness intensive competition between foreign and Indian manufacturers like Timex, Titan, Movado, Longines, Rado, Rolex, Fréderique Constant, Mont Blanc, Swatch, and many others. Many watch makers have made significant inroads in the industry and others are in the process of establishing themselves...
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...The flashy and luxuriously designed watches feature a wide array of detail never seen on watches. The Glam Rock Watches are just one of many popular high end products deemed a lifestyle watch. Many of the unique styles among the collection of Glam Rock Watches are unisex so this way a watch can be shared by a couple. Popularly seen in Miami, Palm Beach, LA and New York Glam Rock Watches is a hot item. Made from stainless steel and titanium, many with diamond details, the popular line of watches are definitely nice to look at and nicer to own. A popular choice among women is the Glam Rock Women's Miami Pink Watch. Made from stainless steel, mother of pearl and silicone the flashy watch features a stainless steel case and elegant mother of pearl dial accented by a pink bezel. Other features include a pink silicone strap with detailed stitching and buckle closure. The Glam Rock Miami Pink Watch features a 60 second subdial at 6 o'clock, is water resistant, has Swiss mad quart movement and includes a 2 year warranty. This is a great gift item from the collection of Glam Rock Watches and a great buy found at $695. A great investment for a couple is the Glam Rock Unisex Miami Black Leather Chronograph Watch. Ideal for male or female the popular watch from the collection of Glam Rock Watches is made from a stainless steel case adorned with a black leather bezel and black leather strap with buckle closure. Other key features include gray dial and chronograph...
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...BRANDED FASHION WATCH On an April morning, 1993, Tom Kartsotis woke up worth over $42 million on paper and owner of a considerably stronger company. The previous day’s initial public offering of 2.4 million shares had returned $18.7 million to Fossil. Starting from modest beginnings, Fossil had emerged as a major competitor in the highly-competitive branded fashion watch industry. Tom’s months of hard work had resulted in a successful initial public stock offering (IPO). He faced the welcome challenge of making effective use of these new funds. FOSSIL’S CREATION AND GROWTH After he dropped out of Texas A&M, Tom set up business outside Texas Stadium in suburban Dallas. He worked as a ticket-broker, or as some would say, scalper, and sold enough hard-to-get tickets to sporting events and concerts to build his savings to over $200,000. In 1984, at the age of 24 and not looking forward to a future as a ticket scalper, he sold out to his partner and began a search for new opportunities. Tom’s older brother, Kosta, 31 at the time, was a merchandise executive at a large Dallas department store chain, Sanger Harris. Kosta had noted the recent success of Swatch fashion watches and was aware that watches and other goods could be imported from the Far East at very low cost. On a visit to Hong Kong, Tom studied a number of potential products for import including toys and stuffed animals before following Kosta’s advice and returned to the U.S. to develop a watch import business...
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...Titan Industries Titan Industries is the organization that brought about a paradigm shift in the Indian watch market when it introduced its futuristic quartz technology, complemented by international styling. With India's two most recognized and loved brands Titan and Tanishq to its credit, Titan Industries is the fifth largest integrated watch manufacturer in the world. The success story began in 1984 with a joint venture between the Tata Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation. Presenting Titan quartz watches that sported an international look, Titan Industries transformed the Indian watch market. After Sonata, a value brand of functionally styled watches at affordable prices, Titan Industries reached out to the youth segment with Fastrack, its third brand, trendy and chic. The company has sold 135million watches world over and manufactures 13 million watches every year. With a license for premium fashion watches of global brands, Titan Industries repeated its pioneering act and brought international brands into Indian market. Tommy Hilfiger and FCUK as well as the Swiss made watch – Xylys owe their presence in Indian market to Titan Industries. Entering the largely fragmented Indian jewellery market with no known brands in 1995, Titan Industries launched Tanishq, India’s most trusted and fastest growing jewellery brand. Gold Plus, the later addition, focuses on the preferences of semi-urban and rural India. Completing the jewellery portfolio is Zoya...
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...June 12, 2000 Rebirth of the Swiss Watch Industry, 1980–1992 (A) “Time is fast running out for the ailing Swiss watch industry.”1 —The Globe and Mail By the end of 1983, Hayek Engineering, a Swiss consulting firm founded by chairman and CEO Nicolas Hayek, was becoming increasingly involved in solving the mounting problems facing the Swiss watch industry, which was on the brink of disaster. Hayek Engineering had initially been recruited by the creditors of the two largest Swiss watchmakers, ASUAG (Allgemeine Schweizerische Uhrenindustrie AG) and SSIH (Societe Suisse pour L’Industrie Horlogere), to formulate a strategy to deal with changing market conditions in 1981. Since then the firm’s involvement with the industry had grown steadily. The firm’s influence had also been increasing since earlier that year, when the banks had agreed with its recommendation that SSIH and ASUAG merge. Although Hayek Engineering was acting as a consultant, Nicolas Hayek, its CEO, would come to have a significant role in supervising the merger and in helping to lead the newly-formed company forward. With the formalities of the merger completed, in December 1983, the new company and its consultants were confronted with a number of new issues. The company faced restructuring challenges and management shifts. But more importantly, it still faced the foreign competition that had decimated the Swiss presence in the inexpensive and middle-range watch segments—the Swiss no longer accounted...
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...overtake Rolex, its natural competitor, people were smiling and saying that Rolex is in a different league, up there. But this positioned Omega, inside and outside, totally. — Nick Hayek, CEO, Swatch Group On the afternoon of March 15, 2011, the only day closed for visitors during Baselworld, the major global watch and jewelry trade show held in Basel, Switzerland, Nick Hayek, the CEO of the leading Swiss watch manufacturer Swatch Group, completed a series of informal meetings with his watchmaking counterparts. After all that had been said behind the glamorously showcased watch collections, Hayek lit a cigar to reflect on the discussions’ impact on his watchmaking empire. The late Nicolas G. Hayek (hereafter Hayek Sr.), the charismatic founder of the Swatch Group (and Nick Hayek’s father) who passed away nine months ago, would have applauded the group’s exceptional 2010 results which encouraged the company to set a sales goal of 10 billion Swiss Francs (CHF) within the next four to five years (see Exhibit 1 for the group’s key financials).1 Given how well the Swatch Group had weathered the recent difficult years for the industry, Hayek was not surprised by the 2010 numbers. He attributed this success partly to the group’s vast range of 19 watch brands serving all consumer segments, and to its solid Swiss industrial base which allowed the group to feed the latest technology into its timepieces. The company’s results had...
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...Economics Project by YSR Raghav(14070) Introduction History and Evolution of Time Keeping Machines Watch is a small time keeping machine, historically worn on the wrist or attached on a chain carried in the pocket or around the neck for convenience. Timekeeping has a history dating back to ancient times. The first watch in the 15th century made was spring powered and was strictly mechanical, but with the technological advances this mechanism was replaced by quartz vibrations or electromagnetic pulses. Figure 1 shows the evolutionary era of the various time keeping machines/watches since 1300 BC from the sundial, water clock, to the mechanical wrist watches. Wrist watches became popular in 1920s, after soldiers came back from the World War I wearing military-issue ‘trench watches’, which were later discontinued as their told only the time. However, in mid 1970s, a novel calculator wrist watch came in the market and was widely used. In subsequent decades, pager watches and phone watches, appeared in the market but did not last for long. Then in 2004, Microsoft produced the SPOT watch, a 300 USD device that conveyed instant messages, stock up dates, weather forecasts and broadcasted FM radio signals. After a few years, this watch died due to marketing strategies. So today, the only surviving wrist watch from this cheerless era is in fact the original calculator watch, which currently retails for about 25 USD. In general, wrist watches have been categorized with respect...
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...brands--Swatch, Omega, Blancpain, Glashutte, Breguet, Jaquet Droz and Leon Hatot--have their showrooms and boutiques at the Nicholas G. Hayek Center in Ginza, Tokyo, Japan, as well as the Swatch Group Japan office and an event space for exhibitions and receptions. Full Text Word Count: 797 ISSN: 01495380 Accession Number: 25449031 Database: Business Source Complete Translate Full Text: HTML Full Text ------------------------------------------------- Going Bigger in Tokyo: Swatch Group Is Latest In Rush for Megastores Listen | Download MP3 Help | | | Dateline: TOKYO Swatch Group is the latest luxury player to place a big bet on Tokyo. The world's largest watch firm has joined the rush of companies opening megastores in the Japanese capital, which, in the last nine months alone, has included Gucci, Bulgari and Bottega Veneta. And at a reported cost of $140 million, the store represents Swatch's largest single investment outside of Switzerland. Seven main brands - Swatch, Omega, Blancpain, Glashutte, Breguet, Jaquet Droz and Leon Hatot - have their showrooms and boutiques inside the sprawling Nicholas G. Hayek Center in Ginza, as well as...
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...S. RAMESH KUMAR AND KASTURI BARAL rP os t IMB 349 XYLYS: Exploring Consumer Perception about Premium Watches in the Indian Context BACKGROUND op yo Manoj Chakravarti, Senior Advisor, Titan Industries reflected on his 28 years in the watch industry, both in India and abroad, and contemplated about Xylys, Titan’s premium watch brand, and its foray into the Indian market. He had formulated several aspects of marketing mix strategies in the past to face diverse kinds of challenges. For Chakravarti, any challenge in the watch industry, especially in an emerging market such as India, was something he looked forward to, as it gave him immense satisfaction when he was able to find some insights. Xylys was a premium watch brand launched by Titan a few years ago; the brand was aimed at creating a unique perception among consumers. The challenge was to create and shape a perception unique to the brand, since premium watches in India were associated with the Swiss brands Omega and Rolex, or Tag Heuer and other similar brands, which were more contemporary in nature. There were several interesting possibilities for Chakravarti to consider. Would a conventional-positioning approach be sufficient? Was it necessary to obtain some insights regarding the application of the uniqueness aspect to the self-perception of consumers? How were such aspects of uniqueness related to other established brands? How important was the “Swiss-made” label? Did the buyers and prospective...
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...My weekends are not so busy, so I can really relax. On satuday, I usually cook my breakfast by myself. In the morning, I often clean my room. Then I watch TV, read, and listen to music in the afternoons. After that, I usually play sport with my friends till the dinner. . I like playing sports, but I don’t have much time for it in working-days, so I often play sports more on weekends. After dinner, I do my homework while I listen to music. Last Saturday was busy. I got up later than usual on Sunday morning. After breakfast I went over to my friend's house and spent times doing homework there. We work till lunch-time. then I went home, had lunch with my parents and took an afternoon nap. Taking an afternoon nap is a pleasure that I can indulge in only on weekends. On weekdays I do not have time for it. The rest of the afternoon I helped my father in the garden. there're a lot of flowers and plants in our garden. We continued until darkness fell. After that I take a bath and help my mother repare the dinner. In the diner, my parents usually say some interesting stories so I really enjoy it. After dinner I watched television until it was time for bed. I often go to bed at 10 p.m to get up early on Monday. I like my weekends. My weekends is often fully filled with relaxing actions. I like playing sports, but I don’t have much time for it in working-days, so I often play sports more on weekends. My favourite sports is badminton. I often get up at 7am on Satuday and go...
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...According to the research 71 percent of people have seen the adds and 100 percent of the merchants have seen the adds with Krysten Neiman. Most of the people that took the survey think that the ads are affective. Some agree that it makes them proud to be wearing an Aquine watch. The other suggestion was that the quality of the watches was falling and that that had been affecting the sales of the watches. According to our data 60 percent of Aquice owners have the certified watches. The majority of the people surveyed though that the certification was proof of quality and they also agreed that they were willing to pay more for the quality. People surveyed were willing to pay between $1,001 and $1,500 for the chronometer (SOCC) certified watches. So my conclusion is that we should invest money in purchasing a Poising machine to poise the balance wheel that determines the accuracy of the movement in various positions. We also need to invest in purchasing movement holders that help in better assembling the watch that in turn improves the movement of the watch in different positions. Lastly I also recommend that we invest in purchasing a timing machine that is used to diagnose movement performance of a watch while it is being assembled. Our customers know our product and they are willing to buy it. This indicates that we don’t need to improve our advertisements or choose another spokes person to endorse our product. Our customers are interested in buying our products but...
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...Submitted By Group 2: Arunava Maity, Firoj Kumar Meher, Parvez Izhar, Pooja Sharma 1940’s- The Swiss dominated the watch industry because of their centuries-long history of jewelry-making expertise. Prior to the 1950s, watchmaking was a craft that required the skills of a master jewelry maker combined with the expertise of a micromechanical engineer. 1945’s-By 1945, The Swiss accounted for 80% of the world’s total watch production and 99% of all U.S. imports. 1951-Emergence of Low Cost Competition. U.S. Time introduced a line of disposable watches bearing the Timex brand name. Timex was selling its watches through a variety of low-priced outlets such as drugstores and discount houses. By the end of the 1950s, one out of every three watches bought in the United States was a Timex, 1970 –By 1970’sTimex was selling more watches than any other manufacturer in the world. 1970’s- During the same time, several Japanese companies like Hattori-Seiko and Citizen—had taken over the Asian market and were trying to cover up Europe and North America. As a result, the Swiss share of the global market declined, from 80% in 1946 to just 42% in 1970. The Introduction of Quartz Technology * Made use of quartz and integrated circuits * Provided Accuracy, more sophisticated functionality, more features like day & time·, Digital display, Analog watches. * Cheaper in cost of manufacturing. * A wide Price range, starting from $8 to $20, today even below $5. * Introduction of analog...
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