Simon Brette's office informed collectors that the Chronomètre Artisans steel watch would cost 81,000 CHF, not the promised 75,000 CHF - just days before launch and over a year after deposits were paid. This isn't about whether you can afford 6,000 francs. It's about what you choose to stand up for.
Meaning that absorbing part or all the extra cost would have left a pretty decent margin per unit 🤔?
In any case very interesting article, it is great to have shared SB’s comments.
I think it is easy to judge in hindsight, and his acknowledgment of misjudgment deserves a big kudos.
In my view he has a great product and collectors know it (I suppose he knows it too). I am not in that collecting league at all, but if I’d been lucky enough to have one of those allocated I would definitely keep it. One could say that acknowledging mistakes is an important principle too
Genuine question, what’s preventing him from just saying, I am going to however release another SS version, a one-off maybe, with a slight different dial, or even the proto, straight to auction, Phillips for example, to absorb the costs… I mean, those can go for 400-500K and would immediately relieve some of the pain if not all. Would that be seen as a bad move?
“For a watchmaker selling time-only pieces at 75,000 francs, that’s the cost of four watches. Four pieces worth of margin…”
Err, nope. That’s not the correct analysis.
Sorry. Dumb. Worth of revenue 🤦♂️
FWIW I’d guess the error is worth about 10 pieces of margin.
Meaning that absorbing part or all the extra cost would have left a pretty decent margin per unit 🤔?
In any case very interesting article, it is great to have shared SB’s comments.
I think it is easy to judge in hindsight, and his acknowledgment of misjudgment deserves a big kudos.
In my view he has a great product and collectors know it (I suppose he knows it too). I am not in that collecting league at all, but if I’d been lucky enough to have one of those allocated I would definitely keep it. One could say that acknowledging mistakes is an important principle too
Well - this is speculation on my part :)
Acknowledging a mistake and properly correcting it, are different things of course. So yes, acknowledging it is nice. But it’s like an empty apology
Genuine question, what’s preventing him from just saying, I am going to however release another SS version, a one-off maybe, with a slight different dial, or even the proto, straight to auction, Phillips for example, to absorb the costs… I mean, those can go for 400-500K and would immediately relieve some of the pain if not all. Would that be seen as a bad move?
I mean, by all the others out there
😂 I think this will create a wave of new piece uniques at auctions to pay for development overruns if it’s not frowned upon the first time.
This is awesome 👏. Love it, and not just because earlier today I put in a ‘request for a chance of an allocation’ (chance is zero: I’m a nobody!).
Thank you for pushing for an ethical resolution in this situation (especially since it didn’t directly cost you).
Kudos on the speed of getting this out there, enjoyable read