I had a professor who told one of my classmates that their “balance was limping along like a wounded bird about to expire.” Kind of harsh, don’t you think? That’s what the media is telling us about the economy. Are you feeling the pains of a wounded economy? With rising prices for fuel and food (here in the U.S. atleast) — or better — with the media pointing out that food prices are rising as are fuel prices American’s are holding on to their money. What does that mean for me as a watchmaker? My classmate pulled through and turned out to be one of the best watchmakers out of my class. The economy will too, in fact it isn’t as bad as the media would lead you to believe, in fact we haven’t had even one quarter of negative growth, let alone the two that it takes to make a recession. We’re going through a little down turn because wages aren’t keeping up with the cost of food and fuel.
The FHS reported that Richemont and LVMH had better first quarters than last year. It would appear that even if the impoverished are feeling the effects of a “weak economy” that luxury goods, including watches, are flying out of stores better than ever. I guess I will still have a job for many years to come.
One of the interesting things is that as the media proclaims a recession I actually see more watches come in for repair. People seem to think it is time to repair that watch that hasn’t been running right instead of buy a new one, or just take care of their goods so they will last. It is a great time to be a watchmaker for so many reasons!
For you Americans, If you were totally irresponsible what watch would you spend your economic stimulus check on? My pick is the Maurice Lacroix Masterpiece Grand Guichet Stainless Steel
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2 Comments
I’ll be getting about $700 from the gov’t. For that price, I’d get an Archimede pilot with a display back, or I’d toss a few hundred in and get a Hamilton Khaki Officer’s Chrono.
Your site is a lot of fun. Keep it up.
JW
Maurice Lacroix have a 2892-A2 movement mounted with a sandwich section with Grand Guichet display features and the off center seconds hand piggy backs on the third wheel.
A good piece indeed, considering the prices some manufacturers charge for their automatic pieces, I repaired loads of these watches! They are being phased out, and hence the attractive prices. The company that made the movement possible, Sellita S.A. has some other ‘tractor’ movements, and great new designs.
I still have a few ML watches with me, like some of the old simple Automatic watches, with just date and 2824 movements manufactured esp. for ML.
It still is a great VFM watch.
Cheers Jp,
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