Is Slowing Demand For Watches In Asia Finally Causing Job Cuts At Swiss Manufactures?
While the?luxury watch fair Watches & Wonders is running at full throttle in Hong Kong, one needs to take a step back to understand how markets in China and other places around the world are affecting the watch market and causing it to adapt and evolve. Even in Hong Kong, strong?pro-democracy protests have been under way, in what some refer to as "the worst unrest since the territory's 1997 handover from Britain," according to Reuters. At the same time, news released from TAG?Heuer (the largest watch company in the LVMH luxury conglomerate) announced earlier this week it is cutting jobs in its watch manufacturing facilities. We believe that this news is strongly linked to the?slowing demand from?the "Asian watch capital," and China overall.According to official Swiss statistics, Hong Kong alone accounted for?nearly 20% of all Swiss watch exports in value, more than the USA and Germany combined �C and with that in mind, it is easy to see why this has been urging TAG Heuer to undertak

John Mayer Sues Bob Maron Over 'Counterfeit' Rolex Watches
Musician John Mayer has been very vocal about his passion for collecting watches. Not only has he shared with (and perhaps confused) many of his fans when post images the high-end timepieces from his collection via social media, but he has also participated with the watch industry and news media as a sort of celebrity watch expert. Now John Mayer is suing Robert Maron, a former friend and trusted colleague over what he claims is fraud and the repeated sale of counterfeit vintage Rolex timepieces.The suit for civil damages (John Mayer v. Robert Maron Inc.) filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on March 18, 2014 complains that Robert (Bob) Maron repeatedly sold to Mayer, on advice of Maron's purported and esteemed expertise in the watch community, a series of pre-owned vintage Rolex timepieces that contained counterfeit parts. The larger context is that some (but not all, or even most) rare vintage Rolex watches are extremely valuable, many with prices that can soar over $100,000. These ar

Cross-pollination?
I've been an Omega collector for many years and didn't even know that TRF existed. But in May of 2008, I came over here in my search for a watch to fill the GMT niche in my collection.Lo and behold, I not only found a friendly, helpful group of members over on the Rolex Discussion Group but there was also a few interested in Omegas. So I began to hang out over here and tried to contribute as best I could.Suddenly, I realized that I have gone from zero Rolex to three in as many years with a vintage 6050, a 16710 (M/3186), and a 16600 (also an M).But it has also been interesting to see so many Rolexers have come to appreciate Omegas. New converts seem to pop up almost daily.Psalm 133:1 comes to mind, and to paraphrase, How good and pleasant it is for Omega and Rolex fans to live in harmony.Fr. John?

Panerai Carbotech release date
Hi,Anyone here know when the Carbotech is going to hit the stores...I have been waiting to see one in person and would have thought it should be out by now.It is surprising to see new releases like the 577 whereas the watches launched at the beginning of the year are nowhere to be seen...Cheers,Abner

Scratch out of the box from AD
I hesitate to even post this but I am curious other people's thoughts. First and foremost, I admit some fault in this. What I am about to explain could have been prevented by me.I was looking at a new watch at the local AD. In short, the watch was beautiful and I saw no damage to it. I looked it over very carefully. I agreed to purchase it. They took it in the back to remove a few stickers and box it up. They brought it out and I paid and left. When I got home I took the watch out of the box and photographed it for insurance and placed it back in the box. A couple days later I started wearing it and I noticed a slight scratch on the bezel. At first, I was angry at myself. I thought I must have done it. Then after a day or two I went back and looked at the insurance photo I took. When I zoomed in I could see the scratch was there.How angry would you be about this? I can say with roughly 80% certainty that the scratch was not there when I examined the watch but I can not say