Swatch Group Chairman Wants to Stop Deliveries to Competitors
Reuters is reporting that in a recent interview published in the Swiss daily l’agefi, Swatch Group Chairman Nicolas Hayek said the group plans to stop selling watch parts to other brands. Swatch Group supplies movements and crucial components to many brands through its ETA unit. “We no longer intend to produce or deliver to third-party watchmakers,” Hayek was quoted as saying. Hayek continued “Swatch Group could cope very well without [selling parts to other watchmakers]. It only accounts for sales of around 300 or 400 million Swiss francs, which is some 7 or 8 percent of total sales. The loss will be small compared to all the advantages we will get back.”Hayek said Swatch Group already had a team in place to discuss stopping delivery and production with Switzerland’s Competition Commission (COMCO). COMCO spokesman Patrik Ducrey said Swatch Group had not yet contacted the body.Swatch Group announced on September 15, 2009 that COMCO had opened a new

Chopard L.U.C Louis Ulysse Tribute Convertible Watch
The idea of taking a wrist watch and transforming it into a pocket is less common than the other way around. Having a piece that can go back and forth between wrist watch and pocket watch is much rarer still. Sure it is a novelty, but I think it is one that Chopard executes rather nicely in the case of their new L.U.C Louis Ulysse watch. L.U.C (I am just going to write LUC for brevity) labeled watches in the Chopard line as those that have their in-house made movements. At least this is my understanding. LUC might even stand for Louis Ulysse Chopard, not 100% clear on this. Well nevertheless, this piece is a direct tribute to the man.The watch begins with a new manually wound pocket watch movement. The movement design is actually apparently further intended to be used by watch making students at the Geneva Watchmaking school. The idea is that for the student's final projects, they will make one of these movement. Nothing created by mere students has been fitted into any of the 150 piec

Rare watches �� rare books ?
The 'rare handcrafts' like enamel, marquetry, engraving ��. the ned plus ultra among Patek watches.We know them for their complications and their superb finishingBut not often seen are the 'art' pieces aka 'rare handcrafts'Anyway, this is a book Patek made and afaik they are and were not for sale.But I think they must be very rare, I've seen all kinds of catalogs, big and small, boxes with leaflets, small books for the Nautilus ( 30th anniversary) , little books with 20 or so pages about their in-house chrono movements ��..But this �� this was new to me.I had never seen this magnificent book dedicated to the rare handcraftsA pretty big (155 pages) book about enamel, marquetry, engraving ��. clocks, watches, pocket watches ��To give you an impression , here are some picturesBad pictures I know :-) but at least you can see a few pages LOLLike said, I didn't knew such a book existedblue hard cover , and inside the 'Rare Handcrafts book'

Buckle width question for PAM465 and PAM318
Does anyone know the buckle width for these? I think the 318 is 22mm and 465 is 24. If anyone knows it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

36mm vs 39mm Explorer! Stuck in between
Just got these babies in within 2 days.I love the 114270 dial text placement, like 1016.But i like the size of 214270.