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| Mühle Glashütte in Chapter 11 protection | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Sat Jul 7th, 2007 11:27 am |
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1st Post |
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Matt V 3T WIS
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Just to put this event and the other players in the German town of Glasütte in perspective: the Swatch Group already owns Glashütte Original and Union Glashütte. A. Lange & Söhne, the most prestigious watchmaker in Glashütte, is owned by the Richemont Group. Nomos, founded in 1990 and using the name of a company that made pocket watches 1906-1910, had originally been sued a few times for using the protected name "Glashütte" on the dial. Only those companies are entitled to use the town's name who create more than 50 percent of their movements' value in and around Glashütte. Nomos originally used Peseux (ETA) movements. Now that they heavily invested into making their own movements, they were looking at protecting that investment and going after the competition, in this case Mühle Glashütte. Mühle uses primarily ETA movements and had already been sued by Nomos in 2002. They made a deal and pursued their business by adding more work to those movements (decoration), but this didn't suffice in the eyes of Nomos, so they sued them again. Mühle lost that lawsuit, was faced with paying the awarded amount of M€ 63 / ~M$85 and now went under Chapter 11 protection because they were unable to make that payment. This really puts an interesting spin on the situation of these new German companies that want to differentiate themselves from ETA and The Swatch Group. Cheers Matt P.S. see the press release at http://www.muehle-glashuette.de/index.php?cat=5&news_id=57 
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| Posted: Sun Jul 8th, 2007 02:30 pm |
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2nd Post |
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srh_pres 3T WIS 
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Matt... there is a veiled reference to the failed joint-venture with Selitta that supposedly contributed to their losses. Any details on what that was or how it unraveled? :?
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| Posted: Mon Jul 9th, 2007 03:41 pm |
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3rd Post |
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Matt V 3T WIS
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srh_pres wrote: Matt... there is a veiled reference to the failed joint-venture with Selitta that supposedly contributed to their losses. Any details on what that was or how it unraveled? :? The dollar amount itself is calculated based on a deal that was struck in the 2002 lawsuit; for any case of violation of the deal, damages in the amount of €2,500 would be awarded and the new lawsuit claimed damages based on 25,265 watches (movements) that were sold since than that did not meet the requirements for carrying the "Glashütte" marking. It's this amount of claimed (and awarded) damages that Mühle isn't able to pay and why they went into Chapter 11 protection. Again, keep in mind that they are using ETA movements and some of their local competition (Glashütte Original and Union Glashütte) are actually part of the Swatch Group, which makes ETA movements. The shortages of ETA movements forces everyone (including such venerable companies as IWC) to scour the market for movements, pay premiums (resulting in increased cost) or to look at alternate suppliers like Sellita. Even Sellita is already selling everything they can build at premium prices. So I am not surprised that there is increased financial pressure, but I believe it clearly is the amount of awarded damaged that sent them over the edge in this case. What is mindboggling to me however is the history and politics in this situation: the original "Nomos" company ("Nomos-Uhr-Gesellschaft" / Guido Müller & Co.) was an importer of swiss pocket watches that were sold (marked up) with the "Glashütte, SA" marking from 1906-1910. IIRC, it was A. Lange & Söhne that got a court order to stop them and actually forced them out of business. An IT Expert from Düsseldorf (far far away from Glashütte), Roland Schwertner, started Nomos again in 1991. They used ETA (Peseux) movements until they themselves were sued for using the Glashütte marking and had to invest in movement manufacturing and AFAIK, they still use some ETA ebauches. Mühle however is a family owned business, local to the Glashütte town and region for a long long time, yet their usage of the Glasütte name is being questioned / disqualified based on accounting rulesdetails rather than company history and local ties. I guess the more of an attractive industry/market these mechanical watches are becoming again, the more of these petty lawsuits we'll see and the more prices will go up for us all to fit the bill. :( JM2C Matt
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| Posted: Tue Jul 10th, 2007 10:09 am |
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4th Post |
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Eeeb 3T WIS 
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Interesting. The fallout from ETA's decision to concentrate on supplying fellow Swatch group companies continues... It appears only Swatch group companies are using ETA's top of the line movements. I can't find anyone else offering their thermocompensated quartz movements. Anyone know of any?
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| Posted: Tue Jul 10th, 2007 11:55 am |
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5th Post |
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oagaspar Site Founder 
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Eeeb wrote: Again Eeeb you are eluding to Swatch/ETA stopping sales of complete eta movements outside of the Swatch Group and this has not been verified by anyone as of yet...only that the eta ebauches or otherwise called blanks or base movements will not be sold to manufacturers who in the past have completed these w/asian partshand6.gif The quartz movement you are talking about is a movement used in chronometer grade watches such as the Breitling B-1,Rolex OysterQuartz etc... Seiko/Citizen also have a similar movement they use in their higher end lines...below is a link to most of the brands using this quartz movement and there is much info on this subject on the web.You will find that for the most part most WIS are more into Mechanical/automatic movements as a whole and although there are forums especially for quartz lovers you won't find much discussion of them here as of yet nor do I see this in the near future imho:)watch2.gif http://80calcs.web.ool.fr/Navigation/Astro/Chronometer.html Interesting. The fallout from ETA's decision to concentrate on supplying fellow Swatch group companies continues...
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| Posted: Tue Jul 10th, 2007 12:58 pm |
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6th Post |
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Eeeb 3T WIS
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Thanks much... that link is the most useful I've found. Now, if I can only find deals on those watches!! As far as I can tell ETA hasn't stopped selling complete movements to outsiders. But I believe they may be quantity limited. And, I perceive - but this is obviously subject to interpertation - that non-Swatch companies are under pressure to find other vendors. This bankrupcy could be interperted as a result of this. Breitling appears to be an exception. I suspect they sell the majority of the thermocompensated ETA movements. (I wonder if anyone has these numbers?? ... Maybe it's because they understand good design :-) So they might have some leverage. I appreciate the goup's love of mechanical movements. They are a thing of beauty and a joy forever! But I find the high end quartz movement have a similar quality. (The low end ones are toss-aways. But there are many mechanicals that fall into that category too.) When I have some time, I'll figure out how to do some photos and share what I have collected with the group. It's modest compared to your collection... but I am a nubie!
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