De afgelopen tijd heb ik al wat Christopher Ward horloges gehad, op zich een leuke nieuwkomer op de horlogemarkt.
Ook de prijs/kwaliteit verhouding zit goed in elkaar.
Vandaag ontving ik een advertentiemail van CW. De advertentie bestaat uit een open brief aan Rotary watches.
Chris gaat in op het namaken van “zijn” ontwerpen door Rotary.
Persoonlijk vind ik dit erg vergaan van een merk dat zelf ook horloges heeft die akelig veel op IWC’s lijken.
CW moet zijn sporen in de horlogebranch nog verdienen en het lijkt me niet echt gepast om met dit soort mails te gaan strooien.
Ik hoor graag wat jullie ervan vinden maar mijn sympathie voor dit merk wordt er op deze manier niet beter op.
De tekst uit de betreffende mail:
Dear Rotary
Sekonda may have ditched their famous endline, “Beware Of Expensive Imitations”, in favour of the much weaker “Time is Precious” (who made that decision?) but it probably deserves to be re-ignited after your recent “tribute” to our Divine Diamond Collection at Preston’s of Bolton and in last Saturday’s Daily Mail.
I have always held your company in the highest regard and rather envied your more than a century of Swiss watch making heritage. It was , therefore, with some dismay and sense of your own hubris that I see you have decided to adopt not only our Divine Diamond name but also very similar designs to our R7SWS Divine Diamond and D9SWS Encore Diamond into the bargain.
Less Is More (expensive, that is)
There are two things though (probably because of your high central overhead and very traditional high cost distribution model) that you haven’t quite captured … our quality and prices.
Whereas we only ever use VVS1 quality diamonds you have used the cheaper , and not quite so sparkling, VVS2’s for your versions.
And at £749 (were they really reduced from £1195?) our R7SWS Divine Ronde at £330 is significantly below half our price and at £495 our D9SWS Encore Diamond is £254 less but has a carat count some 84% higher than your D9 equivalent at 0.92 carat!
So, although I was pretty cross when I first saw what you had done, I perhaps with hindsight should remember that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” and, instead of feeling bruised, thank you for providing me with the best possible reminder of why we started this brand in the first place …to put luxury watches within everyone’s reach.
Should you want to create further more expensive “tributes” of our diamond collections I have listed them below for ease of reference. Should, however, you wish to copy our business model and honest pricing philosophy we will probably need a few meetings.
I look forward to receiving your call.
Yours sincerely,
Christopher Ward