This book offers a detailed and full analysis of the strategy which enabled the Swatch Group to establish itself on the world market. In particular, it tackles the issues of production restructuring, with the opening of subsidiaries in Asia, and the implementation of a new marketing strategy, characterized by the move towards luxury.

This book offers a detailed and full analysis of the strategy which enabled the Swatch Group to establish itself on the world market. In particular, it tackles the issues of production restructuring, with the opening of subsidiaries in Asia, and the implementation of a new marketing strategy, characterized by the move towards luxury.

World watch production today is concentrated in three countries: Switzerland, Japan and China. Former centres such as Great Britain, France, the United States and Russia saw the industrial manufacture of watches disappear from their territory during the twentieth century. How did this situation come about? The business of time aims to answer this question by presenting the first comprehensive history of the sector. It traces the evolution and transformation of the global watch industry from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, highlighting the conditions that enabled watch production to expand across the globe and revealing how multinational companies gradually emerged to dominate the industry.

This book tackles the history of the Swiss watch industry in a global perspective: it gives particular attention to rival nations such as the United Kingdom, the USA and Japan. The author demonstrates how Swiss watchmakers succeeded in facing various challenges: the industrialization of production at the end of the 19th century, the delocalization of production in the interwar years and globalization since the 1960's. These challenges helped Switzerland to maintain and strengthen its position as a leader on the world market. This study shows how innovation and new technologies, the industrial policy of the Swiss authorities, the industrial district organization and the relations with trade unions explain the worldwide success of the Swiss watch industry.