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Watch Brands --Cost-Quality Disconnect

Srinivasan Nenmeli Ph D

Several new watch brands, started by young

hopefuls and fashion brands have entered the
over-crowded watch industry. They strive to
capture some market share by fancy and
attractive dials or 'niche markets" such as
sports or military/field watches or high
end 'radio/GPS" synched tune ups. Some are
adding newer sensors--for temperature,
pressure, heart rate and so on into the tiny
space of a watch dial. Some imitate the
"I-Pad" revolution with touch screen
technology for watches. It is a moot point
where many of the brands would end up in the
near future--say in the next 5 years.

Technological Pointers
Modern ,improved technology relentlessly
drives the watch industry. Here are some of
the innovative /inventive technologies that
are the sources of strength for new and old
brands:
1 Solar powered watches--either deriving
energy from sun light or from room light;
they can store up to 6 months of energy to
run a quartz watch. Pioneered by Seiko and
later by Citizen ["eco-drive " series],solar
watches are available in several brands
,though newer smaller ones are yet to cash
in on this. My favorite 'faithful' brand

CASIO has several solar powered watches for

as little as $35/- {retail price].
It is surprising that several large makers,
such as 'Titan' and 'Armitron' are yet to
make forays into solar-powered
watches....You could make this 'green tech'
work for the globe, reducing millions of
batteries being dumped carelessly in many
countries.
2 "Lithium-ion batteries" --or simply
'lithium batteries' as you find in lap tops,
a product of space programs in the 1970's,
is increasingly used in watches. Many makers
offer watches with 10 year battery life, for
both analog and digital watches. Consider a

$10 digital watch with 10 year battery life

from "Casio" stables.[Models W201 and W96H
for example. Models like EF106, analog, also
has 10 year battery.] I used to spend $3 or
more for battery replacements every few
years. Earlier Casio offered watches with 5
year battery life and I used one Casio watch
with the same battery for 8 years.
Lithium battery had some safety issues due
to fire accidents , but they have been
resolved. Still some parcel carriers do not
accept such watches in their air cargo! The
trend ,however, is for Li batteries in
watches, if not solar-powered. This trend
would reduce again battery consumption all

over the globe. [A typical Li battery CR1216

costs about a dollar in Amazon.]

3 Case materials --plastic/resin,stainless
steel, aluminium ,gun metal and titanium.
For several decades, we had watches with
plastic/resin case or stainless steel,
though TIMEX had favored gun metal [a copper
alloy] for cases while some use brass cases.
I had been wondering why aluminium was not
used at all for light watches. The watch
brand "Haurex" from Italy, with their fancy
designs, introduced aluminium cases. Now I
find CASIO has a few models with aluminum
cases--for instance , Model MTP 1342.

Aluminium has about 1/3 rd density of steel

and therefore watches would be much lighter.
Note that aluminum had been used for many
decades for rotating bezels in diver
watches.
The latest trend is titanium cases.
Titanium is about half the density of steel.
It is highly corrosion resistant and should
appeal to sailors and navy personnel who
need watches while sailing in saline
atmospheres.
Again SEIKO and CITIZEN take the credit for
making affordable titanium watches in the
first place, in $100-$200 price range. I
find another innovative start up company

"BERTUCCI" [Minnesota based] is making

titanium watches for their military/field
watch category in the USA at reasonable
prices. I am yet to assess the quality of
their products.
I am sure many would follow this trend by
forging titanium pieces for watch cases.
Some Chinese companies must be already
trying on their small anvils for titanium
cases!
Here is a suggestion: make watch cases out
of sterling silver,as they used to make
Parker pens. You can plate it with gold or
other metals easily.

4 Luminous paints or "Lume". While leaving

radioactive tritium tubes for lighting hands
and markers to very expensive brands like
'Luminox", affordable watches have luminous
paints,improving their brightness and the
duration of glow at night. "Lumebrite" by
Seiko is a great improvement.
5 Background dial light: "Elctroluminescent
back light " was first introduced by TIMEX
in their "Indiglo" lights which won
recognition during the "Sep -11" disaster
at WTC, in New York city. One person used
this light to help descend the stair case in
the burning towers. TIMEX sales shot up.
Casio uses the same technology in one of

their models : 'Forester FT 500" series. But

for the large part most makers use LED light
or LCD background to illuminate the dial .
LED lights glow from one side and consume
less power. Many Casio watches use LED
lights even in their low-end $10-$20 models!

6 Digital vs analog or 'combo' ana-digi
displays.
Analog displays are more complicated and
take more power from the battery. In a
quartz watch, the vibrations from a
"pulsating quartz crystal" ["piezo-electric
effect" discovered by Pierre Curie, (husband
of Marie Curie] is translated into

mechanical movement of hands by a gear

train. This is much like your car which
takes the piston movements in the engine and
uses a gear and transmission chain to move
the wheels-both front and rear suitably.
The gear train movement takes lot of power
and also may go wrong after some years.
Watches with center second or three hands
consume more power and your battery would
last only for 2 to 3 years. It is indeed an
engineering marvel how the gear train works
smoothly for several years. [Mechanical
watches need lot of maintenance every 5
years and do not provide much accuracy
,compared to even an inexpensive $10 quartz

watch. Typically quartz watches exhibit an

accuracy [gain or lose] of 2 to 3 seconds a
month! Some quartz ones are of greater
accuracy than this!!
There has been no great progress in quartz
movement as such,except that plastic parts
are increasingly used since the
"quartz crisis" blew up thirty years ago and
hit the Swiss watch industry like a tsunami.
A few words about digital and ana-digi
displays. You can add up several features in
a digital watch-such as alarm,stop watch,
count-down timer,world time ,dual time,built
in calendar . Casio introduced all these in
their $20 watch since early 1980's. Many new

comers to watch design are yet to introduce

these features. It costs very little energy
for these features.
But many watch users prefer analog display
with two or three hands . So Casio came up
with ana-digi combo watches--best of both
the worlds . But in most models, the digital
window is rather small and may strain your
eyes. Yet,they are useful features to go
with. Also look up the data bank in some
digital Casios.You can store up addresses
and so on.

7 Ion--plating technology
Using this technology,several color coating

can be deposited on stainless steel. This

has been applied to watch casings. You can
have rose-gold coating as well. While
ion-plated cases on many watches ,especially
black or brown coatings, are available, many
of them may get worn out easily. The quality
of such coatings have not been standardized.
Therefore caution must be used in the daily
usage of such watch cases. It is better to
go for plain stainless steel [polished or
brushed ]finish in watch cases.

8 Water resistance: This is a ticklish issue
in watches. The term 'water resist' may only
indicate water resistance of 10 meters or 30

meters depth in a standardized test. Dive

watches have 200 meters or more in terms of
water resistance or WR.
A WR of 50 meters may be adequate for
handwashing and showering. For swimming,
diving and snorkeling, read the
instructions.
Even here,cost alone is not the indicator.
There are inexpensive Casio watches with WR
of 50 m or 100 m [for instance w201 has WR
of 50 m.]But expensive watches of newer or
fashion brands, costing $100 or more, may be
only WR of 30 meters. Again there is no
simple relationship between cost and value
in watch industry!

Why and How of new brands of varying

quality?
WHO ARE THE NEW PLAYERS?
Some of the 'new kids around the block' in
watch making are: Bertucci, Momentum, MVMT
'Movement' , Breda, Haurex and others.
They all wish to capture the dress/fashion
watch segment. Some are focused on sports
watches , outdoor/field activities,water
sports, using titanium cases.
They use Japanese movements or low-end Swiss
movements [Ronda 505 ,for instance].They are
yet to master high quality diver [water
resistance] performance , as Casio or Seiko
could provide. That would be a considerable

challenge at low cost. As for dress watches,

the tech skills of newcomers may be
adequate. Can they include Lithium battery
with 10 year life? Much testing and
reliability work is required before they can
compare themselves with any of the Japanese
giants in watch industry and compete for
niche markets. We have to 'watch' and see!
The availability of cheap Chinese quartz
movements , rather inexpensive Japanese
quartz movements and low -cost movements
from "swiss quartz" makers have encouraged
many entrepreneurs to jump in and try their
hands in quartz watch industry. It is easy
to procure almost all parts from China or

one of the south Asian countries and

assemble in far-east countries at low
cost--in China, Philippines, Malaysia, India
and so on. Several well known brands
,including Seiko,Casio, Timex ,
Sturhling-Original shifted their assembly
units to these countries.This had helped to
keep the price very,very low.
Quality Issues--How to assure and maintain
Quality?
It is easy to set up a design office with a
few computers and design software [CAD
systems] in Europe or in USA and proudly
claim that the design reflects latest trends
or some heritage borrowed from Germany or

Swiss or Italy or Americana, while bulk of

the manufacturing takes place in Asia, with
little or no quality control or quality
assurance efforts.
They may hire a few designers from Italy
or Northern Europe to lend high sounding
name for their products. Some cleverly
resurrect German or Swiss names that were
known for a century or two in the watch
industry, but were folded up long ago. They
build their watches with poor practices or
quality control/assurance methods. I know of
one company started by a Chinese businessman
and a popular brand in Asia with watches
sold in malls bearing a Italian name ,but

having no connection with Italy whatsoever.

The poor quality of the watches of this
brand was regularly reported by consumers.
While 'old faithful' brands like Seiko,
Citizen,Orient and Casio are able to
maintain their quality levels,newer brands
are yet to learn the ropes --how to improve
quality and maintain quality from their
Asian manufacturing and assembly units.
[Shinola watches are made in Detroit but
quite expensive compared to Swiss brands
like Tissot.]
A quartz watch is an intricate ,precision
instrument that should be built to last at
least for 3 to 5 years to achieve customer

satisfaction. Note that 'achieving customer

satisfaction' is one of the definitions of
"quality".
Most of the newer brands ,especially the
'fashion house 'brands which also sell
apparel, shoes and handbags ,with high style
advertising, have no consistent quality
levels. One out of 100 time pieces may be
defective or fail early in such brands.
Read the customer reviews in websites like
that of Amazon and you would realize the
poor quality of "high priced" fashion brand
watches. In these reviews, if N reviews are
given with 5 stars, nearly N/3 reviews would
be of 4 stars .

[I am not denouncing Chinese brands as

such;some brands like 'Sea Gull ' with ST
16 (mechanical movement) and TSS brand
quartz watches are of some value to merit
consideration.]
I have tried a few brands of fashion watches
in the US and have been totally
disappointed.
It is not easy to achieve high quality
levels in watch manufacture..Period.
Note that watch parts are very tiny and they
are packed in a small volume. The quality of
components must be high to ensure proper
assembly and functioning over several years.
A wrist watch is not a static instrument

like your wall clock. It is moved,oscillated

and banged or dropped a few times in its
life cycle and exposed to water and rain. It
has to be built well to last for many years.
In this scenario, it is indeed marvellous
that even low cost Casios can hold up and
deliver great service, as a clear proof of
what can be achieved.
CASIOS-WHY I ADMIRE THEIR WATCHES?
I am not a seller or agent or advertiser for
Casio company. I am not paid by them. I buy
their watches from regular sellers in the
USA or Asia, like anybody else. Note that I
also buy watches of several other brands,
including high end Swiss watches like Tissot

and Rado .
My first CASIO digital watch of $15 model ,
bought from a departmental store in the US,
lasted nearly 8 years.I have been using
their watches-chronographs, Enticer-Edifice
collection ,G shock , dive watches for many
years. None of them failed to provide
satisfaction. That speaks volumes on the
quality level of Casio and also on the
possibility of achieving such a
technological sophistication in modern
times. [One can compare the quality levels
of Toyota cars and Honda cars with
Casio/Seiko/Citizen/Orient watch family.]
Where the mushroom brands and newer brands

fail?
Many modern brands, including the fashion
house brands, do not reveal the names of
their movements. Some merely state that it
is 'japan movement' or 'swiss quartz'. If no
mention is made ,assume that it is a Chinese
movement.It is also hard to find the name of
the country where the watches are assembled,
though some brands state in Amazon
description.
While the movement itself may be of good
quality at some price level, the other
components and assembly may be of poor
quality for the newer brands. In general,
the build [mechanical parts and their

alignment] is of poor quality. I guess that

they skip adequate testing porcedures for
reliability. As a result, the parts fall off
or malfunction after a short time.
Customers Beware!!
In this situation, there is no simple
correlation between cost and quality. A $15
Casio watch may show greater quality and
provide greater service than a $100 fancy
watch of a New York or London based outlet
brand. Read the reviews and do some
research. Do not go by attractive dial and
band alone. The disconnect between price and
quality is unimaginable in the watch
industry.

I only hope that makers of high quality

watches emerge from the newer brands.
About the author:
The author is a lover of watches and a watch
collector. He had been a quality and
reliability specialist in Aero-space field.
He holds a doctorate in engineering from
Columbia University, New York. He is settled
in USA.
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