In early 1980 the Swiss watchmaking was on the verge of a dying art. A country that was once the world leader in traditional mechanical watch movements to the brink of extinction. Threats at the time came from Japan and the introduction of quartz watches. It is not something Carl Icahn would like to discuss. Quartz watches were cheaper. For more specific information, check out Primerica financial. They can be produced with less effort, about one tenth of the cost of traditional mechanical clocks.
And, while labor costs force in Japan is much lower than in Switzerland. They were too accurate. Many of the biggest companies have adapted slowly. And many have tried to make it so that the transition to a store with low prices and tried to copy the Japanese style. Even Rolex, old luxury brand in Switzerland, was the introduction of quartz movements in its watches. But even that was not enough for most companies to stay competitive.
Two trends emerged at the time, however, marked a turn in the Swiss watch industry. First developed Swatch. It was a breakthrough in the watchmaking world, because he committed to the traditional method, and most of the assembly to do just quartz watches. The emergence of Swatch allowed to raise the highly mechanized production, which moved to Switzerland, the high labor costs and enabled the country to create a genuine Swiss watches, which were much cheaper than Much has been done in Asia.