百年灵 - 独立家族品牌的背后 1

izzue

由 CNBC  介绍， 有兴趣的朋友在此IWATCH365一站式的可以参考[s:110]
WATCHES: THE PILOT’S WATCHJuly 2006
mighty liners of the sky will trust the Transocean,” runs the copy on a vintage Breitling advertisement. “Behind every Breitling wristwatch lies the experience of aviation precision… Breitling figures on the instrument panels of the 15 leading aircraft manufacturers or airlines… Specially recommended to airmen by the Aircraft Owners’ and Pilots’ Association.”
As the jet and space ages were getting off the runway, Breitling was the watch of choice for the airborne classes. When in 1962 astronaut Scott Carpenter required a 24-hour dial chronograph with circular slide rule for his orbital flight aboard the Aurora 7 space capsule, it was Breitling who supplied the gear.
The marque maintained its profile with appearances on such celebrity wrists as that of Sean Connery as 007 in Thunderball and Racquel Welch, who wore a Breitling Co-Pilot in the 60s film Fathom.
And yet by the end of the following decade the brand was almost dead. Production was down to a few thousand pieces and falling. Quartz was to blame. Cheap watches in the prevailing slim aesthetic threatened to finish off the market for Swiss mechanical timepieces. Out of 100,000 people employed in the Swiss watch industry, between 60,000 and 70,000 were put out of work. There was a time, during the 70s, when the only work skilled watchmakers could get was as gardeners.
Breitling looked like being just one of many brands that would die out, until it caught the eye of Ernest Schneider.
Amid the panic of a bear market, Schneider saw something in Breitling: in its past he thought he discerned the future, not merely of a brand but of an industry.
The company had almost 100 years of history at that point. In 1884, Leon Breitling opened a small workshop in the Jura Mountains. A little later he established the firm of G Leon Breitling. In 1892 he moved to La Chaux de Fonds and by the turn of the century had established a formidable reputation as maker of timepieces and specialist scientific instruments: “Specialité de Chronographes” is the legend on an advertisement of 1900. As such, Breitling was uniquely placed to be able to equip airmen with the specialist clocks they required.
During the 1930s Breitling signed a contract with Great Britain’s Air Ministry to make chronographs for RAF planes. By the 1940s, Breitling had created a watch with a unique circular slide rule capable of performing calculations necessary for air navigation, that could solve complex mathematical problems by simply turning the bezel and reading off the answer. And in 1952, Breitling launched the Navitimer: the definitive wrist-worn instrument. By 1979, when Ernest Schneider took over the business, the Navitimer was still in production – but only just.
Breitling’s link with aviation has since continued: in product development with the creation of such timepieces as the Emergency (a watch with an in-built distress beacon); in marketing initiatives (the Breitling Orbiter made the first round-the-world balloon flight and Breitling sponsors the Reno Air Races); and in advertising (John Travolta features in the campaigns as an aviator as much as an actor).
Under the Schneider family – Ernest has now retired, leaving his son Theodore to run the firm – Breitling has pursued its strategy with a commendable single-mindedness.
For instance, it has had nothing to do with the current trend for vertical integration, the so-called manufacture that is now all the rage in the Swiss watch industry. For some brands, the culture of manufacture is integral, for others it is a marketing gimmick. Breitling’s approach it is neither. Like an aircraft maker, it purchases its components from suppliers and then tests them to its own tolerances. Since the turn of the century, all Breitling watches have been certified by the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (COSC). The result is indus-trialised production with a quite remarkable level of quality.
However Breitling is also sufficiently flexible to have been one the first and most successful watch brands to develop co-branding opportunities with automotive marques following in the wake of Girard Perregaux’s revolutionary 10-year partnership with Ferrari. Breitling has developed this new market with its usual throroughness and as a result the watches it makes for Bentley have amounted to a brand within a brand,
with a clear identity, both in terms of bold design and advertising. Crucially the link has allowed Breitling to sell more expensive timepieces. Depending on the market, watches made for VW’s premium automotive brand account for 5%–10% of sales, but in value terms the Breitling for Bentley watches make up 16%–17% of turnover.
Production is now running at around 160,000 pieces a year – Breitling does not like releasing figures, but the COSC announces how many watches of which brands have been tested. The range runs from the aggressively styled Breitling for Bentley watches to the classic Navitimer. Moreover the Chronomat that Ernest Schneider introduced to revive the brand in 1984 is still being made and remains the company’s best-selling watch. Redesigned on its 20th birthday in 2004, the Chronomat Evolution is bigger and better than the original. And that is not the only thing to change, in 1984 a Breitling Chronomat cost SFr1,500, today the retail price is SFr 4,500 (

feellaky

And that is not the only thing to change, in 1984 a Breitling Chronomat cost SFr1,500, today the retail price is SFr 4,500 [s:113] [s:113]

izzue

And that is not the only thing to change, in 1984 a Breitling Chronomat cost SFr1,500, today the retail price is SFr 4,500 [s:113] [s:113] [/quote]
哈哈， 价格升了3倍

睡觉

嘿嘿嘿，我看到第二只正式我梦寐以求的全钢纯白chronomat！！！！