Even with one eye on what’s hot and what’s not, it won’t have escaped your attention that what’s positively magma right now are watches of the ’70s. Or to be more specific, the watches that turned the ’70s around. If the past year has taught us anything, it’s how the industry can turn on a dime. We’ve seen digital trade shows, online retail, augmented reality and — my new favourite — working from home. To think about the changes that have happened, it all feels unbelievable, yet as the resilient humans we are, we’ve adapted to it incredibly well.
In the 1970s, for the Swiss business of watchmaking, adapt and survive was very much the name of the game. You could say it came on quite suddenly, but it didn’t really. When plucky Japanese watchmaker Seiko started emulating its Swiss heroes, entering the revered Neuchâtel Observatory competition for mechanical wristwatches in 1964 and not even passing the tests, nobody thought much of it. Big mistake.
What an entire
