dreamwalker168
17
My 2 cents
Sep 12, 2014,16:46 PM
The reality is that Zenith is only known to the cognoscenti. Ask your non WIS friends, family, and colleagues to name an example of a "good" watch and inevitably Rolex will be mentioned. If you had a couple of grand to blow on your first good watch the chances are very good that it won't be a Zenith, but instead one of the big names out there. Selling lower price point Zeniths might help get more of them out there but what Zenith needs is greater brand awareness which is tough to do. zenith wants to be one of the big guys out there but it's just not a sexy brand to your average Joe buyer. Zenith is as another poster indicated here is a "one trick poney". Although the El Primero is an excellent movement how are you going to market it???....what are you going to say..." Yes, it was the movement once used in the most desired chronograph on the planet...the Rolex Daytona".., As an off the wall analogy would you rather meet the lingerie designer or the lingerie model?...
The watch business is very competitive and every one can make a couple of bucks, but the reality is that mid level brands, while they can be profitable and thriving, will never topple the great white sharks of the industry. They got deeper pockets than yours, and can survive economic downturns, and possibly emerge even stronger. I've always thought Zenith made good products, but was turned off during the Nataf era. I thought the watches ugly and overpriced. After getting rid of Nataf, the brand was going in the right direction again, but the same problems remained...poor brand recognition. I had actually contemplated getting one of there stratos chronoswiss but was turned off but the overlapping sundials....an example of a trend catering to the masses, who may not give a crap about functionalty...When I mentioned the overlapping sundials to the salesman you know hat he said?..."most people don't use the Chrono alot".
Although economically Zenith is doing the right thing in outsourcing their lower level movement, I find it sad that a once true "manufacture" no longer isn't.