Breitling cost of manufacture

[Gucci]

Hello

Yes, it's watches again - but we DO love them don't we? I've been toying with the idea of a Breitling for some time now. Other priorities have presented themselves but at some point, I may go for the plunge.

Now, I read an interesting piece from Christopher Ward (watchmaker) who is annoyed by the big brands' pricing. He's very clear - his watches are 2-3 times the cost of manufacture - passing on the savings to the customer as he doesn't have to pay for endorsements or glizty boutiques (he sells online only).

He points out (knowing the cost of hand made swiss pieces - as his are) that these famous brands will typically charge 10 times and in some cases up to 30 times the cost of manufacture!

So the £3,000 Breitling watch I'm looking at is actually a £300 watch?!

Yes yes, retail have to pay for the overheads etc etc, but that's some mark up.

Have you heard otherwise? Takes the shine off these pieces a bit?!

 

[swannymere]

Breitlings are quite blingy, more jewellery than watch. The type of people who buy them probably do it more for image than anything else so i can well believe it.

 

[Ream]

Breitlings are quite blingy, more jewellery than watch. The type of people who buy them probably do it more for image than anything else so i can well believe it.

Not all Breitling owners come under your labelling, the oldest brieitling I have is over 15 years old and it is far from blingy and is the reason I moved from other watches, for me it's a beautiful classy watch BUT something happened I don't know when but all watches grew by 2 inches.

I've owned a TAG longines and Patek Philippe all great watches but for me the old brietling is a far better watch, I did have a moment of madness and fell in love with a new breitling two years ago but I blame this on being loyal to the brand a bit like Mercedes, I now go to the gym so my wrist is big enough and fit enough to wear a modern watch

 

[rf065]

They do like the glossy magazine adverts don't they. I remember many years ago it was reckoned that for every £10,000 Alfa Romeo sold, £1300 went on the advertising budget alone.

Russ

 

[dsl55]

I agree with Ream, i have a breitling ocean colt chrono that was £1500 in 1996 and it is really subtle, and, considering its now 16 years old is in almost as new condition other than the scratch my wife managed to put on the glass a few weeks ago. It keeps time beautifully to this day.

I knew a guy years ago who ran a jewellers in preston and the average mark up on most of their watches was around 300%, tag heuer were all 400! This is obv retailer mark up and not manafacturer to retailer.

 

[developer]

Digressing slightly, but many branded goods are premium priced because of the brand/image - it's clever marketing.

The material margin (the sum of the cost of all the parts) on a Range Rover was broadly the same as a Discovery (in my Engineering Finance days) yet the RR was priced significantly higher, because the RR brand/image would carry the premium price.

 

[Scott_F]

Breitlings are quite blingy, more jewellery than watch.

The same is true of all expensive watches. If they were simply about telling the time then everyone would have a 20 quid Timex instead.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

As John says, it's all about brand perception; if a manufacturer thinks he can sell his product for more, then he will.

Car manufacturers (German ones in particular) are adept at squeezing high prices out of their products with a bit of imaginative marketing. Does an Audi RS6 really cost £50k more to manufacture than a standard A6 2.0 TDi? (the same could be applied to AMG's or M's)

 

[grober]

A corollary to that is that its quite easy to make convincing cheap knock of copies of these expensive items because when it come to the basic engineering they are not that different. If their technology was truly light years ahead of the opposition nobody could copy them easily without very elaborate reverse engineering facilities. Poetic justice perhaps?

 

[redbaron]

Hello

Yes, it's watches again - but we DO love them don't we? I've been toying with the idea of a Breitling for some time now. Other priorities have presented themselves but at some point, I may go for the plunge.

Now, I read an interesting piece from Christopher Ward (watchmaker) who is annoyed by the big brands' pricing. He's very clear - his watches are 2-3 times the cost of manufacture - passing on the savings to the customer as he doesn't have to pay for endorsements or glizty boutiques (he sells online only).

He points out (knowing the cost of hand made swiss pieces - as his are) that these famous brands will typically charge 10 times and in some cases up to 30 times the cost of manufacture!

So the £3,000 Breitling watch I'm looking at is actually a £300 watch?!

Yes yes, retail have to pay for the overheads etc etc, but that's some mark up.

Have you heard otherwise? Takes the shine off these pieces a bit?!

So, apart from this load of **** typed above in which you completely ignore R+D.... (FFS Formula 1 would be cheap if all you had to do was make the bits...)

Why is your username chosen if you have no desire for "branded" items...?

 

[Doodle]

Of course, he wouldn't be rubbishing the big brands to improve his own sales, would he? Of course not

 

[MOCAŠ]

So, apart from this load of **** typed above in which you completely ignore R+D.... (FFS Formula 1 would be cheap if all you had to do was make the bits...)

Why is your username chosen if you have no desire for "branded" items...?

It's his nickname, based on his surname.

And are Breitling (and other premium watch brands) known for their investment in R&D, or do they tend to use broadly the same tried and tested movements in ever more elaborate casings? I can believe they research how much people are prepared to pay to own their brand...

 

[Gucci]

So, apart from this load of **** typed above in which you completely ignore R+D.... (FFS Formula 1 would be cheap if all you had to do was make the bits...)

Why is your username chosen if you have no desire for "branded" items...?

Thanks for the disrespectful reply. The "load of ****" is a question to the forum. I'm a fan of highly engineered, considered products. The Super Factory documentary on Breitling ticked my boxes. R&D undoubtably is a big factor, but without the figures, it's difficult to assess margin.


Don't believe I stated a rejection of branded items. Love them.


Regards


Maurice Lacroix Gucci x

 

[LTD]

For those looking at the mark up on luxury items, one of the largest margins is in clothing - including the stuff people buy for day to day wear.

Companies will charge you as much as they can. Perceived price is the target they aim for.

 

[markjay]

The system of patents and IP laws is there to ensure that people are not deterred from making hefty investments in R&D only for others to then use this knowledge and make and sell goods at 'the cost of manufacture' plus.

 

[blaser24nig]

Someone comes on a public forum to ask a question or have a discussion and some ***** just can't resist being rude or disrespectful.

HINT: If you open a thread you don't like, hit the "x" at the top right hand side of the page you are on, saves a lot of trouble.

 

[markjay]

Also... before we make assumptions regarding the element of price covering marketing expenditure, we should look at the percentage of turnover spent on marketing.

For multinational companies, the glitzy showrooms may represent only a small portion of their turnover, meaning that the marketing and distribution costs in fact account for only a tiny share of the sale price.

 

[Tazz666]

If you like something and you can afford it you buy it,Simples
we all aspire to own the best things in life is that not the case ,And I dont think there was any need for rudeness

 

[paulyV6]

I also think that saying they're just jewelry is a bit off the mark too. A friend in the military swears by his Brietling and uses it on a daily basis as part of his job - flying jets quickly, close together and often upside down.

Also read a book by a Captain in the Pathfinders who wore a Brietling over the more common/popular (in those circles) GShocks etc.

 

[Stratman]

I've had a succession of cheap and cheerful watches over the years, all of which looked quite shabby after a short while and were generally unreliable. They needed replacing quite often.

My non blingy Aerospace Breitling looks as good as it did the day it left the factory, due to the quality of the materials used. Yes, it cost twenty times the price of an Argos Special but I can see my yet to be born grandchildren passing it on to their children and so on. I doubt the same could be said of the Argos Bling-o-Matic.