Chapter 44 watch advice

In Switzerland, no matter which city you enter, you will always look up at a watch shop.The window is full of beautiful things, but looking through the window to see the store is always very cold. Starting from Lucerne, there is often a Chinese employee sitting in the shop of many watch shops, because now groups of tourist groups from China are big buyers of watches.As soon as the store door was pushed, a figure flashed, and Chinese with a Beijing accent came out from the counter immediately, which shocked those Chinese who brought enough cash to buy Swiss original watches.Then, of course, I laughed, but it was a bit embarrassing.After walking such a long distance, I prepared to go on a journey of adventure hunting under the premise of the language barrier. Who would have known that you would come in batches and wait with a big net.It's easy to do things if you understand the language, but the things you need to do are already a bit stale.

After years of struggling, the original Swiss watch manufacturers have judged the declining trend of the watch industry in today’s world, and are trying to change course and look for vitality. Suddenly, a large number of Chinese people are crazy about their long-slow goods. They were very puzzled at first. , and then he was all smiles. Speaking of it, the earliest mechanical timer in the world is still the leaky armillary sphere made by Zhang Heng in the Eastern Han Dynasty in China, but if it is universal and practical, I think it should be attributed to the European timer.The bells of the ancient churches used to be rung by hand, but were later changed to mechanical bells. I don't know how much talent and hard work of talented craftsmen have been spent.It was in the middle of the 14th century that the Italians created the first clock with simple mechanical dots. By the beginning of the 16th century, the Germans used springs. Later, the gravity pendulum invented by Galileo was also introduced into mechanical clocks by the Dutch. A lot of effort has been put into the escapement structure.Anyway, almost all of Europe is scrambling to contribute to the chronograph.This and their race against time in the industrial revolution and commercial tide are mutually causal.

As for the Swiss watch industry, it benefited from a great religious migration at the end of the sixteenth century.The French clock technology was then passed on, combined with the original gold and silver jewelry industry in Switzerland, so that the produced clocks had more decorative and value-preserving functions.Watchmaking machinery appeared in the nineteenth century, and this industry in Switzerland developed by leaps and bounds, attracting worldwide attention. In my opinion, the peak of the watch manufacturing industry was reached in the 19th century, although it was still dominated by handicrafts at that time and did not form a scale of production.Those bearded craftsmen wearing monocular magnifying glasses poured all their amazing creativity into that small metal block, trying to do whatever they can think of.

This is the exciting creative period effect.It seems that there is an inexplicable force propelling it, and every day is brilliant, and even the most difficult corners can be quickly won.The end of the creation period is the general completion of a thing. Most things will go stagnant and aging, but a few things will enter the engraving and popularization period, and watches are one of them. The watch industry in the 20th century also had a lot of achievements, but they were all exquisite additions under the original framework of the 19th century, which belonged to the second-class behavior level.I think those bearded craftsmen in the 19th century would not be satisfied with their peers if they had spirits underground. Their expressions were like the last batch of Greek tragedians or the last batch of poets in the late Tang Dynasty, with confused eyes.Their outstanding achievements have deprived future generations of space for creativity. I really don't know who to complain, them or future generations?

For the watch industry in the 20th century, a more important task than engraving is popularization.The central figure is no longer a craftsman, but an entrepreneur. Popularization will inevitably lead to competition. The Swiss watch industry rushed to the east and west in the competition, and finally developed quartz watches and liquid crystal watches.Is this good news or bad news for the watch industry?I think that many people of insight must have seen the paradox here, that is, the new electronic timing technology must be the natural enemy of mechanical timing technology, and its convenience, accuracy, and cheapness have already constituted a mockery of traditional mechanical watches.

On the surface, mechanical watches will mock electronic watches with their own history and brand, but this kind of ridicule is just an ethical and senior venting, while the ridicule of electronic watches against mechanical watches seems to go against the ethical procedure, but it is a kind of History is inevitable.Just imagine, the kind of flashing digital that can be attached to various appliances and buildings anytime, anywhere, and the minute is accurate, doesn't it just greenly announce the end of the era of mechanical timekeeping? In this case, the position that the mechanical watch can barely hold on to is probably only the decorative function.But how dexterous electronic technology is, they soon became more liberal in terms of decorative functions.In all fairness, the appearance design of many electronic watches nowadays is not necessarily inferior to the most exquisite mechanical watches, but they are so cheap that the only thing a mechanical watch can advertise is the brand name.Trademarks can also be regarded as a kind of decoration, mainly in people's psychology.

In fact, the decorative function of the watch is much smaller than what people imagined when they bought it.When purchasing, it is placed in the center of people's sight, and placed on the spotlight of the spotlight, which is easy to produce an exaggerated aesthetic expectation.After I put it on, I can see that it is only decorated on a sideways and sporty part of the human body, which is very inconspicuous.In a party, in order to attract people's attention to her watch, a lady must first raise the topic of the watch; superior.After the ladies understood their intentions, they deliberately asked, and she pretended to say a brand casually. This may be a fantasy occasion for many ladies who buy watches. Ladies who put on that little bit of light to prove themselves.

As for men's decoration with watches, it is even more difficult.Except in midsummer, it is difficult for men’s clothing to show their watches. In the advertisements, those men’s pretentious and frequently exposed watches are not normal actions of normal men after all.We used to make fun of a few fashionable young friends who changed into short-sleeved shirts early in order to let everyone see their new watches, or kept looking at their watches in public, mistaking a speaker for a signal to urge the end .But if you don't do this, it would be too wronged for a young man who just started to work to buy an expensive watch and hide it in the dark sleeve.

In reality, modern people quickly reached a consensus on this issue. Except for a few collectors, everyone no longer valued the decorative function of mechanical watches, so Swiss watches were favored by quartz watches from Japan and Hong Kong more than 20 years ago. Defeated and lost the world market. The Swiss watch manufacturer learned from the pain, and only designed an extremely cheap plastic quartz movement watch 20 years ago. It made an English name called Swatch, and the Chinese translation is Swatch. It is very popular, even many elementary school students like it. Wearing it colorfully, shaking it around is not a big deal.

In this way, the Swiss watch industry was relieved, and many traditional famous brands were recruited into the Swatch Group one by one.It's the equivalent of a naughty little grandson adopting a whole bunch of respected ancestors, and it looks a little bit sad and a little bit humorous.But just the name of this group can at least show that the Swiss watchmaking industry has no longer ranked seniority according to the original value system. It is a pity that Chinese tourists can't understand this. grandfather. Swiss Watch is mainly aimed at Japanese watchmakers.Of course, Japanese watch manufacturers are not far behind. Since Switzerland has also played with cheap electronic technology, it has come to play with expensive electronic technology. The price can be as high as that of famous brand mechanical watches, but it has concentrated a variety of electronic instrument functions. Electronically, it pales in comparison.

In fact, the advantage of electronic technology is to simplify the original complicated things, but some Japanese watchmakers did not do this. They made the complexity more complicated by merging and combining, turning a small watch into a fascinated array of instruments.There is no technical difficulty in doing so in today's high-tech age, but it will appeal to young people who are greedy for extras and like to show off.This kind of marketing method, in my opinion, is not in line with commercial ethics.In contrast, the Swiss watch industry is more serious, from mechanical watches to Swatches. I saw a Japanese electronic watch here, which costs more than two hundred dollars a piece. According to the manufacturer's promotional materials, it is specially designed for the U.S. Air Force or Navy. In fact, it is just a collection of various electronic instruments on one surface.No one can clearly explain its so many functions, and no pair of eyes can clearly see its densely packed digits, pointers, and liquid crystals.One of our partners bought one and a high-power magnifying glass at the same time. The watch is buckled on the wrist, and the magnifying glass is dangling under the belt. When looking at the watch, he has to avoid people for fear of being laughed at. What makes me unhappy is the kind of propaganda involving the U.S. Air Force and Navy, which is clearly a trap to confuse young people.The air force and navy already live in piles of instruments, but they still need to add a pile?If the instrument on the watch is not on the plane or warship, then it is not important; if the instrument on the watch is originally on the plane or warship, then why repeat it?Unless such an accident occurs: the plane crashes, the ship capsizes but no one is killed, all the instruments are broken but other equipment is normal, and the magnifying glass under the belt is not broken, then this watch can be used for agency business. Jokes here, we should come back and look at the large number of Chinese tourists who come to Switzerland to buy watches.Most of them are not confused, knowing that the timing function of a watch is no longer important, and the decorative function is very small. They seem to value its value preservation function, but they also understand that according to the consumption standards of modern life, the value of a few Swiss watches Doesn't help.That being the case, why are you still so enthusiastic about it?I think this is the inertia of yesterday, the inheritance of my father's generation, and the residual dream of troubled times. It is necessary to be considerate and sympathetic, not ridiculed and scolded. Since they are inertial and hereditary, we don't talk about realistic logic, but if you look carefully, there is historical logic in their formation, which is unknown to today's younger generation. In those turbulent years, everyone wanted to hide some valuable things with them.Princes and nobles will hide some cultural relics and treasures, country gentry and landlords will hide some gold and silver, common people will hide some daily clothing, and citizens in big cities who have experienced a little world will think of watches, because it is safer to hide watches than cultural relics, gold and silver. , and is also easy to redeem.When I was a child, I saw a couple of citizens living on some Swiss watches, and they have a strong historical generalization. I was thirteen years old at that time, and I often went to work in Shanghai People's Park with my classmates, and every time I saw a centenarian couple.The aunt in the park told us that the couple had no children. When they were young, they opened a watch shop. Later, they left a box of Swiss watches for retirement and sold one piece every few months for living expenses. Can live that old. So here's an elderly couple I see playing a weird game with Swiss watches.They don't know whether to make the watch go faster or slower.Swiss watches are always so accurate, and one must be sold when the time comes. When selling, is the old man rejoicing that he has lived for a while longer, or fearing that the survival crisis is approaching?Is the sound of Cheng Cheng's watch a promise of life or a reminder?I think in the middle of the night in the lonely old age, this kind of voice is hard to listen to. Fortunately, the couple grow old together. Every time their dizzy eyes meet in this voice, there will be a sad smile mocking time and themselves. They used to have a meal at the small restaurant in the park once a day, ordering two small yellow croakers, which is very enviable in the hungry age; but one day, they suddenly said that they only needed one, and the auntie whispered to us: it may be the rest of Switzerland Watches are running out. I'd love to see what watches the old men are wearing, but none of them are wearing them, and the tight wrists are empty. I don't know how long the old man lived, and whether he still had a Swiss watch when he died.In any case, this is a sad and warm game of life left by Swiss watches in China, but I believe it will not be repeated. Therefore, I have the opportunity to persuade Chinese tourists crowded in Swiss watch shops not to be too obsessed with the past era.The watch is constantly saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new. It knows best that time will not be reversed. Therefore, this is also the advice of the watch itself to us.