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      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        June 2022

        The business of time

        A global history of the watch industry

        by Pierre-Yves Donzé, Elizabeth Currie, James Ryan, Sally-Anne Huxtable

        World watch production today is concentrated in three countries: Switzerland, Japan and China. Former centres such as Great Britain, France, the United States and Russia saw the industrial manufacture of watches disappear from their territory during the twentieth century. How did this situation come about? The business of time aims to answer this question by presenting the first comprehensive history of the sector. It traces the evolution and transformation of the global watch industry from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, highlighting the conditions that enabled watch production to expand across the globe and revealing how multinational companies gradually emerged to dominate the industry.

      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        July 2024

        The business of time

        A global history of the watch industry

        by Pierre-Yves Donzé

        The business of time presents a comprehensive history of the global watch industry from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Watch production in the twenty-first century is concentrated in three countries: Switzerland, Japan and China. The industry is dominated by a dozen or so large companies, including the Swatch Group, Richemont, LVMH, Seiko and Fossil. But a hundred years ago the picture was dramatically different. Over the course of a century, Great Britain, France, the United States and Russia saw the manufacture of watches disappear from their territory. At the same time, Hong Kong went from being a subcontractor of watch components to an intermediary between Chinese factories and the world market. Revealing the conditions that drove the spread of watch production around the globe, The business of time explains how multinationals emerged to dominate the industry and highlights how Swiss companies were able to establish themselves as the undisputed leader in luxury watches.

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