Private label watches from Landshut
MARC & SONS: SWISS-MADE Watches from Marco Heimrich
The inflation of the watch brands cannot be stopped any more in times of the Internet. A current example: The watch brand MARC & SONS. On January 16th, 2007 the brand of Marco Heimrich from Landshut is registered at the German patent and brand office. The further procedure is meanwhile a standard among the „new“ watch brands. The domain is secured, a nice homepage is set up, and the watches are then sold on the common online sales channels like Amazon, Ebay and Yatego.
No wonder that Marco Heimrich is doing big business on Ebay as member „shoppingtrend“ with over 4.000 ratings. There he sells – according to own advertisement – watches of the brands „Citizen, Seiko, Tag Heuer, Invicta, Festina and many more for truly good value.“
Real Swiss-Made, but...
Remarkable at MARC & SONS is that here, apparently only watches with the label „Swiss Made“ and no China watches were offered over the traading agency Marco Heimrich until now. The quality characteristic „SWISS-MADE“ is then praised to the highest ranks. It says: „All watches offered here are produced according to the highest quality standards in Switzerland. MARC & SONS watches are produced solely using Swiss brand values and best materials.“
At first glance, an impressive business model. At second glance the very ambitious prices for the models mainly equipped with a quartz work and the automatic watches in Rolex style catch the eye. The experienced watch lover immediately recognizes the offered watches.
Profitable business Private-Label-Watches
Chrono AG from Solothurn in Switzerland produces such watches as so-called private-label-watches at cheap prices with any brand. For example the model MARC & SONS „Chrono Klassik“, which is offered at Chrono AG as model „Arena“. Marco Heimrich asks for 385 Euros for this quartz watch on his homepage. In our opinion, a very ambitious calculation for such a Swiss watch with German brand. For Marco Heimrich it is a profitable business! As „manufacturer“ without intermediary and specialist trade the profit margin for him in direct end customer sales is much more interesting than that of the brand watches that he sells otherwise on Ebay "only" as a trader. Especially, as some prices for his MARC & SONS watches are significantly above those of comparable specialist trading goods.
SWISS-MADE-Initiative
The hope remains that the Swiss Federal Council realizes the «Swissness»-draft supported by the Swiss watch industry very fast. For industry products 60 percent of the manufacturing costs shall be generated in Switzerland, for mechanic watches even 80 percent, in order to be allowed to carry the quality label „SWISS-MADE“. „The watch manufacturers want to sharpen the brand identity and defend the credibility of their products“, explained the President of the watch association FH, Jean-Daniel Pasche. Should the draft be realized, this may by a death penalty for cheapest watches from Switzerland and some business models.