Moser is a rarity in Swiss watchmaking, considering its integrated ability to engineer watches, from start to finish, including the most elusive component: the balance spring

This is completely unlike most microbrands, which produce little to no components in-house and outsource practically everything.

Even with all the production backend, and the sage advice of watch industry legend, former Audemars Piguet CEO, Georges-Henri Meylan (father of Moser CEO Eduard Meylan), Moser’s marketing/branding resembles that of a microbrand, or at best, is done like too many Swiss watchmakers market — as cheaply as possible.

Microbrand vs. Independent

Microbrands have small budgets and at least have an excuse for not brand-building in any traditional sense because the cost is prohibitive but for an independent brand as well-backed as Moser, where’s the marketing/branding?

Even the smallest microbrands seem to figure out how to create good visuals for each product launch. Yet as far as I can tell on this last release, there’s not even a close-up of the marquee feature: the flying one-minute tourbillon with cylindrical balance spring.

I don’t expect Moser to be able to invest in big sports partnerships like industry titans Rolex, Omega, and TAG Heuer. I do think Moser, and many others, could scale back the quantity of products they debut in favor of strategic, high-quality launches that emphasize marketing performance and branding permanence. This would also likely help enhance value retention. I think the reason they don’t is that they prefer to do everything in bulk and rely on low-cost, unconventional tactics.

 

Photo by Moser.