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Switzerland: Luxury watch parts supplier asks antitrust authorities for help in downsizing

By  |  January 28, 2013

As supplies for luxury watch manufacturers dwindle in the market, market leader Swatch Group – which holds a near-monopoly on some of those supplies – has requested to Swiss antitrust authorities to organize a way for Swatch to cut back on its dominance, noting that the company no longer wants to be the sector’s “supermarket” for those supplies like the balance-springs that make watches tick as well as the internal mechanism that drives a watch’s moving parts. According to reports, Swatch is looking to Weko – Switzerland’s antitrust authority – to help the company back-off the market and eventually stop deliveries to some watch makers without hampering competition; Swatch has apparently been allowed to downsize its deliveries in 2012 and 2013, and Weko is expected to announce before July how the company can entirely phase out those deliveries. The move by Swatch, however, means luxury watch makers are now scrambling for those parts as they look to other luxury brands to maintain the “Swiss Made” label.

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