VIDEO: “Why should you sell a watch for $1000 more because it’s your own movement?” Jean-Claude Biver takes aim at in-house

Andrew McUtchen

Last year we were privileged to get two passionate TAG Heuer experts in a room together to talk openly about some of the most controversial topics in the game today. One of those men was TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver, and the other was founder of Calibre 11 and co-founder of Time+Tide, David Chalmers. In this video David simply asks why people should pay a premium to buy an in-house movement over a generic Swiss movement. Mr Biver does not hold back…

“The Swiss have created their own problems. Why have they started to make a difference between in-house movement and not in-house movement? Twenty years ago, 30 years ago, 50 years ago no one ever asked is a watch an in-house movement or not. And 50 years ago many brands had movements coming from Lemania, or Valjoux or ETA and it was never a problem… The Rolex Daytona, first with a Valjoux, later with an El Primero. I have Patek Philippe watches that I bought for over one million and they have a Lemania movement, so is that a problem? No, that is not a problem at all! The Swiss have nevertheless created this problem by saying ‘in-house, in-house, in-house’… Sometimes the in-house is working less good than the normal ones.”