CW-Rotary

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cstef
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Re: CW-Rotary

Post by cstef »

My wife, she is going to give birth to my second baby in 2 weeks, got the Encore for last Christmas and I am positive there is nothing in this price range with better quality and value; and, she loves it, too; hopefully me, still!!
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Re: CW-Rotary

Post by spepster »

lamppo_the_GasFitter wrote:Rotary have pulled a fast one, but look at it like this.

If you(your average Joe Egg) bought the love of your life a CWL Divive for £350 or a Rotary For £749, which do you think she will be more impressed with?
Not sure what you mean, but I do know this - if I bought the doris a watch for £750 when I could have bought a nicer one for £350- she would wipe the flaming floor with me. :lol: :?
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Re: CW-Rotary

Post by Lamps »

spepster wrote:
lamppo_the_GasFitter wrote:Rotary have pulled a fast one, but look at it like this.

If you(your average Joe Egg) bought the love of your life a CWL Divive for £350 or a Rotary For £749, which do you think she will be more impressed with?
Not sure what you mean, but I do know this - if I bought the doris a watch for £750 when I could have bought a nicer one for £350- she would wipe the flaming floor with me. :lol: :?
Thats the point, the average Doris wouldn't know the differance between a CWL and Rotary, your Doris obversely knows her watches, but picture this:-

Two Doris's having a natter mid Jan,Doris 1 "so what did you get off hubby for xmas?"
Dorsi 2 relpy "a nice diamond watch"
Doris 1 "so did I, mind cost him £350 quid"
Doris2 "oh really, mine cost £749 quid"

ie, doris 1's hubby looks like a tight arse, and Doris 1 now looks down on her watch as inferior, which of course it isn't, the opposite infact.

unless you know otherwise, diamonds are diamonds and watch are watch that either cost x or the cost xxx.
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Re: CW-Rotary

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:)
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Re: CW-Rotary

Post by Lamps »

Daz wrote:Yeah but Doris one who knows nowt about watches will notice how her diamonds sparkle more brilliantly than Doris two's, and she'll tell Doris Two, who'll bash hubbie over his head with a handy frying pan for buying inferior stones.
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Re: CW-Rotary

Post by El Tiempo »

Guys, we wouldn't be here if Chris didn't have huge balls and take risks. Just another example imo.
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Re: CW-Rotary

Post by m500dpp »

yep its Chris's business so he can do what he wants, found it quite amusing personally!
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Re: CW-Rotary

Post by paw3001 »

I don't think Chris minds about the similarity in design that much, as imitation is a form of flattery and I am sure Chris will admit that some of his designs borrow from other brands and models.

But I think the use of the word Divine in the Rotary collection is a major steal on their part and this is what can harm Chris's CWL brand. Look at the fight Apple Inc. had with the Beatles Apple record label!

The icing on the annoyance scale is that the stones are inferior and they cost more than Chris's superior watches and "normal" people will assume a higher cost = better product!

But we know better and we must spread the word! :mod:
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Re: CW-Rotary

Post by jackpipe »

I'll chime in (uh, sorry) again, and say I wasn't moved positively by the ad too. That's two now, I didn't get the "Solace of Quantum" ad at all, though I thought the "No present like the time" one was much better, and quite a good idea if it fits into a "reverse the words in this famous phrase" campaign.
Comparison advertising may be all the rage in America, but even there, I think it's generally employed by the knock-off, as in "you can spend 10k their watch, or you spend 1k on our watch - they both tell the time, and you'll save 9k".
A quality brand should trade on it's quality. And promote and defend that reputation discreetly through publicised lawsuits, adept advertising, placement, and of course, by supporting interrnet enthusiasts to, well, enthuse.
All IMHO of course.
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Re: CW-Rotary

Post by Yoda »

Just seen this thread after writing to Chris last week about the problem.

General consensus is that CWL were wrong to have put out the open letter but I expect Chris was incandescent when he saw the advert for Rotary. He has not replied yet so I expect that he is still dealing with it.

High end watch companies tend not to do comparison advertising due to using the same independent outlets which would cause trouble. Better to be gentlemanly about such things. The same can not be said of say CWL which has no outlets bar itself. Comparison advertising can be used be CWL very effectively.
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Re: CW-Rotary

Post by ahavriluk »

"you can spend 10k their watch, or you spend 1k on our watch - they both tell the time, and you'll save 9k".
It really depends what market they are marketing to. People who shop for 10K watch wouldn't get 1K instead when they see such ad. And people who shop for 1K watch would not buy 10K no matter how good the quality is.
When people shop for expensive watch they don't shop for A watch to tell them time, they are looking for THE watch, which is much more they just a device to tell time. See what I mean?
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Re: CW-Rotary

Post by Tony Rama »

I hope there is no plot to put Chris out of business.

Just a few weeks ago I had a thought that if Chris got too big the biggies of the Swiss manufacturers would get very up set.

I was thinking, here's this guy buying movements off the Swatch group, who own Omega etc, and flogging them for one tenth the price. There's a limit to how much small manufacturers can protect themselves because of the huge expense of lawyers fees, especially international lawyers.

I was reminded of how Freddie Laker got shut down by the big airlines when he started to threaten them by offering walk on tickets from London to New York for £50 in the 1970's.
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Re: CW-Rotary

Post by MorrisOx »

Tony,

SMH and its various watch componentry divisions shift quartz and mechanical watch movements by the bucketload - that's where the significant proportion of the group's entire revenue comes from.

They end up in in very well-known brands (some part of the SMH empire) and a vast army of less well-known brands. Either way, both keep the production monster moving and as long as the less well-known brands don't tread too much on the feet of the vast profit margins of brands like Omega, SMH won't mind one jot.

If, at some stage in the future, CWL starts to gain some serious momentum, that may change. As much as we love it, it's currently a tiny business that poses no threat to brands routinely charging far more. It may well become a very useful customer to their movement businesses, though.
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Re: CW-Rotary

Post by ahavriluk »

I don't think CWL could cause any thread to high end watch companies no matter how big he can get as soon as he is marketing to sub 1K watch market for reasons I was trying to point out in my posts. People who is shopping for 10-50K watch are not buying because of quality or low price. They buy by brand. Looks at the market of quartz watches. They are more accurate then mechanical watches, and cost much less. But they didn't put of business big high end brands. Everybody has its own slice of pie.
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Re: CW-Rotary

Post by jackpipe »

People who shop for 10K watch wouldn't get 1K instead when they see such ad. And people who shop for 1K watch would not buy 10K no matter how good the quality is.
Yes, very true, they are different markets, but my point is that all the comparison advertising that I've ever seen is used by the lesserbrand to snipe at the quality brand, and often goes on about how you get 50% more, with a free penknife thrown in, all for less money, etc, etc. ie it isn't quality advertising.
High end watch companies tend not to do comparison advertising due to using the same independent outlets which would cause trouble. Better to be gentlemanly about such things. The same can not be said of say CWL which has no outlets bar itself. Comparison advertising can be used be CWL very effectively.
I'm not sure how. The quality brands do this discreetly, by getting more, or less, famous/successful people to wear their watches - the bigger the personality, the better the watch - etc. Perhaps there is a good opportunity to attack some of these deceptive celebrity culture messages, by exposing them as marketing fluff somehow. I'm pretty sure that's a CW core message, and I'm sure there's a way to get it out by ridiculing the way other brands market. Get people to be disgusted, and feel stupid about paying huge marketing premiums.