The World Watch War

Buying the traditional wristwatch for June graduates was once a relatively simple chore calling for little more than a choice of styles and prices. No longer. Whole new types of watches have hit the $3-billion-a-year world market in the frenzied competition to lure buyers. Some of the new models are called "automatic," meaning selfwinding; others are battery-powered and are variously called "electronic," "solid state" and "quartz crystal." Still another timekeeping development is about to reach the jewelry store. Early next year Longines will begin selling a "liquid crystal digital" (LCD) watch that is battery-powered and displays the hour, minute, second and date in digits on a miniaturized TV-like screen. The cost: about $300.

The intensifying war of the watches involves the technological and marketing savvy of companies in three nations: Switzerland, Japan and the U.S. As usual, the Swiss dominate, with export sales of $650 million last year, a total that amounted to nearly four-fifths of world exports. But the Swiss have been losing ground to the Japanese, whose watches generally are of somewhat lower quality and command lower prices than the Swiss. Last year Japanese watchmakers accounted for $106 million in exports, and their sales jumped 10% in Europe and 50% in the U.S. Meanwhile, U.S. manufacturers, led by Timex and Bulova, produced 20 million watches last year, but sold only a fraction of them abroad.

A Minute a Year. The hottest battle is being fought over the quartz watch, which keeps time by the vibrations of a quartz crystal. It is judged to be the most accurate timepiece now on the market, losing or gaining only a minute a year, compared with one or two minutes a week for most other watches. Bulova introduced the first marketable quartz-crystal watch in 1970, but its $1,350 cost was prohibitive. Late last year Bulova brought out an improved and cheaper version, the $395 Accuquartz, believed by many to be the best quartz watch on the market. By then Timex had begun marketing a quartz-crystal watch for $125. Hamilton came out with its $2,100 quartz-crystal Pulsar, and last month Japan's Seiko brought its three quartz timepieces to the U.S., the cheapest selling for $450. This week Benrus will introduce the first quartz watch for women. Among the Swiss companies, Omega, Piaget, Girard Perregaux and Longines are selling quartz watches at prices from $495 to $2,250.

The quartz watch is a departure from the familiar windup and "automatic" watches. Gone are the mainsprings and most of the gears and cogs that keep a watch ticking. In their place is a single tiny quartz bar that vibrates when charged by electricity from a mercury-oxide battery the size of an aspirin tablet. Ground to the proper thickness, quartz has the inherent capability of vibrating at a precise and predictable rate--32,769 times per second in the case of the Bulova Accuquartz.

Depending on the brand of watch, these vibrations control several different mechanisms that turn the hour and minute hands. Bulova uses the electronic tuning fork developed in its Accutron watch, a battery-powered model that is just a shade less accurate than the Accuquartz; Timex employs a conventional balance wheel; Benrus, the Swiss and the Japanese use a "stepdown" motor. Linking these mechanisms to the quartz crystal is an integrated electronic-circuit chip, and U.S. electronic firms are enthusiastically moving to supply the chips to the quartz watch market. Japanese, Swiss and American watchmakers are buying theirs from such firms as Motorola and Texas Instruments.

There are a number of disadvantages to quartz watches. They must be returned to the factory to be serviced or repaired, and they are not shockproof. Some, like the Timex, are bulky. Quartz watches are selling regardless, but they are expected to remain too costly for many years to compete in the low-priced market, which accounts for most of the sales. Four-fifths of all watches marketed in the U.S. are priced under $40, while only one out of 20 costs $ 100 or more.

The canny Swiss, while expanding in the quartz field, are moving to get a bigger hold as well on the low-priced market. Tissot is test marketing a lightweight watch under another brand name made almost entirely of mass-produced lightweight, durable plastic parts, and selling it for about $20. Pierre Waltz, president of one of the biggest Swiss horological groups, proudly wears a plastic watch, and he says, "This might be as important a development as the electronic watch." Because the plastic case is sealed and cannot be opened for repairs, the new product will be the industry's first real throwaway watch.

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