Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Where have all the good watches gone....

I have always wondered what happens to watches that are not sold or not popular. Take for example my Tutima 768-01 'Field Chrono' watch. I have searched the Internet and there is hardly any information on the watch. 

The Tutima 768-01, the one on the right.


A closer view of the watch.


I am sure that this watch was made and sold by Tutima for a number of years. I am sure that some would have been sold. Yet information is very forthcoming. So I guess the watch is not popular. What happens to the watch if it is not sold? 

I do know that some watches are on consignment and some are bought by the watch shop. For consignment stock, if the watches are not sold, the shop just returns the watch to the distributor. For watches that are bought by the shop, if it is not sold, after sometime, the shop would (but not always), sell it off at 'cost'. 

So what happen to the watches that are returned to the distributor? 

Take the Tutima 513-01 for example. The watch was made and sold by Tutima from 1992 to 2004. That is twelve years. Yet information on the watch is also hard to come by. Assume Tutima makes 100 pieces a year (very conservative perhaps?). That would be about 1,200 pieces. So where are all these watches? Anyone?

The Tutima 513-01.


Photograph: shamelessly borrowed from the Internet

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