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Habring - Price Adjustments
Dear customers!
Dear partners!
A number of changes have unfortunately made it necessary for us to adjust our prices. Various
reasons for our decision are named in the following:
As you know, our watch movements were to date based on the wheel works of the ETA/Valjoux 7750
and its hand?wound variant, the 7760.
We had been customers of Swatch Group subsidiary ETA in Grenchen since 2008. As the majority of
Habring² models were and still are without chronographs, we had an agreement with the sales
department at ETA according to which we were only able to procure the components we needed to
configure the so?called basic movement. Our understanding of "basic movement" is the train gear
with the winding and hand adjustment mechanism and the escapement. This means that Habring²
has at most procured part kits only from ETA since 2008, but not any complete movements.
Unfortunately this approach has now become our downfall.
In summer 2012 ETA informed us in a letter that we would only be permitted to buy a limited
number of parts until the end of 2012. The quantity was determined as a percentage of the parts
procured during the previous year. Since 1 January 2013 we are only permitted to procure individual
replacement parts for servicing the movements purchased in previous years (before 2008) or those
made from component kits (as of 2008). This expressly rules out any procurement of component kits.
Due to the different definitions of the terms "movement" and "component kit", Habring² is
unfortunately not a beneficiary of the intermediate agreement between ETA and the Swiss
competition regulatory authority WEKO that is based on the number of "clockworks" procured
during 2010. As mentioned above, in our case the number was zero.
ETA movements are sold not only by ETA itself but by wholesalers who use every opportunity to
drive up prices as they see fit. This in turn makes planning and calculation uncertain, and that is a
situation that no serious company with customer?friendly calculation methods can afford to be in.
Furthermore, only complete movements are now available, and back?configuration – i.e. the removal
and possible disposal of the chronograph and other parts – is simply uneconomic and
environmentally unfriendly.
We therefore made a decision some time ago to produce the parts previously obtained from ETA
under our own steam, with the active help of small family?run businesses located mainly in
Switzerland. Of course, the quantities are ridiculously small in comparison to production at ETA and
the costs are therefore 3 to 8 times that of the former ETA prices. Although we will not introduce our
100% proprietary A11 movement until 2014, we are already using so many of our own components
in our current A09 calibres that we cannot avoid considering this circumstance in our calculations. A
small consolation is, however, that we will in future have 100% control over every component
installed in Habring² watches and can therefore increase both technical quality and aesthetic appeal.
We are convinced we have taken the right steps and hope you will understand.
We have harmonised the price of the "small Habring" and "large Habring" within the scope of the
price increase. There are now no longer any price differences between the two case sizes.
Best regards,
Maria & Richard Habring
This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2013-08-05 17:31:54
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Habring - Price Adjustments
Dear customers! Dear partners! A number of changes have unfortunately made it necessary for us to adjust our prices. Various reasons for our decision are named in the following: As you know, our watch movements were to date based on the wheel works of the...
