Swatch fire seen affecting other watch makers - tough to find an Omega or Tag Heuer for a bit?
ZURICH — A fire that destroyed a workshop at a Swatch Group <UHR.VX> factory will affect other watch makers it supplies more than the Swiss firm itself, as a break in production is likely to cut the availability of parts to an industry already facing bottlenecks.
Sunday’s fire at a part of the plant that treats metals to protect them from rust could stop production of some components for several weeks, Swatch’s chief executive said on Monday.
Swatch chief Nick Hayek said watch makers that buy watch parts from its ETA Manufacture Horlogere unit, based in Grenchen, western Switzerland, would be most affected, rather than Swatch itself.
“It is a bigger problem for them than for us,” Hayek told Reuters by phone.
Swatch, the world’s biggest watch parts supplier has a near-monopoly on “movements”, the mechanisms that drive the moving parts of a watch, and counts rival luxury groups Richemont <CFR.VX> and LVMH <LVMH.PA> among its customers.
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