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The company's role in the watch industry has grown since major watch trade show Baselworld declined and Richemont's own event called Watches & Wonders (formerly SIHH) expanded significantly. The Rupert family still controls Richemont with Anton's son Johann as the current chairman. Lange & Söhne, IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre to its stable. Then, in 2000, the conglomerate acquired Les Manufactures Horologes, adding A. Richemont bought out other stakeholders, acquiring complete control and dissolving Vendôme in 1998. Investors in Cartier had begun consolidating its businesses and then buying up other watchmakers and luxury brands, eventually forming the Vendôme Luxury Group. The real story of the Richemont group's watch brands, however, starts with Cartier. The Richemont company was founded in 1988 as a spinoff from diverse holdings owned by South African billionaire Anton Rupert. Each of these brands has in-house movements and also dabbles in more technical or artistic watchmaking, which is the primary focus of watches from Piaget and jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels. Montblanc and Baume & Mercier begin with price points above entry-level luxury but offer the most accessible watches from the Richemont Group. Panerai, Jaeger-LeCoultre, IWC and Cartier are historic watchmakers that offer robust collections for each important watch genre in the mid-range luxury segment. Nicholas Hayek was the man largely responsible for it, and his son Nick Hayek Jr. It worked: this plan is often credited with "saving" the Swiss watch industry. Merging these groups in 1983 would create the conglomerate that was eventually (in 1998) renamed the Swatch Group. The watch industry in Switzerland at that time consisted of hundreds of companies, but there were two groups that owned many of the prominent brands and the movement maker ETA. The solution was two-pronged: first, Switzerland's entire watch industry needed to be restructured for efficiency and second, the Swiss needed to compete at the lower end of the price spectrum with an answer to cheap quartz watches "for the masses." To execute this latter strategy, Swatch was created in 1983, and it continues to make playful, often plastic, design-driven watches today. Some call this the Quartz Revolution, but in Switzerland it's known as the Quartz Crisis. The first quartz watch was introduced in 1969, and by the 1980s competition from the likes of Seiko with accurate, affordable, mass-produced, often plastic-cased quartz watches was set to kill the Swiss watch industry.

Finally, there are segments for corporate management, distribution companies and even museums - it's a massive industry. There are then many more companies that even hardcore watch enthusiasts haven't heard of producing the likes of cases, dials and hands, as well as companies that specialize in materials or specific parts such as crowns and pushers. The most recognizable (for watch nerds, at least) are ETA, the prolific maker of movements found in watches from the Swatch Group brands and many more, and Nivarox, a company that specializes in producing escapement parts including hairsprings. In addition to the names above which you will find proudly emblazoned on watch dials, there are even more companies involved in various aspects of production behind the scenes. Finally, the brands Swatch, Flik Flak and Calvin Klein can be considered makers of inexpensive "fashion watches."

Entry-level luxury is represented by Hamilton, Tissot, Mido and Certina, using ETA movements, luxury materials like sapphire crystal and solid construction, all while staying reasonably affordable. The mid-tier brands, Longines, Rado and Union Glashütte, use sourced movements from sister company ETA but sometimes develop their own technology and offer a high level of fit and finish with refined details. Their products range from luxury tool watches like Omega's Speedmaster to complicated and expensive artistic creations with the likes of tourbillons from Breguet. These companies develop and build many of their own components, including movements. Unlike Richemont and LVMH, the Swatch Group's products are primarily watches.Īt the upper tiers are Breguet, Harry Winston, Blancpain, Jaquet Droz, Glashütte Original and Omega. As of writing, there are about 17 (active) brands under the Swatch Group producing watches and jewelry, and they span everything from affordable fashion accessories to esoteric, high-end horology. The Swatch Group consists of many entities, from its consumer-facing watch brands to the companies that support them in various ways. First, don't be confused, as the maker of affordable plastic watches called Swatch is but one brand under the umbrella of the larger Swatch Group.