Switzerland totally dominated the watchmaking world over the past century. The Swiss made the highest quality watches in the world. They didn’t rest on their laurels. They practiced innovation. They were constantly improving their watch making skills. They invented the minute and second hands. They developed new methods for producing gears, bearings, and mainsprings of modern mechanical watches.
In 1968, they owned 65% of the world’s watch market. Then something happened – a paradigm shift. Electronic watches appeared. Watches were still needed however the mechanical movement watch was supplanted by the electronic quartz watch and later by electronic time pieces that sold for a fraction of the mechanical watch.[i]
[i] Barker, Joel, Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future, Harper Business, 1992, pp. 15-19.