Critique Paper on Swatch Sistem51: the Empire Strikes Back

Hanna Therese V. Ferrer MODCOS1 K32 Critique Paper

Swatch is a company that focuses on producing affordable yet high quality and redefined watches. For years, they had been producing watches that are of similar components and mechanism, and these do not make them much different from its competitors. However, just recently, the company launched a new game changing watch, although it is not yet for sale in many countries. They introduced the System51 watch. It is a full automatic mechanism which means that it does not require battery. It is also composed of just 51 parts, hence the name System51, and it is just priced at $150. Among the watches produced by the company, the simplest watch they had ever made was composed of almost double the components the System51 is made of. Despite of having low number of parts, it still contains that Swatch quality of refined and innovative watches.

The fact that technology has been continually advancing is undeniable, and Swatch has took advantage of it. The advancing technology has enabled the company to produce the System51 by just using machines. The fact that it is completely machine-made might be one of the reasons why the company was able to price it low. It might be expensive at first because they would have to purchase new machines, but in the long run, they could incur less cost in producing the product. They would just incur cost for the materials of the product, cost of operating and maintaining the machines, and other overhead costs. This enables them to price it lower than their competitors and their other products of similar design and quality. They may still incur labor cost for the machine operators but the labor cost would be less compared to a product that requires human skills to be manufactured.

Also, since there may be a collapse of currencies this year, the company might experience a downfall on their net income. However, there is a huge possibility...