Seiko Champion

I say this poking gentle fun at RJ at FratelloWatches for his post, as I really enjoy his thoughts and writing, but it is a perspective of many WIS magazines and blogs that Swiss & German watches are the only “real” mechanical watches in their opinion.

First, let me give a “thumbs up” to RJ for selecting the Nomos Club as one of his selections, a great watch that’s still on my wish list. I think he’s done a really good job picking watches, other than the exclusion of non-European brands.


Image from FratelloWatches.com

I would challenge those who exclude Asian (and other) high-end well known brands of watch makers from their lists. The perception of European dominance in luxury watches is actually just an example of successful marketing … it’s not true, and it’s a relatively recent perspective. Other countries including the US used to be considered the premier manufacturers of luxury watches, but that changed last century. Some of this changed for real, other parts of it just changed in belief.

I’m not talking about new Chinese firms with little heritage. I’m talking about something like a Grand Seiko, which has the heritage, quality, accuracy, and aesthetics to more than hold it’s head up high in this company. I guess this post earns me my “Seiko Champion” moniker.


GS 9S54A, 2001, image from luxurious.whatsoever.hk

It’s been discussed over and over in the watch forums and blogs these past few weeks, but still deserves a mention. TAG Heuer announced this month their new “100% developed in-house” caliber, the 1887.

It seems nice – 39 jewels, column chrono, 50 hours reserve, +/- 4 sec/day. And in fact the movement itself is nice. The problem is with TAG Heuer’s marketing statements – the movement is actually a modified Seiko 6S37 that TAG Heue licensed for their internal modification and use.



Legally and technically it’s a modified movement that they have rights to. Truthfully and in social media terms, the marketing is a lie. If you don’t have Truthful Branding you will be found out. In the case of TAG Heue, it tarnishes their image and makes them of less interest to me as a watch purchase, which is sad I’ve always liked a lot of their watches.

Last year I posted about the bankruptcy of Yema, a company that despite all the “French company, French manufacture, French brand” chest-thumping of the firm, was actually a Seiko sub-brand between 1988 and 2005. I first became aware of them through their Seiko 4S15 based SeaSpider diver models.



After finding out a bit more I then became interested in some of their earlier watches (from when they truly were a French brand, and indeed a partially French manufacture), especially their earlier divers and various xxx-GRAF model lines. I see these come up on eBay every so often, usually selling for a fair dollar. For example this Valjoux 7736 based Yachtingraf just sold for US$710.



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As I was researching the background of my Felca, I came across these interesting ads from World War 2, when they supplied watches to the US military, on the Titoni web site.



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Being a big proponent of the concept that Social Media is forcing companies and individuals into Truthful Branding, I was happy to read a recent article on the official Google blog that spoke to the issue.



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I don’t think these ads will create any business for IWC. I’m sure some creative director somewhere is full of themselves over their genius, but these ads fail a number of key criteria for me.



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Although this is a smaller web project I’ve been managing recently, I’m writing a bit about it as it’s kind of neat, in that includes company name changes, re-branding, and new corporate identities and logos. So more of a completely new look than I typically get involved with.

Nedlaw Roofing are a regional roofing contractor, specializing in industrial roofing. Not the sexiest industry, but within it they’ve been fairly good at staying in the lead with new technology, more eco-friendly solutions, etc. Recently they’ve acquired two companies in related fields – Air Quality Solutions who manufacture and install plant wall air purification systems, and Roof Greening Systems who design and install green roofs.

First thing we gave the client, is new names – Nedlaw Roofs, Nedlaw Living Walls, and Nedlaw Living Roofs. A lot more powerful and effective. Roofs is a result not a service, and sounds much better than roofing. And the word “living” in the other two companies really expresses their key benefits very well, and differentiate them from competition. We also gave them new logos, with a family look.

Now we’re giving them new web sites. Here are the before and after pictures (click for larger images).

Roofs…





Living Walls…





Living Roofs…





All the basics are there – catch initial attention, good creative, some interactive media without overdoing it or killing SEO, look professional, communicate the core brand message, generate curiosity in the initial page, and invite further browsing. And there are some things not there any longer, like overwhelming home page detailed copy.

Thanks to John Moore’s blog for pointing me to an Advertising Age article talking about JetBlue’s success in WOM and their recent customer service issues…

… JetBlue achieved its success by being unlike the other airlines. Its good name spread — via word-of-mouth and smart marketing — because great customer service gave it a compelling story to tell.

Priority No. 1 should be getting back to a place where consumers want to share good stories. Take the money being wasted on <their advertising> campaign and plow it into customer service …

It’s interesting to see an advertising magazine telling a company to not advertise, and more interesting to me is why … they’re basically telling JetBlue that their brand is no longer truthful to their message, and their priority has to be, fix that first.