Sorry Longines and Tudor: Group Says Your Watches Aren’t ‘Fine’
- Swiss watch-salon organizer defines category for first time
- Rolex, Patek Philippe and Swatch’s Omega make the cut
Longines luxury watches, manufactured by Cie des Montres Longines Francillon SA, a unit of Swatch Group AG, sit on display in a store window in Munich, Germany, on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013. In Germany, Europe's biggest economy, annual consumer prices increased 1.2 percent in October.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergSome Swiss watch fans eager to wear the work of a fine maker may have to upgrade after the country’s Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie categorized the industry for the first time, clarifying which brands are in and out of the exclusive club.
In a three-year review of 86 brands, 64 were selected as examples of fine watchmaking, according to the Swiss organizer of the Geneva watch salon and Watches & Wonders exhibition. Richemont’s Cartier, Rolex and Swatch Group AG’s Omega made the cut. Richemont’s Baume & Mercier, Rolex’s sister brand Tudor and Swatch’s Longines didn’t.