Watch brands that used to be high end but aren't now

**93EXCivic** · May 5, 2015, 08:34 PM

Spinning out of another thread- http://www.intlwatchleague.com/showt...nt-as-high-end

I can think of a number of brands that used to not be high end brands but are now (Ulysses Nrdin, Girard Perregaux, Panerai [maybe], A Lange, etc)

But I am struggling to think of many that have gone the other way.

The only one I can think of is Jules Jurgensen.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

**mlcor** · May 5, 2015, 08:42 PM

This one might be controversial, but perhaps Longines? Not that they are a bad brand at all, I think they have some very nice pieces, but I think their place in the Swatch pantheon now prevents them from making a significant number of higher end pieces. (If you define high end as pretty far up there).

Stührling comes to mind as an extreme example, but there are probably other zombie brands that fall into that category...

**93EXCivic** · May 5, 2015, 08:46 PM

Originally Posted by mlcor

This one might be controversial, but perhaps Longines? Not that they are a bad brand at all, I think they have some very nice pieces, but I think their place in the Swatch pantheon now prevents them from making a significant number of higher end pieces. (If you define high end as pretty far up there).

Stührling comes to mind as an extreme example, but there are probably other zombie brands that fall into that category...

I thought about saying Longines. The vintage pieces I have seen/ handled from Longines seem a cut above say Omega from the same time period.

**jraul7** · May 5, 2015, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by mlcor

This one might be controversial, but perhaps Longines? Not that they are a bad brand at all, I think they have some very nice pieces, but I think their place in the Swatch pantheon now prevents them from making a significant number of higher end pieces. (If you define high end as pretty far up there).

Stührling comes to mind as an extreme example, but there are probably other zombie brands that fall into that category...

Yep, Longines was the brand that came to my mind as soon as I read the title of this thread.

I want a Longines Legend Diver by the way

**CamB** · May 5, 2015, 08:49 PM

Just looking at a couple of the examples, in the original post, are you saying the product is no longer as high a quality or that they are not as popular as they once were?

**Der Amf** · May 5, 2015, 08:50 PM

I remember a discussion on the vintage forum early on here in which people talked about the heights of Longines quality pre-quartz

**mlcor** · May 5, 2015, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by CamB

Just looking at a couple of the examples, in the original post, are you saying the product is no longer as high a quality or that they are not as popular as they once were?

The former, I think.

**93EXCivic** · May 5, 2015, 08:57 PM

Originally Posted by CamB

Just looking at a couple of the examples, in the original post, are you saying the product is no longer as high a quality or that they are not as popular as they once were?

No longer as high a quality.

With Jules Jurgensen, they produced pocket watches to compete with Patek and VC. Now they produce cheap quartz.

**FuzzyB** · May 5, 2015, 09:19 PM

Originally Posted by mlcor

This one might be controversial, but perhaps Longines? Not that they are a bad brand at all, I think they have some very nice pieces, but I think their place in the Swatch pantheon now prevents them from making a significant number of higher end pieces. (If you define high end as pretty far up there).

Stührling comes to mind as an extreme example, but there are probably other zombie brands that fall into that category...

Artificial hierarchies set forth by conglomerates such as Swatch seems to put a damper on so many brands. Along with blatant marketing 38 mm watches as "women's watches", artificially setting boundaries for individual brands seems to stifle growth of those brands. I would rather the market itself determine what they want from the brands and who they compete with rather than the corporations making those decisions.

Along those same lines, Hamilton once made some of the best movements available. Now, they have been deemed to be "middle range" by the Swatch Group, one step above Swatch and Flik Flak.

Elgin was another brand that has fallen far from glory. The last Elgin I saw was a plastic-looking quartz sitting in the display case of a Wal-Mart.