By Keith Bombrys
The watch industry is really turned on its side as the Citizen Watch Company., Ltd. has acquired the Frederique Constant Holding SA watch company. The Frederique Constant Group includes Alpina, which is a very sporty and affordable watch brand, as well as Ateliers Demonaco, which is a very high-end and limited production watch brand. This move is a large contribution to both of these companies. Citizen further expands their grasp in the watch world, as they already own Bulova and La Joux-Perret SA. After making this move, the Citizen Watch Company announced that they are planning putting themselves in the competition against other high priced, competitive Swiss watch brand companies. Citizen’s international watch appeal has become stronger after this merger. The deeply-rooted product range has always been a constant for Citizen, and is now only furthered by the move in acquiring Frederique Constant.
Frederique Constant was first established in 1988. The unique part about this company, which not all of today’s modern watch companies can say they do, is that Frederique Constant is highly involved and is a large part of all stages of the company’s watch production. This includes the first design of each timepiece up through and including the final assembly of each and every piece, as well as heavy involvement in every step in between.
Over the years, the Frederique Constant watch company has set itself apart from the competition by its high-quality product, the detail, and exactness in the design and manufacture process, as well as the company’s ease of access and comparable prices. From their 19 different varieties of in-house calibers since 2004, Frederique Constant has always put a stamp in the timepiece market through their specialized hand-assembly process of each and every one of their watches. In today’s world mostly made up of technology and work done by machines, handmade products, especially in the timepiece world, are highly sought after, not only for their uniqueness, but for their high quality as well. Frederique Constant’s company mission has always been to make very fine quality watches and to make those watches easily accessible to a large population for a fair price.
Mr. Toshio Tokura, the chief executive officer of Citizen Watch Co., Ltd. tells the media future plans for the company through this merger. He states, “With the acquisition of Frederique Constant, the Citizen Watch Group will be able to augment its portfolio of brands and occupy the space in the markets where some of our competitors operate and further expand the presence of the Citizen brand in the market.”
The founders of Frederique Constant Holding SA were very excited, when they stated, “We have become increasingly impressed by the innovative technologies of the Citizen Group, We see the opportunity of the Swiss-Japanese partnership to develop and market Accessible Luxury watches for the 21st Century and beyond.”
Both company representatives seem to agree that the move is going to huge, not only for the two companies as a whole, but also for the watch world in general. Both companies have a reputable name and line of timepieces that are certain to make a huge impact in the Swiss watch market.
