Watchmakers cast nervous eye on mobile phone challenge

After the depressed economic climate caused by SARS and the war in Iraq, watchmakers at the Baselworld international watch and jewellery fair are bracing for a new challenge to their declining sales: the cellphone. [an AFP report]

"Youngsters don't have a watch anymore today. If they want to know the time, they look at their mobile, which never leaves them," said Patrick Besnard, a representative for the French watchmaking industry at the fair.

Far from being nostalgic about the days when watches were not worn on one's wrist but in one's pocket, the industry regards items like the cellphone as a genuine threat to cheap watches.

Besnard's committee of French watchmakers and jewellers launched legal action in February against a telephone operator's advertising campaign in France depicting watches and a grandfather clock tossed in a bin.

The operator (SFR) said it was trying to promote a new subscription scheme."

emily | 9:10 AM | Technology |
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