What if We Went the Other Way?

So by now, just about every pundit in Watch Town's Fourth and Fifth Estates have weighed in on Zenith's current situation and the proposed path forward. It is safe to say that as far as this situation goes, I'm from Missouri - i.e. you'll need to show me. But if I'm laying my opinions bare, this seems to be a somewhat half-assed approach at what we refer to as a "rebuilding year" (or years in this case) here in the lower 48.

Professional sports in the US (and certainly some other countries) are unique in that they incentivize being the absolute best (the champion), and the absolute worst (last place). If you are the champion, the rewards are pretty obvious. If you are the "biggest loser", the incentive is that you get one of if not the first pick when new players are drafted (selected) each year out of college, high school or from abroad. Curious to relate? We have no such thing as relegation or promotion. This is how I explain the continued existence of the New York Jets in the NFL ; )

Perhaps the shrewdest move that Movado ever made was to sell Zenith to a group of people with a lot of money and not a lot of imagination. Dufour couldn't fix it, Magada couldn't fix it, Captain Fantastic (J.C. Biver) couldn't fix it. More recently Arnault The Younger, Arnault The Even Younger - and who knows, if LVMH keeps Zenith - Arnault The As Yet To Become CEO (or shave) haven't been able to do much with Zenith. And the previous and current list of "friends of the brand" don't do much to inspire confidence in the decision making paradigm in Le Locle.

So what to do?

Option number 1 - sell Zenith. And no, I don't mean it sarcastically and it's not as crazy an idea as you might think. Zenith as a brand does not really fit the LVMH mold. If Zenith stops chasing dumb-dumb partnerships, culls the collection, focuses on making watches that collectors want to buy.

Option number 2 - reposition Zenith as a slightly more affordable option. Yes, this would mean increasing production and actually trying to sell more, rather than fewer watches. But consider something important - anyone even a little bit into watcehs wants to have an El Primero equipped chronograph. Seeing as they "control the means of production", it is not beyond the realm of possibilities that they could actually make something a little bit more affordable that would appeal to a lot of aspiring collectors.

And it can be done. Although they are far from my favorite people in Watch Town, NOMOS seems to be doing something along these lines.

Either scenario would require that one elusive quality that Zenith has lacked these past 26 years - patience.