Why do affordable automatic watches cost more today than they did ten years ago?
The question comes up often.
It's a legitimate one.
Watch prices have increased, including for independent brands that strive to offer the best possible value for money.
This increase doesn't only affect major luxury brands.
It also impacts microbrands, workshops, component manufacturers, movement suppliers, and brands working on limited editions.
A watch that cost 500 or 700 euros a few years ago might now cost 900, 1,200, or 1,500 euros with similar characteristics.
But this increase isn't due to a single cause.
It's due to a combination of factors: raw materials, movements, labor, overheads, transport, energy, quality control, small production runs, after-sales service, and evolving customer expectations.
The problem isn't that a watch costs more.
The real issue is knowing what you're actually paying for.
Does the price fund a better movement? Proper regulation? A workshop? After-sales service? Better materials? More controlled production?
Or does it primarily fund marketing, intermediaries, and brand image?
That's the difference that matters.
Inflation doesn't only affect the final price
When we talk about inflation, we often think about the price paid by the customer.
But for a watch brand, inflation occurs long before the product goes on sale.
It impacts the cost of components, movement prices, salaries, overheads, workshop costs, transport, insurance, energy, packaging, controls, and sometimes production lead times.
A watch is an assembly of many elements.
Case, crystal, dial, hands, crown, gaskets, movement, strap, buckle, case back, surface treatment, engraving, presentation box, quality control: each of these items can increase in cost.
When several items increase at the same time, the final effect becomes significant.
A brand can absorb some of these increases for a while.
But it cannot absorb everything indefinitely without jeopardizing its workshop, its after-sales service, or the quality of the product.
Raw material prices have increased
A mechanical watch uses very tangible materials.
Steel, titanium, brass, aluminum, ceramic, sapphire crystal, rubber, leather, surface treatments, machined components: none of this is abstract.
Each material depends on global supply chains.
Energy prices, transport costs, geopolitical tensions, industrial capacities, and ordered volumes directly influence pricing.
The stainless steel used for cases, the titanium used for some more technical parts, sapphire crystal, bezel inserts, or bracelets no longer cost the same as they did ten years ago.
It's not just the price of raw material that increases.
It's also the price of its transformation.
Machining a case, polishing a mid-case, applying a DLC treatment, producing a dial, setting indices, manufacturing a hand, or machining a buckle all require machines, energy, time, and skilled personnel.
The increase therefore comes not only from the material itself.
It comes from the entire chain that transforms this material into a usable watch component.
Movements cost more
The movement is one of the most significant cost items in a mechanical watch.
For a long time, some very accessible Japanese movements like the Seiko NH35 allowed automatic watches to be offered at contained prices.
This caliber was long appreciated for its robustness, availability, and reasonable cost.
But entry-level movements have also increased in price.
Japanese movements, once very affordable, are no longer as inexpensive as they used to be.
The NH35 remains a reliable and relevant movement, but its price has risen sharply compared to when it allowed for the creation of very accessible automatic watches.
Swiss movements have also seen significant increases.
Sellita, Soprod, or La Joux-Perret are not just generic components.
They are mechanical movements produced, controlled, delivered, and monitored within demanding industrial contexts.
They cost more to purchase, but they also bring a level of finishing, reparability, regulation, or consistency with certain ranges.
The choice of a movement is therefore never neutral.
It directly influences the final price, but also the perceived quality, precision, after-sales service follow-up, and the watch's lifespan.
To better understand these differences, our article on Swiss movements and alternatives to ETA details the roles of Sellita, Soprod, La Joux-Perret, Miyota, and France Ébauches.
Labor costs are rising everywhere
A watch is not just a sum of components.
It's also a sum of labor.
Design, conception, prototyping, assembly, regulation, quality control, logistics, customer service, after-sales service, accounting, photography, writing, supplier monitoring: each step requires human time.
However, labor costs are rising in many countries.
This applies to France, Switzerland, Japan, Europe, and a large part of the industrial areas involved in watch manufacturing.
Salaries are increasing.
Overheads are rising.
Social, regulatory, energy, and administrative requirements weigh more heavily on businesses.
This is not a criticism.
It's an economic reality.
Producing seriously, paying people fairly, maintaining a workshop, ensuring after-sales service, and complying with regulations costs more than before.
A brand that wants to maintain a true quality of work must integrate these costs.
Otherwise, it ends up cutting corners on what isn't immediately visible: control, regulation, after-sales service, time spent on details, parts availability, or customer support.
Small production runs naturally cost more
Independent watchmaking often relies on limited volumes.
This is even truer for a company that produces limited editions, professional projects, and targeted collections rather than massive volumes.
However, small production runs cost more to produce.
A dial manufactured in 200 copies does not cost the same as a dial manufactured in 20,000 copies.
A case developed for a limited edition does not benefit from the same amortization as a case produced for ten years in very large quantities.
Fixed costs are the same or almost: development, prototypes, tooling, validations, controls, supplier exchanges, transport, storage.
But they are spread over fewer watches.
This is one reason why a well-made independent watch cannot be directly compared to an industrial watch produced in very large series.
The economic logic is not the same.
Customer expectations have also evolved
Today's customer expects more than they did ten or fifteen years ago.
They want a sapphire crystal.
They want good water resistance.
They want a reliable movement.
They want a comfortable strap.
They want a well-designed product.
They want clean finishes, applied indices, good luminescence, serious regulation, and available after-sales service.
These expectations are legitimate.
But they come at a cost.
An affordable automatic watch from fifteen years ago could accept certain compromises: mineral crystal, average strap, poorly regulated movement, limited control, simple finish.
Today, the market is more demanding.
Enthusiasts compare everything: movement, origin, thickness, precision, power reserve, finish, value for money, brand history, after-sales service availability.
A brand that wants to remain credible must meet this level of demand.
It cannot simply offer the same product as before with the same level of finish.
The real issue: a fair price, not the lowest price
In this context, talking only about low prices doesn't make much sense.
A watch that is too inexpensive can hide several things: very cheap components, reduced controls, minimal after-sales service, opaque subcontracting, lack of parts inventory, low margins to ensure follow-up, or inconsistent quality.
Conversely, an expensive watch is not automatically better.
A high price can also come from marketing, distribution, margin, brand image, or a scarcity strategy.
The right issue, then, is a fair price.
A fair price must cover the real cost of the watch, the labor time, control, after-sales service, parts, design, logistics, and a sufficient margin for the brand to endure.
A brand that doesn't earn a living properly cannot guarantee reliable service for years.
A brand that overcharges without consistency also loses the trust of its customers.
The balance is there.
How Akrone works to maintain its value for money
At Akrone, the question of value for money is not a marketing argument added as an afterthought.
It's a design constraint.
The brand aims to offer serious watches, well-regulated, well-designed, and supported over time, without multiplying intermediaries or unnecessary costs.
This approach relies on several levers.
First, doing internally what can be done seriously internally.
Design, conception, assembly, regulation, quality control, photography, content, customer relations, after-sales service: the more a brand masters these steps, the less it depends on external providers.
Outsourcing may be necessary for certain subjects.
But systematic outsourcing increases costs and sometimes dilutes product control.
At Akrone, the workshop therefore plays a central role.
It allows for controlling watches, adjusting movements, managing returns, and monitoring collections over time.
This is a concrete way to preserve quality without exploding the price.
Working directly with manufacturers
The second lever is to work as directly as possible with manufacturers and suppliers.
Each intermediary adds a margin, a layer of communication, a technical distance, and sometimes a loss of information.
When a brand works directly with its case, dial, movement, or strap manufacturers, it can better understand constraints, negotiate better, correct more effectively, and monitor production more closely.
This direct link does not eliminate inflation.
But it avoids adding unnecessary costs.
It also allows for more precise choices: selecting the right movement, the right level of finish, the right supplier, and the right compromise between price, quality, and lead time.
Pooling technical bases
The third lever is the pooling of technical bases.
At Akrone, certain bases can serve both collections intended for individuals and professional projects.
This logic is important.
It allows for better amortization of the development of a case, an architecture, a bracelet, or a technical specification.
A diving base can be used for a general public collection and for a specialized unit project.
A GMT base can be used for an aviation watch, a professional project, or a limited series.
This pooling allows for negotiating more volume with suppliers, better controlling components, and reducing the unit cost.
The end customer directly benefits from this.
They benefit from a proven technical base, without solely bearing the full cost of isolated development.
This is one of the differences between smart customization and a watch designed in a completely dispersed manner.
This logic directly relates to how a serious collaboration watch is born.
Direct sales
The fourth lever is direct sales.
In traditional watchmaking, the final price often includes several levels of distribution: brand, importer, distributor, retailer.
Each level must make a living.
That's normal.
But this mechanically increases the price paid by the customer.
Direct marketing reduces this chain.
It also allows for maintaining a direct relationship with the customer: product explanation, order tracking, after-sales service, advice, feedback.
This model does not eliminate all costs.
A direct-to-consumer brand must produce its content, manage its website, respond to customers, ensure logistics, and finance its workshop.
But it limits the portion of the price that goes neither into the product nor into the service.
Avoiding unnecessary marketing
Another often underestimated item is communication.
Making a brand known is expensive.
Photography, video, advertising, influence, agencies, trade shows, content, press relations: all of this can quickly become a major expense.
At Akrone, the goal is to maintain the most direct communication possible.
Show products, explain choices, document constraints, talk about the workshop, respond to customers.
The brand must communicate.
But it doesn't need to build an artificial staging that would eventually be reflected in the final price.
The savings made on unnecessary marketing can be reinvested in the product, regulation, service, or simply allow for maintaining a more consistent price.
Why prices cannot always remain identical
Even with these efforts, a brand cannot always maintain the same prices.
If the movement costs more, if the case costs more, if transport costs more, if wages increase, and if overheads increase, the final price must sometimes evolve.
Refusing any increase might seem attractive in the short term.
But in the long term, it often leads to three risks: reducing quality, reducing service, or weakening the company.
None of these choices are good for the customer.
A durable watch needs a durable brand behind it.
The right objective, therefore, is not to promise that prices will never change.
The right objective is to explain why they evolve and to ensure that every added euro corresponds to a product or service reality.
A cheaper watch is not always a better deal
The purchase price doesn't tell the whole story.
A cheaper watch may seem attractive at first, but become less interesting if the movement is difficult to repair, if the strap ages poorly, if the water resistance is not maintained, or if after-sales service doesn't really exist.
Conversely, a slightly more expensive watch can be more relevant if it is better regulated, better assembled, more durable, and supported by an identified workshop.
Value for money is therefore not limited to a technical sheet.
It includes design, materials, movement, assembly, regulation, control, after-sales service, and the brand's ability to support the product over time.
This topic directly relates to our article on the durable mechanical watch.
The case of Akrone watches
At Akrone, the increase in costs is real.
Movements cost more.
Components cost more.
Labor costs more.
Overheads, transport, controls, and workshop operations weigh more heavily than before.
The answer is not to lower the level of demand.
The answer is to work smarter.
Use common technical bases when relevant.
Negotiate more consistent volumes.
Work directly with suppliers.
Assemble, regulate, and control internally what can be.
Limit intermediaries.
Sell directly.
Avoid communication expenses that serve neither the product nor the customer.
It is this method that allows Akrone to continue defending a strong value for money despite a more difficult context.
This is not a promise of low prices at any cost.
It's a pursuit of consistency.
Frequently asked questions
Why are mechanical watches more expensive than before?
Because several items have increased simultaneously: movements, raw materials, components, labor, transport, overheads, quality controls, and after-sales service.
A mechanical watch is a complex industrial product.
Even a small increase on each component can have a significant effect on the final price.
Do Japanese movements remain economical?
They often remain more accessible than many Swiss movements, but they are no longer as inexpensive as they were at certain times.
Movements like the NH35 remain reliable and relevant, but their price has increased due to industrial tensions, demand, and production costs.
Why not just reduce margins?
A brand can absorb some of the increases for a while.
But if it reduces its margins too much, it weakens its workshop, its after-sales service, its ability to stock parts, and its ability to last.
A durable watch needs a company that can support it.
Why does direct sales help maintain better value for money?
Because it reduces intermediaries.
In a traditional distribution model, several actors take a margin between the brand and the end customer.
Direct sales allow a larger portion of the price to be dedicated to the product, service, and follow-up.
Why pool technical bases?
Because a technical base is expensive to develop.
If it can be used for several collections or professional projects, the cost is better distributed.
This allows for the production of more technically consistent watches without burdening a single small series with the entire development cost.
Is a more expensive watch necessarily better?
No.
A high price can come from quality, but also from marketing, distribution, or margin.
You have to look at what the price actually finances: movement, materials, assembly, adjustment, control, after-sales service, design, and durability.
How to recognize good value for money?
Good value for money is based on consistency.
The movement must be adapted to the project.
The materials must correspond to the use.
Assembly and adjustment must be serious.
After-sales service must truly exist.
The brand must clearly explain its choices.
Key Takeaways
The increase in watch prices does not come from a single cause.
It results from a global increase in costs: raw materials, movements, labor, overheads, transport, energy, controls, and service.
For an independent brand, maintaining good value for money therefore requires a real method.
Working in-house whenever possible.
Limiting intermediaries.
Selling directly.
Pooling technical bases.
Negotiating with suppliers.
Maintaining a workshop capable of assembling, adjusting, controlling, and following watches over time.
The fair price is not the lowest price.
It is the price that allows for the production of a consistent, reliable, durable, and supported watch without charging the customer for what does not genuinely serve the product.
This logic allows an independent house to remain true to its requirement: to offer the best possible watch at the fairest possible price.
