The “Swiss Made” Designation Can Lead to a 50 Percent Increase in Value for Luxury Goods

(thefashionlaw.com) - What do Rolex, Cartier, Breitling, Audemars Piguet, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Chopard, and Patek Phillipe, for instance, have in common? Their watches benefit from a certain status and an esteemed geographic indication that comes with being Swiss made. After all, “It is no secret that Swiss products and services enjoy a great reputation both at home and abroad,” according to Swiss trademark attorney Milana Pantelic, who notes that the “Swiss made” reputation centers on “high quality, tradition, precision, luxury, high technology, innovation and reliability.” That reputation and the goodwill associated with the “Swiss made” designation is derived, in large part, from the aforementioned watchmakers’ (and others’) enduring investment in “quality, tradition and durability,” Deloitte stated in its Swiss Watch Industry Study last year, with “the time-honored quality and tradition of Swiss watchmaking maintaining its importance” over decades (and even centuries in some cases), both from an initial point of sale perspective, and increasingly, in the pre-owned market, thereby, translating to striking demand and increasingly expensive price tags.