Pierre Kunz Watch Manufacture In Danger Of Closing Shop?

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Jun 29th 2009 at 7:01PM

Pierre Kunz could be another luxury watch brand that will fall victim to "the crisis" or as the luxury watch industry is less than affectionately referring to the current economic downturn. I reported a while ago that Franck Muller was about to cut a large number of jobs. Looks like things are worse than expected at the company who owns watch brand Pierre Kunz, among a couple of other more boutique brands - Pierre Kunz being the most well known. According to the Tribune De Geneve, Franck Muller can "no longer support its young brands." It is unclear whether this means Franck Muller operated brands like Pierre Kunz will cease operation, be sold, or be "consolidated" somehow.

Pierre Kunz has some innovative and beautiful models under its catalog including the pictured G703 T STR Tourbillon and the Infinity Looping Black Steel watches. They have even announced new watches recently. In instances where a brand is highly marketable but its parent company does not have the funds to continue to support it, there is often an interested outside buyer who will save the small manufacture. It is unclear in today's economy how likely this is for Pierre Kunz. Other Franck Muller brands likely to kick the bucket are ECW, Rodolphe, and Barthelay.

Via WorldTempus (in mostly French).

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: brand, closing, company, franck muller, FranckMuller, pierre kunz, PierreKunz, swiss, watch

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Kristian Haagen Jun 30th 2009 2:53AM

Saddening news as I really like Pierre Kunz' innovative and almost childish approach towards horology. I was delighted to 'touch 'n feel' their novelties in spring at Franck Muller Watchland and hope somebody will chip in a and save this talented company.

doerrelizabeth Jul 3rd 2009 4:58AM

Kristian, that will most likely be up to Pierre how he handles this. As a brand that was internally born at Watchland, it may not be likely. As most of the technology was done by Agenhor anyway, we'll possibly continue to see it in the future. Is a great shame, though!

nick1000 Aug 4th 2009 11:19PM

i've only recently just discoverd this brand (and purchased my first Kunz time piece) it wld be such a a shame if it were to close as EVERY-ONE comments when i wear this piece!
given some additional investment for advertising, this brand has HUGE potential! i hope some-one jumps in, as it will be profitable for them in the future