European settlers were puzzled by it, feared it and killed it when they could but things really went from bad to worse for the Tasmanian Tiger when the Tasmanian government encouraged sheep farmers to hunt and kill it in the late 1800s. By 1910, this beautiful animal had been pushed to extinction, with the last known one of its kind dying in Hobart in 1936.
More than just a sad tale, parallels can be drawn between the plight of the Tasmanian Tiger and the Australian watchmaker trade, currently under threat of a similar fate.
Like the Tasmanian Tiger, watchmakers carry the perception of being typically shy and reclusive. Largely independent, watchmakers have had to contend with the same range of pressures that have plagued independent jewellers in recent decades, but the most recent challenge is one that threatens to stop the trade in its tracks.
Watchmakers rely on sourcing parts from the major watch companies to carry out their trade of repairing watches for customers. Over the past decade, however, the Swiss watch industry has slowly been cutting off distribution of parts. Consequently a large number of Australian watchmakers have not been able to carry out the fundamental task of their trade – repairing watches.
I have colleagues in the industry who have been providing a professional service to not only their customers but also to the major Swiss brands themselves for four decades, only to have had their accounts recently closed for Swiss watch parts.
I interviewed four of them recently about this issue. Between them, they have worked in the watch industry for 164 years and yet, in the last 10 years between them, they have only trained seven apprentices in the trade, of which only four are currently working in this field within Australia. The talents and skills of these craftsmen will be shortly lost forever as there will soon be no industry to support new entrants. Watchmaking is not a dying industry, merely one that is dying in this country as talent is forced overseas.
Independent watchmakers are a true asset to any society. They possess skills acquired over many decades of complex restorations and repairs. They work on high-grade watches, both new (providing they can get spare parts!) and vintage and restore and repair fine and unusual timepieces, like vintage pocket watches, music boxes, clock mechanisms and barometers.
Brand name watchmakers who specialise in single-brand and single-calibre watches, and who were trained “in house”, are far less versatile and offer a more limited service.
There are many millions of lesser-known brand watches out there awaiting restoration that are of absolutely no interest to “authorized brand name” service centres. Actually, as some of you know, often even brand name watches are rendered beyond repair after a certain age. What you may regard as a priceless family heirloom, a Swiss brand-name repair centre may regard as worthless junk.
Once the last of our watchmaker tigers is captured and starved of parts, watch collectors and the general public will notice the difference but by then it will be too late.
A movement has begun to try and stop this restriction of parts: Save the Time has been gathering signatures to petition the Australian Competition and Consumers Commission – more than 1,200 signatures have already been collected, showing there is support out there for our cause. This campaign is supported by 360 professional watchmakers of the Watch and Clockmakers Association of Australia.
The Swiss watch companies are very powerful and, together, have the money to fight our cause. While we may be unable to compete against their financial power, we have people who believe that something is wrong, people who believe in our cause, and the process favours us – Australia is probably one of the last countries in the world where you can still challenge big corporations and it costs you nothing because the ACCC is very keen to protect the consumer’s rights.
I have not the slightest doubt that science will one day advance so far that the Tasmanian Tiger will be “recreated” from a remnant of DNA. Unfortunately, even then, recreating a master watchmaker from DNA would be impossible!
Don’t wait until it’s too late. Do the right thing and go and save the time by visiting http://save-the-time.org to read all about our cause and sign the petition.
Nicholas Hacko is a third-generation European-trained master watchmaker and watch dealer at the forefront of the "Save the Time" campaign.