Nearly 30 million watches left Switzerland (up 13.8 percent), the highest level since 1999 and well above the average figure of 25 million units over the past ten years.

FORBES: Swiss Watch Exports Enjoy Record Growth In 2011

The Japanese were undercutting Swiss manufacturers with a glut of inexpensive but accurate and reliable watches, reducing Switzerland's global market share to 20%.

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Thanks to his visionary management, Switzerland today exports some 26 million watches a year.

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Another formidable competitor is Swatch Group, better known for the cheap plastic watches that helped save Switzerland when the quartz revolution looked as if it would relocate the entire watch industry to the Far East.

FORBES: Time Is Money

He will visit the Jeanrichard headquarters in Switzerland in April to see how the watches are constructed.

FORBES: Captain 'Sully' Sullenberger Makes First Appearance As Swiss Luxury Watch Ambassador

In the Costco decision, the Ninth Circuit agreed with prior Supreme Court decisions that the first-sale doctrine applies to works manufactured in the U.S. But the Omega watches in question were made in Switzerland, far outside the reach of U.S. copyright law, and sold to authorized dealers in Latin America.

FORBES: Costco v. Omega Tests Power Of A Logo

In the early 1980s, the Swiss watch industry faced looming catastrophe as it failed to realize the importance of quartz watches, even though the quartz watch had been invented in Switzerland in 1967.

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During the 1920s and 1930s, the Geneva, Switzerland-based watch brand, Alpina, was known for manufacturing military watches for pilots that were precise and resistant to shock.

FORBES: Alpina Takes to the Air with New Pilot Watches

The Germans have been making watches since the 15th century--watchmaking there actually predates that in Switzerland--and Lange is the quintessential German watch.

FORBES: Magazine Article