Professional Documents
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History of Wristwatch
History of Wristwatch
Today, a wristwatch is considered as much of a status symbol as a device to tell time. In an age when cell phones and digital pagers display tiny quartz clocks, the mechanical wristwatch has slowly become less of an object of function and more a piece of modern culture. Walk into the boardroom of any Fortune 500 company and youre likely to see dozens of prestigious wristwatches, including such names as Rolex, Vacheron Constantine, Frank Muller, Jaeger-LeCoultre and even Patek Philippe. However, this was not always the case. Less than 100 years ago, no self-respecting gentleman would be caught dead wearing a wristwatch. In those days of yore, real men carried pocket watches, with a gold half-hunter being the preferred status symbol of the timeno pun intended. Wristlets, as they were called, were reserved for women, and considered more of a passing fad than a serious timepiece. In fact, they were held in such disdain that many a gentlemen were actually quoted to say they would sooner wear a skirt as wear a wristwatch. The established watch making community looked down on them as well. Because of their size, few believed wristlets could not be made to achieve any level of accuracy, nor could they withstand the basic rigors of human activity. Therefore, very few companies produced them in quantity, with the vast majority of those being small ladies models, with delicate fixed wire or chain-link bracelets. This all started to change in the nineteenth century, when soldiers discovered their usefulness during wartime situations. Pocket watches were clumsy to carry and thus difficult to operate while in combat. Therefore, soldiers fitted them into primitive cupped leather straps so they could be worn on the wrist, thereby freeing up their hands during battle. It is believed that Girard-Perregaux equipped the German Imperial Naval with similar pieces as early as the 1880s,which they ore on their wrists while synchronizing naval attacks, and firing artillery. In 1906, the evolution of wristlets took an even bigger step with the invention of the expandable flexible bracelet, as well as the introduction of wire loops (or lugs) soldered onto small, open-faced pocket watch
cases, allowing leather straps to be more easily attached. This aided their adaptation for military use and thus marked a turning point in the development of wristwatches for men. Another timely issue was the vulnerability of the glass crystal when worn during combat. This was addressed by utilizing pierced metal covers, frequently called shrapnel guards. These were basically metal grills (often made of silver), placed over the dial of the watchthereby protecting the glass from damage while still allowing the time to be easily read. A less common solution was the use of leather covers, snapped into place over the watch. While they did offer protection from damage, they were cumbersome to use, and thus were primarily seen in the extreme climates of Australia and Africa Over the next decade, watch companies slowly added additional models to their catalogs, and finally, by the mid-1930s, they accounted for 65 percent of all watches exported by Switzerland. It was an uphill battle, but the wristwatch had finally arrived. They were now accurate, waterproof and, by 1931, perpetually self-winding, when Rolex introduced the Auto Rotor, a revolutionary design, which is used to this day by watch companies around the world. The success of the wristwatch was born out of necessity, and Rolex continued this tradition by introducing a series of Professional, or tool watches in the early 1950s. These models, including the Submariner, Explorer, GMT-Master, Turn-O-Graph, and Milgauss were also designed out of necessity, as they included features and attributes that were essential for a specific task or profession. Because of its rugged design, variations of the Submariner have subsequently been issued to numerous militaries, including the British Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy and British Royal Marines, as well as the U.S. Navy Seals. Over the years, dozens of companies like Omega, Benrus and Panerai have also supplied specialty watch models for military duty. .With the general public now leaning toward high-tech, digital gadgets, the classic mechanical wristwatch was came to the market.
Marketing has assumed much in present day business world. The success of failure Of any organization profit making or non-profit making depends on the Marketing. Marketing has special significance in the modem management of Business concept. In the words of peter F Drucker,"Marketing is the Distinguishing and unique function of the business
Business decisions should be Marketing or customer oriented rather than Product oriented gearing operations primarily to the office satisfaction of Customer wants and needs. What marketing creates is a permanent existence of The entity of customers, the substance of particular group of customer or the Different group of customers for a company products reduces its business risk and Expands its planning horizon. It serves the business and the business turn serves The market, through planning research and developing. An activity of any type of Business undertaking makes use collection of data. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE
1)
To study the attitude and satisfaction among the consumers for Titan fastback watches, at SRM University (Kattankulathur campus).
SECONDARY OBJECTIVE
1)
To study and analyze various factors influence the consumers to purchase the fastrack watches. To analyze the factors influencing perception and buying decision of consumers. To find out the effectiveness of advertisements for fastrack watches.
2)
3)
1. The geographical scope of the study is limited to SRM University kattankulathur campus alone.
3. The consumers attitude may change in future due to change in their standard of living.
4. The Respondents were sometimes unable to spend much time for filling up the, questionnaire. So, the chances for bias in the respondents answer were on the higher side.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN The Research Design adopted in the study was descriptive in nature because the study aims at describing the situation as it exists at present. It shows the consumers satisfaction for fastrack watches.
SAMPLING METHOD The study involves area sampling method. Area sampling method involves selecting a probability sample of geographic areas and selecting units or individuals within the selected areas for the sample SOURCES OF DATA The Study used both Primary and Secondary data.
PRIMARY DATA: The primary data was collected from the respondents using questionnaire. SECONDARY DATA: The Secondary data was collected from the companys official website. METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION Data was collected from the customers with the help of a questionnaire. DATA ANALYSIS METHOD The Data was collected from the main study and was analyzed using Based on the results conclusion were drawn and suggestions were made.
TABLE 1 TABLE SHOWING THE USERS OF FASTRACK S.N O 1. 2. PARTICULARS YES NO TOTAL NO. OF RESPONDENTS 17 33 50 PERCENTAGE 34% 66% 100%
INTERPRETATION :
It is inferred that from the sample of 50, at SRM University, 34% are the users of fastrack and 66% are not using fastrack watches.
3.
Family
TOTAL
100%
INTERPRETATION: It is understood that, majority of the respondents i.e., 88% of them were influenced by the advertisements appearing in media and 12% of the respondents purchased fastrack watches when refereed by their friends. TABLE 4 TABLE SHOWING THE PREFERRED ATTRIBUTE OF FASTRACK S.N O 1. 2. 3. PARTICULARS Design Use friendly Brand NO. OF RESPONDENTS 4 2 11 PERCENTAGE 23% 12% 65%
TOTAL
100%
INTERPRETATION: It is understood that, majority of the respondents i.e., 65% of the respondents preferred fastrack watches due to its brand image and next majority, i.e. 23% of the respondents preferred it due to its design.
INTERPRETATION : It is inferred that 53% of the users are male and 47% of the users are female. Hence the male users are more than female users.
TABLE 6 TABLE SHOWING THE SATISFACATION LEVEL OF FASTRACK S.N O 1. 2. 3. ATTRIBUTES Highly satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Brand PERCENTAGE 41% 47% 12%
7 8 2
TOTAL
17
100%
S.N O 1. 2. 3.
Price
3 11 3
TOTAL
17
100%
S.N O 1. 2. 3.
Variety
5 6 6 17
Interpretation: It is understood that the users of fastrack watches are quite satisfied with the brand image of fastrack and with its pricing strategies, but dissatisfied with the varieties.
RANK 3 2 1
DESIGN 9 4 4
USER FRIENDLY 8 7 2
BRAND 11 2 4
X=wx/w
REASON DESIGN
RANK 3
USER BRAND
40/6=6.6 41/6=6.8
2 1
SUGGESTIONS
TV advertisements can be renewed explaining the product feature and aggressive marketing will help the company.
Awareness of the product is less among the people. So, the company may take several steps to create such awareness regarding its values to the customers.
The company can adopt new strategies and policies to overcome the competition.
CONCLUSION Gaining and maintaining consumer preference is a battle that is never really won. Continued and consistent branding initiatives that reinforce the consumers purchase decision will, over time, land the product in consumer preference sets. Attaining and sustaining preference is an important step on the road to gaining brand loyalty
Most of the consumers prefer Fastrack watches in SRM University campus, due to its strong brand image, and the main factor forcing the customers to buy fastrack watch is advertisements through the print and electronic media.