MIREXAL,
Switzerland
Watch brand of the largest Swiss Food and
Non-Food Retailer: MIGROS
Sometimes also branded as M-Watch and sold outside Switzerland
Mirexal and M-Watches are mostly produced by
MONDAINE, more info below the thumbnails
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MIREXAL "Diver" 50 m WR on Camouflage Nylon continued |
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| Front | Wrist | Wrist Side | NATO Wrist |
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Titanium Quartz, ca. 1989
(by MONDAINE) |
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| Front | Back | Movement |
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Dress Watch Gold-plated, Quartz, Slimline II,
ca. 1987 (by MONDAINE) Caliber ETA 555 415, 1 Jewel, Battery R371 (UC371) |
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| Front | Back | Movt | Wrist |
Why are those watches in my collection?
And a bit about MIGROS' history
As a WIS one can not pass a good discount
right, I bought the Diver at USD 30 reduced from USD 150, the Dress gold-plated
Quartz for USD 55 instead of USD 150 and the Titanium Quartz cost USD 125 with
no discount. Those watches are quality watches produced my Mondaine of
Switzerland at great prices. MIGROS is Switzerland largest Food and Non-Food
retailer.
In 2001 I had the honor of setting up their new Hong Kong office, an office that
does merchandising and sourcing for Non-Food items in Far East, also watches!
MIGROS is a non-profit company, that is quite remarkable. The founder Mr.
Gottlieb Duttweiler created MIGROS (the name comes from Engros = French
for Wholesale, take the MIddle of that and you have MIGROS)
because he wanted everyone to be able to buy soap and coffee! Those were luxury
items around 100 years ago. Mr. Duttweiler had a lot of great ideas and he also
became famous for his rolling shops that would visit even the smallest villages
with a remarkable assortment fitted into the back of those well-known
red-white-green MIGROS trucks.
Of course the retailers would fight MIGROS, because MIGROS meant the end of many
small shops. MIGROS was able to purchase huge quantities and had a very sharp
price calculation. So many of the smaller shops did not survive that price war.
I remember my uncle who ran a car repair workshop and a little boat wharf would
not allow my cousins to shop at MIGROS. That was in the 60ies, I remember it so
well, because my cousin Eva wanted to buy the latest Beatle single that only
cost CHF 5 at MIGROS while the record shop charged something like CHF 7.50. That
is of course a lot of difference for a child. But my uncle was strict in his
boycott of MIGROS.
Today of course, everybody enjoys to shop at MIGROS. They often sell brand items
under their own brands, and often (Tennis rackets, Skis) just over paint the real
brand name (Head, Kneissl etc.)
During the late 70ies a group of managers tried to throw the non-profit thought
over board, the MIGROS "Fruehling" (German for Spring, similar to the "Spring of
Prague", the Czech revolution in 1968) was in intensive fight between two groups
of managers that wanted to sell alcohol and tobacco and make MIGROS a "normal"
profitable company. But the Duttweiler heirs won and MIGROS remained a non-profit
company. Of course MIGROS makes a lot of profit from their approximately 10
Billion USD yearly turnover, but that profit flows into the Gottlieb Duttweiler
foundation. Also famous is the "Culture Percent", one percent of the MIGROS
turnover goes to the funding of various cultural projects, often projects that
are a bit off the mainstream and that would have difficulties to get public
funding.
I find it always interesting that every tourist that visits Switzerland knows Migros, because of their reasonable food prices in extremely expensive Switzerland. MIGROS was also the first that carried a lot of Far Eastern foods, and almost all my Thai friends were so happy to buy their food from their country at very reasonable prices.