But Swiss tourist shops often have a wall full of them and will very happily sell you a Cuckoo Clock with a Swiss flag on it. They come from just over the German border in the Black Forest. ![]() One side point is that Cuckoo Clocks are not Swiss in origin. I once took the train from St Moritz to Chur sitting near to a group of American tourists who spent the whole trip, passing through stunning mountain landscapes, staring at their phones deciding which watch to buy in duty-free at Zürich airport. The extent to which people take buying a watch whilst visiting here is often a little crazy. ![]() Every tourist shop sells at least a Swatch, watchshops/jewelers are everywhere, you can even buy watches in Jungfraujoch at 3446m. You will never be short of a chance to buy a watch (or chocolate, or an Army Knife). At major sites like Grindelwald First and Glacier 3000 you can do free platform walks sponsored by Tissot, likewise most cable car stations double as ugly high-altitude billboards. Geneva airport especially feels like a giant watch shop/advert. As soon as you enter the country there are adverts everywhere at the airport. In any case the image and association has certainly stuck and the watch companies market hard and do everything possible to push watches on you. I am sure there is plenty of room to argue over this, but that seems to be the general gist. See this article for a more indept version. Before WW1 whilst they did produce some very good work there were also other high quality industries in England and the USA amongst others, indeed it seems the Swiss were mass producers of poor quality watches too like the China of the time. It seems that the Swiss golden-age was only really for 20-30 years between WW2 and the Quartz Crisis. The whole watchmaking history gets a little over romanticised. Plenty of good watches are made elsewhere but the association with Switzerland really sticks in the popular mindset. So here is what I learned going from idiot to a state somewhere between liking watches and wondering how people spend so much money on things. As I tend to do I then got rather too involved and came out the other side knowing far too much. Wanting to get something nice without paying too much I decided to do my homework on the matter. I moved here knowing next to nothing about watches beyond a few obvious brand names (I had to google what Breitling was because I saw their fancy building in Grenchen so often). Having lived in Switzerland for a few years and owning everything Swiss but a watch (Army Knife, Aromat, Swiss Pass, Fondue caquelon, Raclette grill….), I decided to get one before they kicked me out for failing to integrate. I wonder if some of the things might tread on a few toes here, but is meant in good spirit or at least as tongue-in-cheek. Though I imagine many users on here know far more than me. I wrote this for /r/travel but thought it might be of some use or interest here.
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