I'm not ready yet

Many of us are in denial, those of us who are standing at the brink of change in life become frozen and unable to decide, thinking “I’m not ready yet.”

This does not just happen to us as individuals, industries can become frozen in denial, as well. For more than 300 years, watchmaking has been Switzerland’s most identifiable industry, yet there was something the industry almost did not survive: technological change. The mass production of the Industrial Revolution reduced costs, but there has always remained the cherished element of handwork in a Swiss watch.

In the United States, a quiet revolution was brewing. It was the “quartz revolution,” an electrical watch best known as the Accutron by Bulova introduced to the US market in 1960. But Swiss companies, steeped in tradition were slow to embrace quartz technology. By 1974, exports of Swiss mechanical watches which had risen to 84 million units, plummeted to 40 million units only a year later in 1973, and down to only 3 million ten years later.

In 1979, the management of the Swiss group embarked on an ambitious plan to produce its own inexpensive line of quartz watches. The watch is known as the Swatch (Swiss watch), launched in March 1983 and it was the phenomenon that put Swiss watches back on consumers’ wrists.

In looking at the history of Swiss watchmaking over the last few years, it’s clear that if the industry was not prepared and when the revolution was upon them, it took them years to respond and to regain the dominance they held for so long.

In life, the operative question to those who are frozen in life stage denial is:

 “So, you’re not ready. What are you doing to prepare for when you are ready?”

At whatever age you are at if you are frozen the above question applies, but I am talking to those of us who are ageing and are in denial about the future. As we age, many of us are not ready, we still are active, social, and financially secure. We do look at others who are older than us and notice the subtle changes they are making in our lifestyle as our bodies age. We should be taking steps that could mitigate the ravages of older age but many of us are frozen, so we are not ready. So, again the question that needs to be answered is: what are you doing to prepare for when you are ready?