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Good Analysis, Mark
In Response To: Re: Swiss Price List from 1973; Are Prices Really This Low? ()

I can recall relatives travelling to Switzerland in the late 1960's, and saying that the watches were a huge bargain compared with the U.S. prices; same for small electronics in Japan (transistor radios and tape recorders). I suppose that I should have expected some differential in the prices, but this discount is really dramatic. I suppose this devaluation of the dollar also jacked up the US prices, around this time.

Being only 17 at the time, it never occured to me that I should have asked Uncle Abe to bring me back a few of the $150 McQueen Monacos. In those years, I was more focused on the Ferrari Dinos and Lamborghini Miuras, wondering how anyone could possibly pay around $15,000 for such cars. If only I had known about the Heuers!

Jeff

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

: Remember Switzerland is a multilingual country (4 official
: languages are recognised), so the internationally accepted CHF
: currency code doesn't work for all of them.

: In fact, nearly two-thirds of the population are German speaking
: and the amount as far as they are concerned would be in
: Schweizer Franken. Hence S.Fr.

: And Biel is just inside the German-speaking region:

:
:

: though you'll also see from that map that Bern is officially a
: bi-lingual canton.

: As to why it would be that much cheaper, well I'm sure some of it
: would be accounted for by no export or customs duties. Whether
: that's enough to cover all that difference or if some of it is
: just the Swiss taking an extra cut from the US, I'm not sure! A
: bit of both, I'd wager.

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