Month: April 2016

New Research Unlocks the Secret of Employee Recognition

In the article by Josh Bersin for Forbes magazine linked below you can clearly see the correlation of employee recognition and business success.  In their comprehensive research project Forbes Magazine found that organizations that give regular thanks to their employees “far out perform those that don’t.” Further what the study found is that although many companies devote money to employee recognition programs (roughly 1-2% of total payroll), 87% of the recognition programs focus on tenure. Now while tenure is certainly something that can and should be acknowledged, research shows that only 58% of employees even know that such tenure programs exist which questions there effectiveness in creating a culture of employee recognition and appreciation.  In laying out some recommendations on how companies can improve on their employees recognition one of Bersin’s recommendations is “Make recognition easy and frequent.”

This is where we might come in at The Presentation Watch Company.  50% of our customers are businesses that are purchasing our watches for their employees.  90% of our business customers are repeat customers.  We take great pride in our work and the value, beauty and finish of our personalized watches with brass or nickel plates on hardwood boxes is second to none.  At a price range of $169-$649 it allows an employer to acknowledge employees with a gift that say they matter and will last a lifetime.  It is also something most will wear daily with a personal acknowledgement literally right on their wrist all day everyday.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2012/06/13/new-research-unlocks-the-secret-of-employee-recognition/#2432abf02d94

Bremont’s Boeing 100 Watch

Bremont is a young brand established in 2002 by brothers Nick and Giles English in the UK.  They have recently branched out to Switzerland with some of there production.  Boeing and Bremont first started collaborating in 2014 with the production of the Boeing Model 1 named for the first Boeing airplane.  The Boeing 100 is a limited edition (300 made) watch that commemorates the 100th anniversary of Boeing manufacturing airplanes.

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The retro feeling watch has the original Beoing totem pole logo on the face and comes in a very distinctive brown color.  The color comes out of the Cold War.  In those days, Mr. English explains, “Color was all about getting the pilot in the right mood inside the aircraft.  If you look at the Soviet aircraft from back then it’s all bright blues and greens…to keep you alert and awake.  Boeing took a more calming approach with a brown on the inside of their aircraft cockpits that continues to this day.” An additional aviation touch is the case, finished from aviation grade titanium.

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How Time Flies

There is much intertwining in the histories of aviation and watch making. When aviation came along in the early 1900’s there were virtually no wristwatches.  Pocket watches were the rule for men and women wore watches pinned to their blouses.  For those who couldn’t afford a watch the town clock or church bells was they way they kept track of the time of day.  The first recorded mention of a watch that was made specifically for pilots came in 1906.  Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont kept track of his time aloft as a balloon pilot with a pocket watch.  As he started to fly airplanes the pocket watch was impossible to use while manipulating the controls of the airplane in heavy clothing and gloves.  What he needed was a watch that he could attach to his arm with a face large enough that he could see easily without dividing his attention.  His watchmaker friend Louis Cartier made a watch for specifically for him and called it (of course) the Santos-Dumont.  This watch is still being made and is a center piece of the Cartier watch collection.

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As aviation advanced so did the wristwatch, to include luminous dials and numbers, extra large numbers and huge crowns that protruded from the case so they could be wound up with gloves on. Charles Lindbergh made his solo trans Atlantic flight in 1927.  With his popularity still soaring, in 1931 he collaborated with Longines to make a watch capable of determining longitude by calculating the sun’s hour angle.  The watch was a huge commercial success for Longines and although few who bought the watch had a real need for determining their longitude position, it was the first time that the public bought in large number a purpose built pilot watch for fashion sake.

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Prior to 1930 Breitling was a Swiss watch maker know primarily for it’s stop watches.  in 1934 Breathing developed a wrist watch with separate start/stop function specifically for pilots.  In 1942 Breathing created its Chronomat wrist watch which combined start/stop features with a circular slide rule manipulated by a rotating bezel.  Prior to that there were on panel mounted chronographs in airplanes. In 1954 Breathing debuted is Navitimer watch which added aviations E6B flight computer functions.

It refreshing to me that all of these early “aviation” watches are still around today and have sold to many over decades who will never see the inside of a cockpit.

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