Seiko, Swatch, and the Swiss Watch Industry (with Aled Maclean-Jones)

Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Go to econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this episode, and find links and other information related to today's conversation. You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done going back to 2006. Our email address is mail at econtalk.org.

We'd love to hear from you. Today is December 29th, 2025, and my guest is the writer Aled McLean Jones. His substack is Rakes Digress. Which is a play on Rake's progress, I hope. Our topic today is a wonderful essay of his on how Japanese innovation disrupted the watch industry, particularly the Swiss watch industry, and yet somehow Swiss entrepreneurs found a way to stay alive.

Alad, welcome to Econ Talk. Thanks very much, Russ. I've been a listener for a long time, so it's a real pleasure to be here. Great to have you. Y your essay appeared in the publication Works in Progress, which listeners can also explore.

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