Thanks mate, I appreciate the hearty and passionate comment :-)

I think your description of "democratisation" by Japanese brands to the watchmaking industry is a very accurate description indeed. While Swiss brands back in those 70s and 80s like Tissot, Longines, and Rolex (they were cheaper back then) made affordable mechanical watches, they were still pricey for the ordinary person, delicate in some cases (magnetism), and they're also not as reliable/accurate.

The Japanese and Americans managed to break that up, and brought more affordable watches to the masses. I like to think of this to back when Japanese carmakers made affordable, and reliable cars to democratise the act of owning a car. People no longer had to stand from large, expensive, and unreliable cars from US and Europe.