In the 1970s, Swiss watchmakers faced crisis as Japanese competitors offered watches with new quartz technology. As manufacturers in Switzerland continued to produce watches with traditional mechanical movements, Raymond Weil saw an opportunity to gain prominence in the market by embracing this new technology. Despite its modern approach to manufacturing, Raymond Weil maintains traditionalism as one of the few family-run Swiss watchmakers remaining. The luxury collections produced by the company express influences from music and art; one of the early lines, the 'Amadeus', from 1983 was named after Mozart and released alongside the film of the same name from critically-acclaimed director, Miloš Forman. Many of the original lines are highly-coveted today by collectors and watch-enthusiasts alike, including the 'Othello' and the 'Toccata'; however, more recent collections, such as the 'Nabucco' and the 'Maestro', are also popular on the market.
