DUBAI - One of the oldest Swiss watch brands, Blancpain is making a grand entry into the UAE market with the opening of the exclusive boutique at the Emirates Towers Boulevard. The owners of the brand, Swatch group plans to open 25-30 points of sales by 2007 in the Middle East.

The brand is positioned at the higher-end of the Swatch Group pyramid and has been available over the last 12 months. Looking at the good response, the group decided to set up a boutique in Dubai.

Talking to Khaleej Times, Marc A Hayek, Member of the Exclusive Swatch Group Management Board, said: "We see a huge potential for high-end watches and so have opened the first Blancpain boutique in Dubai. Exclusive brands like Blancpain need to be positioned well and is one of the most precious handcrafted watches of the Swatch group.''

Rivoli, the sole distributors of Blancpain watches in ME, has seven watch outlets across various cities that Blancpain will be retailed. Rivoli represents brands such as Montblanc, Longines, Dunhill, Glashutte, Carl F Bucherer, Omega among others.

Ramesh Prabhakar, Managing Partner of Rivoli says, "when it comes to the positioning of the brand, Blancpain is on the higher-end watch range and has no competitors at all in its class. The watches are priced at Dh25,000 to Dh 3 million.''

Another boutique is planned for Blancpain shortly. In fact, it is one of the oldest watch brands manufactured since 1735. The watch brand was initially owned by Blancpain and later in 1932 became a 100 per cent Swatch group brand, says Hayek.

The Swatch group has opened 10 Blancpain boutiques across the globe including US, France, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Thailand, China. "The US, Japan and Swiss boutiques are doing very well and hope to see Dubai among the top five shortly,'' Hayek said.

The Swatch group stable has several watch brands at the high end of the pyramid including Vacheron Constantin, Breguet and Glashutte watches.