Rolex is out as Asians develop taste for rare, high-end watches.

30 august 2004

Article by: Channel News Asia - 29 August 2004

Rolex is out as Asians develop taste for rare, high-end timepieces

SINGAPORE : Forget about Rolex. How about a Richard Mille, or a Vacheron Constantin perhaps? Asian watch aficionados are increasingly going for exotic brands as they develop a growing appreciation for more complicated and costlier timepieces.

So said experts at the Tempus industry fair that ended in Singapore over the weekend.

While Rolex remains popular, the growing presence of other Swiss watchmakers like Audemars Piguet and Girard-Perregaux in the display windows of the region's upmarket shopping malls reflects a shift in tastes.

These watches are still hand-made and only limited quantities are produced, thereby enhancing their appeal to collectors.

Before another show visitor could make a grab for it, a Patek Philippe men's wristwatch worth 220,472 US dollars was snapped up by a Singaporean buyer almost as soon as the show opened.

"It is a very exciting market," said Oliviero Bottinelli, chief executive officer of Audemars Piguet for Southeast Asia.

"Europe was setting the trend, not quantity but quality, and Asia caught up very fast," he told AFP on the sidelines of the five-day watch exhibit organised by Singapore-based high-end watch retailer Hour Glass.

"At one point it was Rolex, Rolex, Rolex ... Rolex has helped people to appreciate a watch," Bottinelli said.

The 115-year old Audemars Piguet, one of the few remaining watch brands still under the control of its founding family, produces only 18,000 timepieces a year and almost half of the sales are from Asia, Bottinelli said.

He declined to disclose revenues because the privately-held company prefers to keep its sales figures confidential. As a guide however, the average price of an Audemars Piguet watch is 14,705 dollars, Bottinelli said.

Audemars Piguet and more than 30 other watchmakers, mainly from Switzerland, took part in the exhibition with the aim of expanding their reach to Asian collectors who are seen as the most enthusiastic buyers of limited-edition timepieces.

Figures from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry showed six Asian economies, led by Hong Kong, among the top 15 export markets for Swiss watches in the first seven months of 2004.

Altogether they bought 1.61 billion dollars' worth of Swiss timepieces in the January-July 2004 period. In 2003, their purchases totalled 2.65 billion dollars.

An estimated 50,000 visitors from Asia and other regions were expected to have walked through the exhibit of 71 million dollars' worth of watches by the time it was to end Sunday, Hour Glass executives said.

Hublot, a favorite with European royal families, was among the exhibit participants hoping to further raise their profile among Asian watch connoisseurs, Yvan Arpa, director of global marketing and sales, told AFP.

"We don't want to do any hard selling," Arpa said.

"We want to build our image ... we are not aiming to be a mass market brand, we are aiming to be a niche brand," he said.

Executives from Hour Glass, which has an extensive regional presence from Tokyo to Sydney, confirmed growing demand from Asian clients for timepieces produced by independent Swiss watchmakers.

"People are starting to invest in these timepieces simply because they understand the creative philosophies behind why these products are priced relatively higher than most major brands because of the exclusivity, because of the workmanship, the rarity of the products and the labour hours involved," said Michael Tay, Hour Glass's deputy general manager.

Tay also said it reflected the maturity of the average Asian watch collector.

"There's a lot more creativity injected into these brands and we find that the consumers have evolved and developed enough to appreciate them, because to find a nice timepiece you have to have the confidence in order to go for the lesser known brands," Tay said.

"It's moving away from just branding ... a lot of the collectors go for (particular) products now in this part of the world," he said.

Article by: Channel News Asia - 29 August 2004