World famous luxury watch brands began to send olive branches to China

A few days ago, a grand event in the fashion industry opened at the famous Shanghai Bund on the 18th. Three windows on the fourth floor of the Bund No. 18 are facing the Oriental Pearl and the Jinmao Tower in Pudong. The view is quite satisfactory. One of the visitors said: "This kind of exhibition matches this kind of scenery."

This is the world's only independent watch manufacturer Patek Philippe held a large-scale watch exhibition with the theme of "Value for Family Watching Companies". It is also the first public large-scale exhibition of Patek Philippe since it officially entered China in September 2005. 250 precious timepieces and museum collections debuted in China for the first time.

This year, some world-famous luxury watch brands that have never held public exhibitions in China have made some moves. Major brands including Vacheron Constantin and Baodi have begun to send olive branches to China. The world’s luxury watch industry has already put China, India, and other Third-world countries are seen as the last land of their future market expansion.

● Quota cancellation accelerates luxury watches to enter China

The most famous invention of Breguet is the tourbillon aligner and Breguet hairspring. These two inventions are still an important part of modern watchmaking. In November, Breguet held the "Modern Classic Watch Exhibition" at Diaoyutai. Soon after, Patek Philippe was exhibiting in Shanghai. The two high-end watch industries that were originally unknown to ordinary people began to make more Chinese people aware of it.

In recent years, the promotional efforts of Omega, Longines, Tissot, and Rolex brands have been increasing in China. Every year, there are still famous watchmaking brands entering China. How can this piece of Chinese cake attract the attention of luxury watch industry?

Watch column columnist and connoisseur Chang Wei told reporters that with the development of the Chinese economy over the years, the continuous increase in the economic growth rate has led to more and more rich people. These people who are the first to become rich are the market targets of the world's luxury watch industry. In addition, the retail model of watches and clocks is also changing. With the opening up of China’s retail industry to foreign investment, the original Chinese watch brands or joint-venture watch brand sales can only be seen in Chinese shopping malls. Now there are already many purely foreign-made watches. The brand has settled in big shopping malls in Beijing and Shanghai. Especially in recent years, after the quota restrictions on watches and clocks were lifted, international brands accelerated their entry into China.

Chang Wei believes that cultural activities and media orientation also play an indispensable role in the influx of luxury watches into China. In the past, even if there were magazines and columns for clocks and watches, it was rare. Now, in Shanghai and Beijing, watch magazines and websites have been very rich.

● Luxury watches enter China starting from a small circle

Whether it is fast-moving consumer goods or luxury goods, the development of any country in the world may not be as rapid as China. It is understood that in recent years in China, the growth rate of the luxury watch market is even higher than that of mature markets in some markets in Europe and America.

Chang Wei told reporters that the formation of the rich class also made it more and more common for them to send gifts to each other. Because after all, watches embody a person's elegant taste and decent temperament. .

Under such market demand, the luxury watch's strategy for the Chinese market is to seize the opportunity. Once many years of trade barriers have been liberalized, luxury watches have ushered in a period of great strides. Some brands that have never been involved in the oriental market have begun to focus on China.

This is why we find that many luxury watches entering China seem unfamiliar. In fact, they are world-renowned brands.

When these brands enter the market, they often do not need to let too many ordinary people know, because the ordinary people are not their target of service – hundreds of thousands of tables and millions of people are certainly not available to the people. And, they will usually go first to connoisseurs, officials and celebrities and expand from this group of people to a larger circle.

●The problem of luxury watches after entering China

At the Patek Philippe exhibition, the reporter asked the successor of Patek Philippe and Mr. Terri Stern, the vice president of the world. What has been the biggest difficulty since entering China last September? Mr. Stern thought for a moment that the biggest problem is that China lacks excellent watchmakers. It is reported that it takes 10 years to train a Patek Philippe watchmaker. A complicated Patek Philippe watch requires skilled watchmakers to make it for 2 to 3 years. It takes at least 9 months for a simple watch system to be sent out. Because Patek Philippe made all of them in Geneva, Mr. Sten said that the excellent local Chinese craftsmen certainly did not refer to the watchmakers, but to the watchmakers who worked in the after-sales phase of the brand.

Chang Wei told reporters that after entering into China, most brands have areas for improvement in brand promotion, sales, and after-sales services. Because there were no luxury watches sold in China before, the situations encountered by these brands in China are different from those in Europe and the Americas. The lack of excellent watchmakers is only one aspect of them.

Chang Wei said that even as the heads of these luxury watch brands in China, many of them are mainly running the market, but they may not have much understanding of the brand's content. This is a luxury watch that needs attention in the future.

"No one can really own Patek Philippe. You just keep it for future generations." The fact that Patek Philippe's famous handwriting is also suitable for other luxury watches. No one denies that luxury watches are more of a work of art than just a timekeeping tool. In the future, China, not just a metropolis like Beijing and Shanghai, will be able to accommodate luxury watches. Those economically developed cities will gradually become targets on the blueprint for luxury watch industry development.