Category Archives: watch

The battle for marketing share always exists among firms in same industry, including the replica watches industry. Recently, the turf war seems escalated between two Swiss brand– Audemars Piguet and Hublot. Although both of them haven’t admitted this publicly, this battle has already started a few years ago. In this case, you may wonder who would be the ultimate winner, however, as for me, I don’t think these two firms has any obvious conflicts of interests. The interesting thing is that, from my point of view, Audemars Piguet and Hublot have vastly different products. I don’t even see them as direct competitors precisely. Besides, no matter who would be the winner, competition between firms tend to bring more benefits for customers.
The real models that are in competition with one another are AP’s Royal Oak Offshore collection and Hublot’s Big Bang collection. Thought, in my view, I don’t seem there are many similarities between them, apparently enough people put them in the same basket. Call it the struggle of limited editions! For me the person who buys one watch isn’t necessarily in the market for the other – but takes the level of tension between the brands into consideration, the competition is real. In end, I think that having AP and Hublot always looking to one up another is a benefit for the consumer. This should mean that the products they release are exciting as possible.
Except the competition during the marketing and sales process, there is a more crucial part for these watches companies– sponsorships and partnerships. Audemars Piguet and Hublot have each been rapidly gaining high-profile ambassadors and partnerships – particularly in the US. At the first time the battle came into my eyesight was when I attended to Alinghi team that competes in the America’s Cup.
For Hublot, special partnerships are a major part of CEO Jean-Claude Biver’s strategy. Focusing only on the world of sports, in the past decades they have been named as the official time keeper of the FIFA World Cup, the watch brand partner of the Manchester United Football team, and the official watch maker of Formula 1 racing – among others. The purpose is quite obvious. A champion in any sport should wear and prefer a high-quality Swiss watch.
Most recently the fight has moved to Miami. The battle ground is the court where the Miami Heat plays. Hublot announced that Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade would be a brand ambassador in February 2011. However, merely a few days ago Audemars Piguet has just proclaimed that its new brand ambassador would be a player of Miami Heat LeBron James. Interpret it how you like, but I think the brands each want to be where the other brand is. They both get great visibility and a great player, but it is interesting to see the dynamic.
A more hostile thing is that Hublot just announced that they would be the “exclusive watch partner” of the Miami Heat. So each of them has one player on their side. Thus, now replica Hublot watches has contracted to get the exclusive rights to use the actual Miami Heat name on watches. Hublot will get their name in diverse parts of the arena, on the countdown clock, and on the Miami Heat website. Certainly, there will be other promotional connections as well to celebrate the affiliation.
Both AP and Hublot are trying to catch more eyes on their own brands. The goal for each is as much attention as possible in the American market. The US has long been a perplexing place for watch brands to set a major foothold in, but both Replica Audemars Piguet and Hublot have done admirable jobs of gaining high levels of awareness and customer adoption here in the US. The results of these mutual efforts is to have luxury Swiss brands become an progressively larger part of people’s focal point in the US – a area that for the last few years has had less consciousness of high-end watch brands than many other parts of the world. For them, the more attention people pay to their, the happier they are.
No matter who would be the final winner, it would be hard for people in those two companies. And the real winner would no doubt be the clients. Frankly speaking, fair competition would never be a bad thing. In one hand, companies would pay more attention to their research, design, development and service. In another hand, competition would be more like a chance to adjust and to grow. Normally, furious competition will lead to fast improvement. In terms of customers, besides, they do not really care about the winner thing, they only care which brand is more in line with their tastes and appreciation.

For many years, there is a common problem I have seen and shared with many other watch buyers, which is that even luxury watches do not provide instruction manuals. Though it seems not a written rule, almost every watch producer is not doing it. However, brands like Omega seem tend to break this rule. They initially posted a instruction manuals video on YouTube.
Quite recently (as in a day before this article was written) Replica Omega created a new section of their YouTube rolex called “Omega Video Manuals” (as a playlist). The playlist presently contains 25 videos on how to use most of their watches as indicated by movement (calibre) as well as model. The videos contain instructional animations on the basics of using an Omega replica watch. No doubt they are mostly for beginners, but those basics are essential for a lot of people new to mechanical watches.
As I known from retailers, the most frequent service requests and calls they received are the very basic questions about how to operate, which means they would often hear from customers that why their watches stop running only after sitting on a table for few weeks or do they need a new battery. Besides, in terms of the a screw-down crown, many customers misunderstand it which may leads to huge frustration.
It seems posting manuals video is successful marketing as well as offering instructions. There is no doubt that while YouTube has over million registered users, Omega can reach much more people thought it than its own official website. Of course, except those instruction videos already were posted online, including Speedmaster, Seamaster, Constellation, and De Ville watch collections, more will come soon. Since then, Omega users and buyers can simply Google for help and for instruction manuals.

It is known that a item with”Swiss Made” tend to stands for quality and social status of owner. Recently, as he Swiss National Council announced that only products that meet the requirement of containing at least 60% Switzerland made materials can be counted as”Swiss Made”, increased from 50%. There is no doubt that the watch industry will be highly under surveillance, especially for those producers who want to play edge ball of the old rule of 50%.
If you’ve been into watches for a while, it will not take you long to realize that “Swiss Made” on a watch dial commands a premium over a similar watch without this marking. In the world of watch companies, there is certainly an economic incentive for being seen to produce Swiss Made watches. Clients and collectors typically see Swiss watches as inherently better, and this is thankful to successful marketing of Swiss watch industry.
After all, there are a large number of watch companies started with foreign money, who have had to open a facility in Switzerland to attain “Swiss Made” status, before being taken seriously by watch buyers. It seems manufacture in Switzerland find a new way to get further development.
Rightly or not, it is not easy to say whether a Swiss watch is better due to the numerous arguments that can be made on either side. The world is very different from what it was 50 years ago when economies were more local, and when the origin of a product could be more easily traced. Now we live in an age where talent, materials, and money flow through porous economic borders, and the difficulty comes in deciding where the country of origin is and when it can change due to your definition of it.
The luminal space where emotion ends and where business begins is perhaps what this law aims to make concrete. Lots of economic interest rides on it, both for the Swiss and for foreign watch companies wanting to get a piece of the “Swiss Made” action by routing some of their production through Switzerland. Actually, this is certainly a national protective measure, either reduce the number of “Swiss Made” products, or promote the development of the national manufacture.
What requirements a Swiss Made watch need to meet? According the official website of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) , a watch is considered Swiss, according to Swiss law if, 1) its movement is Swiss and, 2) its movement is cased up in Switzerland and; 3) the manufacturer carries out the final inspection in Switzerland.
Of course, people would wonder what a Swiss movement is. The definition of a Swiss movement is tied into rule 1) as above, and states that: A watch movement is considered Swiss if 1) the movement has been assembled in Switzerland and 2) the movement has been inspected by the manufacturer in Switzerland and 3) the components of Swiss manufacture account for at least 50 percent of the total value, without taking into consideration the cost of assembly.
Reading these definitions, it is not hard to come up with scenarios to see how the system can be gamed in order to produce a “Swiss Made” watch. It is funny when a Swiss movement, say an ETA or Unitas, is assembled outside of Switzerland, then brought back in to have the ultimate screw turned and the movement cased up. In this case, the other parts of the watch such as the strap, case, crystal and dial, can be of foreign origin. Then people may wonder, where does the “Swissness” start and where does it end?
The most surprising thing that’s been said is with the old rule of 50%, the fact is that a watch that is Swiss Made can also, by extension, mean that the same replica watch can be labelled “Asian Made”, which may can dilute the value of “Swiss Made”, and thus the new 60% rule attempts to address this criticism by defining a greater proportion of the watch’s value.
I don’t know what to make of this if I’m honest, as I have admittedly been brainwashed as well. In purchasing decisions, I have used the “Swiss Made” criteria and have attached a premium to that label, even though I know of the somewhat slippery definitions involved.
At the same time, though the “Swiss Made” seems to retain its value in foreseeable future, according to many collectors I have spoken with, they tend to believe that clients are gradually attracted by those new dependent watch producers instead of initially merely focus on that label. Savvy watch buyers will know all this, and will know what they are buying, and the “Swiss Made” label will be but an increasingly smaller part of the purchasing decision, eclipsed by other factors such as the intrinsic parts of the watch itself.
That being said, I expect that members of the 500 strong Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH, made up of small to medium manufacturers, will welcome this move. Replica Watch manufacturers who have reason to, will have to tighten up their game in order to meet the new 60% requirement. This would involve either using more Swiss sourced components and/or more Swiss labour in their production. No matter what, Swiss financial interest is protected and rightly so.
Under a larger context, there is no doubt that the “Swiss Made” logo would maintain its prestigious value, as least in near future, because of the large amount of buyers and collectors. Though “Swiss Made” products may charge more, customers are willing to pay for it. Furthermore, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to grow for other new luxury watch producers due to the extremely expensive expenses and extensive efforts.

Today’s news from Watch Industry, after the announcement of that replica Rolex become the new partner of F1, Hublot replica watches claimed that it officially become the watch maker and official time keeper of Ferrari. What does this exactly mean? It signifies that during the period of their agreement, no one can produce timepieces with Ferrari brand except Hublot. Furthermore, the name of these two companies, Ferrari and Hublot, will be displayed at each other’s activities, which referred by them as a “comprehensive agreement covering all the activities of Ferrari and Hublot…”. Seems quite unclear, but we still can get the main point of it.
It would be very interesting to take a peek to Ferrari’s history of watches. Long before now, there were a range of lower-priced quartz watches. Then they started to work with high-end brand Girard-Perregaux for some exclusive watches. After that they entered into what most people generally agree was a failed relationship with Panerai. Before this collaboration, the former official time keeper for Ferrari was Cabestan which produced several eye-catching limited watches Ferrari branded. After today, a new history will be written by Hublot and Ferrari, two giants in their own industries. After today, it’s all about Hublot exclusively. In my prediction, since Hublot has experience of cooperating with Formula 1, it would be no problem of its new partnership. Let us anticipate more brilliant items come out.