Luxury

Selling to Super Rich Asians

THE FINER POINTS: The three-day Watches & Wonders event had something for all 16,000 visitors.  

PHOTO: WATCHES AND WONDERS 2014

Its official - Swiss luxury watches are no longer just boys' toys. For too long, men were spoilt for choice when it came to picking out a timepiece for themselves. Gold or steel, chronograph or minute repeater, tourbillon or double tourbillon, big or small - there are options aplenty.

But judging by the sheer number of women's timepieces on display at the second edition of Watches & Wonders in Hong Kong earlier this month, the Swiss are getting serious about opening up to a demographic that might have been in their blind spot for a little too long.

Not anymore as women are fast catching up with their male counterparts in collecting watches and the brands are sitting up to take note of it. "Thirty-five per cent of our customers are women," reveals Jerome Lambert, CEO of Montblanc, as the maison unveiled its new feminine Boheme collection - an all-mechanical line that even features a complicated perpetual calendar model for serious female collectors.

But to be fair, the three-day event, featuring 13 luxury watch brands under the Richemont Group, also had something for all 16,000 visitors who dropped by. Compared to the inaugural edition, the participating maisons looked better prepared this year as they brought along more novelties and not just the ones that were unveiled earlier in the year at the annual Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie.    -- 2014  October 25   BUSINESS TIMES