Time is money

The opening of eight luxury watch brand boutiques — Audemars Piguet, Breitling, Chopard, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Omega, Panerai, and Patek Philippine — at Greenbelt 5 is meant to be the signal to watch collectors that the Swiss brands are serious about servicing the market, whatever the challenges 2009 brings.


luxury watch brand

The range of watches made available in the market runs the gamut from titanium to gold to platinum, classic or contemporary in style, and priced anywhere from €2,000 to €500,000. Limited or special edition watches can number from a mere 50-90 pieces to as many as 1,000 pieces. Competition among the vendors is friendly, but fierce, hence the marketing effort of the exhibit Treasures: The Art of Time at thChronograph watches, e launch, where the heritage timepieces and new watch models of each brand were showcased. Notables were the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Carbon Concept Tourbillon and Chronograph, Jaeger-LeCoultre The Master Ultra Thin, IWC Schaffhausen Portuguese Hand-Wound from 1939 (one of six milestone watches being exhibited for the brand’s 140^th anniversary), Breitling Avenger Seawolf Chrono (its claim to fame being the world’s only chronograph both watertight and operational at a depth of 3,300 feet or 1,000 meters), Chopard L.U.C. Chrono One (the brand’s first in-house automatic chronograph), Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 600m Quantum of Solace Limited Edition watch, Panerai Luminor Marina Left-Handed watch (so-called for its left-handed arrangement of the bridge and winding crown), and the Patek Philippe Instantaneous Perpetual Calendar Ref. 5207.


luxury watch brand

All eight "prestigious label" brands have been partners with the Lucerne Group for the at least seven to 10 years. While Lucerne is confident in its assessment of the market, culled from 20 years experience as a watch distributor, it intends to adopt a cautious attitude in 2009.




luxury watch brand