A year of the rabbit for watch brands?
China, which weighed on watch exports at end 2022, will be the key to activity in 2023, a year that opens with mixed prospects. Will China’s impact on luxury sales be as great as in 2021?
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What next for the pre-owned market?
Once dismissed as a hang-out for unscrupulous traders touting fakes, in little more than a decade the pre-owned watch market has grown to remarkable proportions and is expected to surpass sales of new watches. Consultancy firm LuxeConsult predicts this reversal in roles for 2033.
The quarrel of excellence and luxury, the paradox of perfection
You may have noticed how, at regular intervals, newspapers like to resurrect a debate not unlike another, much older dispute (from the time of the Sun King to be exact), in which the Ancients and the Moderns clashed, each convinced of a supremacy not easily quantified; a divergence of opinion whose modern equivalent we could call, to paraphrase the exegete Germaine de Staël, the quarrel of excellence and luxury.
The watch world's "Oscars" and their original sin
Organised under the aegis of a foundation since 2011, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève is regarded as the Oscars of watchmaking. But behind this glittering event there still lies a problem: the competitors nominate themselves!
Ambassadors and influencers are not in the same league
While brand ambassadors, sportsmen and women in particular, appeal to our inner athlete, what's to be said of influencers, champions of nothing at all. A case of here today, gone tomorrow?
The watch segment spooked by Industry 4.0
Cobots – collaborative robots – are the latest craze in industry, and the watchmaking sector has still to warm to the idea of data collection. These are the two main takeaways from the 18th EPHJ fair.
IWC backs an environmental project by Cousteau Divers
The brand is supporting Cousteau Divers in its work to understand how the ocean's temperature impacts biodiversity and the climate.
The direct-to-consumer trend among Swiss watch brands
A growing number of watch brands are seeking to move away from third parties to instead sell direct to consumers. Retailers will have to reinvent themselves.
