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Omega President Says He Doesn’t Wear a Watch to Tell the Time
2011-03-23 23:01:32.0 GMT
By Tom Mulier
March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Watches aren’t for telling the time
anymore, according to the president of luxury timepiece brand
Omega.
“Time is everywhere,” Stephen Urquhart said in an
interview at Baselworld, the world’s largest watch fair. “I’m
sure you have, on your body or in your briefcase, three or four
different things that have perfect time on them. We’re not
competing with that.”
Many younger people no longer wear wristwatches because
they can check the time on their cell phone, according to the
Mindset List published last year by Beloit College to explain
the latest generation of students to professors. Mechanical
watches will survive the competition because they address a
different consumer desire, the head of Swatch Group AG’s largest
brand said.
Wearing a fine watch is like “walking around with a
sculpture on your wrist, or a painting, or a poem or a book,”
he said in an interview yesterday while wearing an Omega watch
on each wrist. “It’s something that’s there that has a history
and you can take it off and show it to people. You can talk
about it. I don’t wear a watch to tell the time.”
Demand for luxury watches is forecast to slow this year
from the 22 percent expansion in 2010 as Japan’s worst disaster
since World War II and unrest in the Middle East depress
consumer spending. Switzerland exported 16.2 billion Swiss
francs ($17.9 billion) of watches last year, led by demand from
Asia, according to the Federation of Swiss Watchmaking.
‘Emotional Need’
Swatch Group, the world’s largest watchmaker, gets about 2
billion francs of revenue from Omega, according to Kepler
Capital Markets. Omega watches sell for 2,000 francs to 500,000
francs, Kepler estimates show.
Urquhart isn’t concerned about the slowdown or about
shifting tastes among young people, he said. Younger people in
developing markets especially are becoming more interested in
watches, he said.
Watch-making 100 years ago filled a different need as an
alternative to relying on church bells to know the hour and has
evolved into filling an “emotional need,” Urquhart said.
Omega is opening new stores in the U.S., where it gets
about a tenth of its sales, as rents are more attractive and the
brand can find better locations, Urquhart said. Omega opened 10
outlets between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and will add as many
as 15 more in the next six months in that market, he said.
“We’re really getting a foothold in the U.S.,” he said.
“It’s not a booming market, everybody knows that. It’s the
right moment to do it. There is room for growth there,
definitely, maybe more than other markets.”
Urquhart said he was “surprised” to see a “very good”
reaction from a store Omega opened in a Nashville mall.
“The U.S. is still the No. 1 market in the world, he
said. “There’s tremendous consumer power out there.”
2011-03-23 23:01:32.0 GMT
By Tom Mulier
March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Watches aren’t for telling the time
anymore, according to the president of luxury timepiece brand
Omega.
“Time is everywhere,” Stephen Urquhart said in an
interview at Baselworld, the world’s largest watch fair. “I’m
sure you have, on your body or in your briefcase, three or four
different things that have perfect time on them. We’re not
competing with that.”
Many younger people no longer wear wristwatches because
they can check the time on their cell phone, according to the
Mindset List published last year by Beloit College to explain
the latest generation of students to professors. Mechanical
watches will survive the competition because they address a
different consumer desire, the head of Swatch Group AG’s largest
brand said.
Wearing a fine watch is like “walking around with a
sculpture on your wrist, or a painting, or a poem or a book,”
he said in an interview yesterday while wearing an Omega watch
on each wrist. “It’s something that’s there that has a history
and you can take it off and show it to people. You can talk
about it. I don’t wear a watch to tell the time.”
Demand for luxury watches is forecast to slow this year
from the 22 percent expansion in 2010 as Japan’s worst disaster
since World War II and unrest in the Middle East depress
consumer spending. Switzerland exported 16.2 billion Swiss
francs ($17.9 billion) of watches last year, led by demand from
Asia, according to the Federation of Swiss Watchmaking.
‘Emotional Need’
Swatch Group, the world’s largest watchmaker, gets about 2
billion francs of revenue from Omega, according to Kepler
Capital Markets. Omega watches sell for 2,000 francs to 500,000
francs, Kepler estimates show.
Urquhart isn’t concerned about the slowdown or about
shifting tastes among young people, he said. Younger people in
developing markets especially are becoming more interested in
watches, he said.
Watch-making 100 years ago filled a different need as an
alternative to relying on church bells to know the hour and has
evolved into filling an “emotional need,” Urquhart said.
Omega is opening new stores in the U.S., where it gets
about a tenth of its sales, as rents are more attractive and the
brand can find better locations, Urquhart said. Omega opened 10
outlets between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and will add as many
as 15 more in the next six months in that market, he said.
“We’re really getting a foothold in the U.S.,” he said.
“It’s not a booming market, everybody knows that. It’s the
right moment to do it. There is room for growth there,
definitely, maybe more than other markets.”
Urquhart said he was “surprised” to see a “very good”
reaction from a store Omega opened in a Nashville mall.
“The U.S. is still the No. 1 market in the world, he
said. “There’s tremendous consumer power out there.”
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