Luxury retailer, Sincere Watch, exchanges hands yet again

[timetrack]

Business Times in Singapore reported today that luxury watch chain Sincere Watch has been sold to a Hong Kong billionaire for a cool SGD232 million.

It has to be noted that owner Mr Tay Liam Wee first sold the company in 2007 for SGD530 million, bought it back a few years later at SGD113 million before the latest transaction.

His total profit from these trades of the company his father founded in 1954 is a decent SGD649 million.

Think of the watches (among other things) you can buy with that kind of cash!

http://timetrackblog.blogspot.com/20...exchanges.html

[triton]

Ah, Finally it is official.

a friend of mine was working on this project. but told me cannot reveal the retailer name. say it is one of the big retailers in singapore.

let's see if there are any changes to the operations.

[Iceheller]

Hmmms, Talk about business, I think i saw a standalone breguet and blancpain watch boutique at wistma today. Looks like swatch wants to target the high net worth clients by prominently displayed their high end brand at the heart of orchard.

[timetrack]

Hmmms, Talk about business, I think i saw a standalone breguet and blancpain watch boutique at wistma today. Looks like swatch wants to target the high net worth clients by prominently displayed their high end brand at the heart of orchard.

those mini "boutiques" are run and managed by Cortina, like their Space outlet in Millenia. that's how they differentiate themselves from the other big 2 watch retailers. of course part of it is "sponsored" by the said brands (i.e. breguet, blancpain) out of their marketing budget.

[Captain]

the watch scene is getting more and more vibrant...i think they are targeting a bigger market exposure for luxury watches

[watchwerkz]

yes I am with you on that as well, Captain. (Hahaha..)

it will continue to grow and move to that direction, with stiffer competition and rising business costs, EU and USA economy are still not steady yet.
a lot of money will be spent on marketing/ endorsements/branding exercise in Asia for sure.

good for us, like a big watch haven !

[timetrack]

yes most, if not all, the luxury brands (not just watches) are relying on Asia to make up for lower revenues in Europe and US. Prime target as most of you will know is China which is also the intention of the new owners of Sincere.

will they be a success in the middle kingdom like another home-grown brand Breadtalk? time will tell i guess.

[Iceheller]

The manufacturer strategy is to start standalone boutique to sell their watches(maybe co-share with local AD). But I got feeling the wistma stretch could be swatch doing(maybe with minimal involvement from local AD) as it got omega, followed by Breuget and blancpain in one wing of wistma. Dun think local AD would do such venture alone.

[timetrack]

The manufacturer strategy is to start standalone boutique to sell their watches(maybe co-share with local AD). But I got feeling the wistma stretch could be swatch doing(maybe with minimal involvement from local AD) as it got omega, followed by Breuget and blancpain in one wing of wistma. Dun think local AD would do such venture alone.

http://www.cortinawatch.com/timewise.htm

look under TimeWise:
http://wismaatria.greenlabgroup.net/...ail.aspx?id=31

as mentioned, the concept is how Cortina runs their boutiques. Like Espace in Millenia and their Raffles City branch (the Rolex, AP, VC, etc "boutiques" next to Cortina Raffles City are actually managed by them).

As the above brands (AP, VC, Rolex) and the brands you mentioned (Blancpain, Breguet) are high end luxury brands, a mini-boutique with its own distinctive decor, look and feel are highly valued by the brands. Even the PP boutique at Ion is run by Cortina.

[Iceheller]

Tks for sharing the info. Looks like I am partially wrong with the minumum AD involvement part. Hope breguet and blancpain new boutiques will do better than they did when both were house in raffles hotel.