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Came across this Business Times article some time back and thought of sharing it here. Specially dedicated to our womenfolks ..
Luxury watch brands are starting to pay special attention to its female customers.
Walk into any luxury watch boutique anywhere in the world and chances are, there are more watches for men than women.
It has led to a recent trend where women, fed up of the lack of variety of timepieces for them, have taken to buying boy-sized watches or wearing their boyfriends’ or husbands’. Watchmakers acknowledge they could have been missing out on a big market and are wasting no time in making amends.
From new marketing strategies to taking a leaf out of their history books, various watch brands are now recognizing women too are interested in horology and are aggressively ramping up efforts to address the situation.
“I think many brands have forgotten to target women so there is less competition (in the watch sector) for women,” says Richard Lepeu, deputy CEO of Richemont International SA.
“That’s also the reason why if you look at how a brand like Cartier – which in my personal opinion is making some of the most beautiful women’s watches in the world – is performing, you’ll understand why they’re so successful.”
“Female customers are becoming more and more important in the watch business because it’s become a very important accessory for them,” says Olivier Cosandier, vice-president of sales at Rado Switzerland. “We definitely see a huge potential there.”
“The women’s market is very important especially in societies where women have the right to work, indulge in themselves, and receive gifts,” adds Mr Lepeu. “If you look at the boom (in consumption of luxury goods in) Japan, the ‘office lady’ culture there contributed to a big part of the success of our industry.”
On the flip side, there are early movers like Franck Muller who has benefited from paying attention to his female customers right from the beginning.
“I consider women to be even more important than men,” Mr Muller says. “Because a man with no woman is a poor man!”
He adds, “When I first started, many people said collecting watches is something only for men and quartz is enough for women. But I said no, women are smart too.” It’s this self-belief that has led Mr Muller to keep the balance in his business.
“We produce the same quantity of men and women’s watches; it’s unique, this practice doesn’t exist in the industry,” he claims. “Usually for watch brands, they will have a nice collection for men and a few for women; but for us, it’s different and we have just as many watches for women as there are for men.”
Mr Muller also makes sure women get special attention. “If we make a tourbillon for men, we don’t make the same one for women; we make a different one specifically for them,” he adds.
For Rado, they softened their product image and turned to emotions to appeal to women.
“Sometimes, it’s not about the technology or the movement inside the watch,” says Mr Cosandier. “If you look at the past decades, Rado has been very product-centric – it’s always about high-tech materials like ceramic. This might not relate to everyone, that’s why we decided to add an emotional layer and appointed Rene Liu as our first global ambassador.”
The result of that partnership gave birth to a unique limited-edition numbered timepiece that also seeks to evoke the senses.
“We chose red as the colour for the dial because it’s the colour of passion even though we know it’s not the colour with the greatest sales potential,” admits Mr Cosandier.
“Popular dial colours tend to be black, blue or grey but we wanted a bit of provocation as well; as our design is usually very clean and red stood out. And we’re glad Rene liked it.”
Another brand has gone back to its roots to revive a legendary name while launching a new mechanical line for women.
The Omega Ladymatic name can be traced back to 1955 where it was one of the brand’s first self-winding watches to be designed specifically for women. It also featured the smallest automatic movement Omega had ever made.
“The new watches are superb and they’ve been designed for women who have told us that they are interested in the quality of our mechanical movements as they are in the style of watches,” says the brand’s president Stephen Urquhart.
“By reviving this name, we’ve been able to focus attention on how important our women customers have been to us over the years and also to show the world what a mechanical watch for women should be in the 21st century,” he adds.
Omega ambassador and the face of Ladymatic, Nicole Kidman, probably sums it up best and echoes the sentiments of the industry players who are now paying more attention to its female customers, saying, “These days, interest in the quality of a watch movement isn’t gender specific – women have the same interest in its performance as men do.”
Hope you all enjoy the read
Came across this Business Times article some time back and thought of sharing it here. Specially dedicated to our womenfolks ..
Luxury watch brands are starting to pay special attention to its female customers.
Walk into any luxury watch boutique anywhere in the world and chances are, there are more watches for men than women.
It has led to a recent trend where women, fed up of the lack of variety of timepieces for them, have taken to buying boy-sized watches or wearing their boyfriends’ or husbands’. Watchmakers acknowledge they could have been missing out on a big market and are wasting no time in making amends.
From new marketing strategies to taking a leaf out of their history books, various watch brands are now recognizing women too are interested in horology and are aggressively ramping up efforts to address the situation.
“I think many brands have forgotten to target women so there is less competition (in the watch sector) for women,” says Richard Lepeu, deputy CEO of Richemont International SA.
“That’s also the reason why if you look at how a brand like Cartier – which in my personal opinion is making some of the most beautiful women’s watches in the world – is performing, you’ll understand why they’re so successful.”
“Female customers are becoming more and more important in the watch business because it’s become a very important accessory for them,” says Olivier Cosandier, vice-president of sales at Rado Switzerland. “We definitely see a huge potential there.”
“The women’s market is very important especially in societies where women have the right to work, indulge in themselves, and receive gifts,” adds Mr Lepeu. “If you look at the boom (in consumption of luxury goods in) Japan, the ‘office lady’ culture there contributed to a big part of the success of our industry.”
On the flip side, there are early movers like Franck Muller who has benefited from paying attention to his female customers right from the beginning.
“I consider women to be even more important than men,” Mr Muller says. “Because a man with no woman is a poor man!”
He adds, “When I first started, many people said collecting watches is something only for men and quartz is enough for women. But I said no, women are smart too.” It’s this self-belief that has led Mr Muller to keep the balance in his business.
“We produce the same quantity of men and women’s watches; it’s unique, this practice doesn’t exist in the industry,” he claims. “Usually for watch brands, they will have a nice collection for men and a few for women; but for us, it’s different and we have just as many watches for women as there are for men.”
Mr Muller also makes sure women get special attention. “If we make a tourbillon for men, we don’t make the same one for women; we make a different one specifically for them,” he adds.
For Rado, they softened their product image and turned to emotions to appeal to women.
“Sometimes, it’s not about the technology or the movement inside the watch,” says Mr Cosandier. “If you look at the past decades, Rado has been very product-centric – it’s always about high-tech materials like ceramic. This might not relate to everyone, that’s why we decided to add an emotional layer and appointed Rene Liu as our first global ambassador.”
The result of that partnership gave birth to a unique limited-edition numbered timepiece that also seeks to evoke the senses.
“We chose red as the colour for the dial because it’s the colour of passion even though we know it’s not the colour with the greatest sales potential,” admits Mr Cosandier.
“Popular dial colours tend to be black, blue or grey but we wanted a bit of provocation as well; as our design is usually very clean and red stood out. And we’re glad Rene liked it.”
Another brand has gone back to its roots to revive a legendary name while launching a new mechanical line for women.
The Omega Ladymatic name can be traced back to 1955 where it was one of the brand’s first self-winding watches to be designed specifically for women. It also featured the smallest automatic movement Omega had ever made.
“The new watches are superb and they’ve been designed for women who have told us that they are interested in the quality of our mechanical movements as they are in the style of watches,” says the brand’s president Stephen Urquhart.
“By reviving this name, we’ve been able to focus attention on how important our women customers have been to us over the years and also to show the world what a mechanical watch for women should be in the 21st century,” he adds.
Omega ambassador and the face of Ladymatic, Nicole Kidman, probably sums it up best and echoes the sentiments of the industry players who are now paying more attention to its female customers, saying, “These days, interest in the quality of a watch movement isn’t gender specific – women have the same interest in its performance as men do.”
Hope you all enjoy the read
(but then, thats my peronal view)
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