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Lifted from today's TODAY newspaper:
BASEL (Switzerland) - When it came to choosing a new watch, Mr Ma Jun had no hesitation in selecting a US$6,800 (S$9,493) Omega Constellation over a ROLEX.
"Omega's designs are newer and trendier," said the 30-year-old businessman from Hangzhou, near Shanghai. He bought the watch a month ago after seeing advertisements featuring American swimmer Michael Phelps and Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi.
"ROLEX is old and traditional," he said.
That perception, together with a boom in Asian sales, helped Swatch Group's Omega snatch market share from ROLEX in the US$35 billion Swiss watch industry last year, analysts say. ROLEX, whose cheapest model is almost 60 per cent more expensive than Omega's, has also been hit harder by the United States recession.
Swiss watch exports fell 22 per cent last year, the biggest drop since the Great Depression, as retailers cancelled orders amid the global crisis. But both Swatch Group and Cie Financiere Richemont, the owner of Cartier, have signalled their shipments outperformed the market, leading Mr Rey Wium, an analyst at Nedbank, to speculate ROLEX's shipments dropped more than the market did.
"If these two outperformed, clearly somebody else suffered much more, and we all know it was probably ROLEX," said Mr Wium. "These things are notoriously difficult to gauge, but ROLEX definitely lost out in terms of sales to retailers."
Both ROLEX and Omega are showcasing their latest models at Baselworld, the world's biggest luxury watch trade fair, now taking place in the Swiss city.
Omega is one of 18 brands belonging to Swatch Group, which also produces US$50 plastic Swatches and double-tourbillion Breguet timepieces for mjore than US$700,000. Bank Vontobel analyst Rene Weber estimates Omega's 2008 sales at about 1.48 billion Swiss francs (S$1.96 billion), compared with ROLEX's 4.5 billion francs and Cartier's 1.63 billion francs.
Omega, whose entry-level timepieces cost about US$2,500, gets 35 per cent of sales from greater China, estimates Mr Jon Cox, an analyst at Kepler Capital Markets. ROLEX, whose watches start from about US$4,100, gets about 5 per cent of sales from the region, he estimates.
China, including Hong Kong, .....
(go read
)
BASEL (Switzerland) - When it came to choosing a new watch, Mr Ma Jun had no hesitation in selecting a US$6,800 (S$9,493) Omega Constellation over a ROLEX.
"Omega's designs are newer and trendier," said the 30-year-old businessman from Hangzhou, near Shanghai. He bought the watch a month ago after seeing advertisements featuring American swimmer Michael Phelps and Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi.
"ROLEX is old and traditional," he said.
That perception, together with a boom in Asian sales, helped Swatch Group's Omega snatch market share from ROLEX in the US$35 billion Swiss watch industry last year, analysts say. ROLEX, whose cheapest model is almost 60 per cent more expensive than Omega's, has also been hit harder by the United States recession.
Swiss watch exports fell 22 per cent last year, the biggest drop since the Great Depression, as retailers cancelled orders amid the global crisis. But both Swatch Group and Cie Financiere Richemont, the owner of Cartier, have signalled their shipments outperformed the market, leading Mr Rey Wium, an analyst at Nedbank, to speculate ROLEX's shipments dropped more than the market did.
"If these two outperformed, clearly somebody else suffered much more, and we all know it was probably ROLEX," said Mr Wium. "These things are notoriously difficult to gauge, but ROLEX definitely lost out in terms of sales to retailers."
Both ROLEX and Omega are showcasing their latest models at Baselworld, the world's biggest luxury watch trade fair, now taking place in the Swiss city.
Omega is one of 18 brands belonging to Swatch Group, which also produces US$50 plastic Swatches and double-tourbillion Breguet timepieces for mjore than US$700,000. Bank Vontobel analyst Rene Weber estimates Omega's 2008 sales at about 1.48 billion Swiss francs (S$1.96 billion), compared with ROLEX's 4.5 billion francs and Cartier's 1.63 billion francs.
Omega, whose entry-level timepieces cost about US$2,500, gets 35 per cent of sales from greater China, estimates Mr Jon Cox, an analyst at Kepler Capital Markets. ROLEX, whose watches start from about US$4,100, gets about 5 per cent of sales from the region, he estimates.
China, including Hong Kong, .....
(go read
)
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