Clocking on to the market
- Source: Global Times
- [10:32 August 31 2010]
- Comments
The Mido watch. Photo: Courtesy of Mido
The Rado Sports watch. Photo: Courtesy of RadoBy Mao Jiayu
Long gone are the days in China when the only items considered necessary for a newly married couple starting off in life were a bicycle, a sewing machine and a watch. But although sales of the former two have dwindled in a rapidly modernizing society, the latter has, at least, moved with the times. Watches are increasingly big business in the Middle Kingdom, as evidenced by the fact that Swiss brand Rado has appointed a Chinese pop singer as their official global spokesperson. Taiwan-born performer and writer Rene Liu will be Rado's first ever ambassador in the company's 93-year history. Liu will spearhead a heavily-promoted advertising campaign that will be rolled out across Asia, Europe and the US over the next year.
"I think that Rado never considered the idea of a global spokesperson before because they were obviously confident of their products and the approach to sales that they have always used," Rene Liu told the Global Times. "But it seems the marketing strategy has changed now and that they would like an identifiable face to be associated with the brand's image."
Industry pundits are suggesting that the use of a Chinese face, however, shows the importance of the Chinese market to Rado. Chen Suzhen, president of Swatch Group China - whose parent company acquired Rado in 1998 - said: "China is actually Rado's biggest market." Chen points out that Rado and Coca Cola were the two first foreign companies to advertise in the Chinese mainland after the country's reform and opening up. Rado's first television commercial on Shanghai Television aired on March 15, 1979 and led to more than 700 people visiting the company's store in Huangpu district over the next three days. But Rado merely heads a list of world-renowned Swiss watch manufacturers who are increasingly focusing their attention on the burgeoning Chinese market. Kang Weikai, chief editor of Prime and a specialist in timepiece studies, said: "China has already become the world's largest consumer of luxury watches." Many of these brands are eager to play up their China connections, as a way of inspiring trust in potential buyers.
Longines held a competition to find the company's oldest watch still in use in China. From August to December 2009, they received information about 336 Longines timepieces from watch collectors all over the country. During this year's Spring Festival, they held a ceremony to announce the winner. The prize went to Zhou Yong from Shanghai who owns a Longines watch that was built in 1867. Subsequently, the country's 20 oldest Longines watches, along with exhibits from the Longines Museum in St. Imier, Switzerland, were put on display at Shanghai's Westgate Mall and Grand Gateway Mall.
And in another sign of the industry's growing sophistication, the Swatch Art Peace Hotel was opened to the public in May. Costing $30 million (204 million yuan), the site contains the flagship stores of leading names such as Omega, Breguet and Blancpain (all now owned by Swatch). Visitors can watch craftsmen making parts of the delicate and intricate mechanisms.
