A great number of news dedicated to the watch market caught attention in last November-December publications. This was due to a variety of circumstances, which influenced the agile promotion of these products.
A traditional annual watch contest was held in Switzerland.
During its six years of existence, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve was won by only three trademarks: Vacheron Constantin, Patek Philippe and F.PJourne, two times each. The “Vedomosti. Friday” weekly said that this time a new name had appeared on this select list and that was Richard Mille. The connoisseurs of Richard Mille knew the name a long time ago – his complex timepieces enclosed in a “barrel” case may be found in the best collections of the world. Now, being the winner of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve, his name reached a new level of popularity. A jury of 11 watch experts and journalists headed by François-Paul Journe, the 2006 contest winner, awarded Mille the Grand Prix for his RM012 model having chosen this timepiece out of 400 contending models.
The largest jewelry brands announced their watch-related plans. Tiffany entered into a contract with Swatch Group to get back to watch making. De Beers used its online catalogue to display an exclusive line of jewelry watches styled to the celebrated Talisman jewelry collection. The timepieces are encrusted with diamonds of various cut and color: white, yellow and brown. Carrera y Carrera is also launching a new watch line tuned to the motifs of its jewelry collections.
According to mass media, the Swiss watch brand Longines has celebrated its 175th anniversary by issuing a limited collection of women’s watches. There were released 175 timepieces decorated with 175 diamonds to commemorate the brand’s jubilee. The company founded in 1832 in Saint-Imier marked its jubilee with festivities, which took place at Cité du Temps in Geneva.
It was noted more than once that watches lost their function of time counting for modern people: we have a number of other domestic appliances for that purpose. Nonetheless, watches do not lose their attraction as products. This is not because they are “a piece of gold with a complicated mechanism and a handful of diamonds of the first water.” According to the “Kommersant” daily, our choice is not at all stipulated by these precious and even priceless components. The myths bred by watchmakers are the reason behind. Or marketing strategies, to put it in other words.
The myths are generated because of the high competition between watch brands in the market. Besides, the development of real watch-making science and the associated problems are so much aloof of common people. Modern public has long stopped coming down to the brass nails of any inventions. It is not because people are silly, but because one should have at least several DSc diplomas to understand certain innovating watch-making exercises.
This is where marketing mythology steps in. It offers stories, of which we would like to be a part, or people, with whom we would like to be akin. Purposefully selected celebrities propagating the watch myth around the world (such people are called “ambassadors of watch-making art”) help would-be buyers to make up their minds and choose some brand and the matching myth.
The “Kommersant” stressed yet another detail related to promoting watch brands in the market: the myth about a genuine watchmaker resembling a morose gnome was thoroughly revised. Young intellectuals, for whom independence is not an empty word, are coming to replace traditional watchmakers. The Opus Project launched by Harry Winston in 2000 to make a collection of outstanding innovative timepieces generated fashion for rare watches produced by young watchmakers.
