Exhibition To Tour Beijing, Ningbo And Shenzhen#
Carved dragon watch from Breguet's Zodiac collection (Image: ELLE China)
Swiss luxury watchmakers continue to pull out all the stops to set themselves apart in the increasingly crowded China market. While some are going the localization route and stuffing new collections with dragons or Chinese lacquer accents, others are inviting sporting greats over for press events, signing Chinese celebrities as brand ambassadors, or taking a more cultural tack. This month, Breguet looks to go the last route with its traveling "Queen of Naples" (Reine De Naples) exhibition, the watchmaker's largest such touring exhibition to date, which will hit Beijing, Ningbo and Shenzhen.
Breguet had a busy summer in China, opening two new boutiques in July, a 90 square meter location in Beijing and a 220 square meter store in Ningbo. As the season winds down, Breguet is flying artisans from Naples over for its three-city exhibition, where they will demonstrate the hand-carving techniques used in the brand's Queen of Naples watch line. Along with a selection of previous Queen of Naples collections, Breguet's China tour will include a set of hand-carved Chinese zodiac watches, created specifically for the China market.
As major watchmakers continue to pack into the Chinese mainland, seemingly all of them offering new China-specific collections and, increasingly, touting their cultural side, the question remains: are these massive expansion and promotion efforts working? Or is brand loyalty and awareness still broadly limited to Rolex and Cartier? Whether the investment is paying off now or not, one need only walk a few minutes through the Shanghai subway before being bombarded with ads for Tissot, Rolex and Hublot.
Hopefully (for these brands) they don't all blend together in the minds of wealthy Chinese shoppers.