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HIGHLIGHTS
TechnoMarine is back in the headlines
June 06, 2005
By D. Malcolm Lakin
As was the case exactly a year ago, when we published an article entitled ‘TechnoMarine is alive and well!’, gossip has it that the brand was having problems. And yet, a mere phone call away, Franck Dubarry, the brand’s President, immediately accepted to meet up and explain today’s position.
As usual, he made light of what was being said and immediately explained that 2004 had been an excellent year with both sales and orders up on the previous year. He did admit that production problems had slowed sales, but over the last twelve months he has been completely restructuring the production of the watches with an eye to completely dominating component management and developing their own assembly location.
Streamlining the brand
“We couldn’t achieve the quality I wanted without moving into component management,” Franck Dubarry explains. “We have had to ensure our production by reorganizing everything from die-makers to the leather strap producers and stainless steel and gold case manufacturers. We are now in the position of being able to develop our watch production here in Switzerland because our restructuring means that the company is running smoothly in every domain from financing to production.
“We have a hundred people working in the company, twenty in Geneva, thirty-five in Hong Kong and forty-five in Miami and we are now into the Chinese and Russian markets and we have recently opened a subsidiary in Japan. Our main markets, North and South America, are served out of Miami and our products are now in 600 stores there.
“ I have to admit that in the past we were not really structured to meet the enormous demands and pressure that was put on the brand. However, our reorganization means that we can now meet our customer’s needs and we have the talent and structure to meet the requirements of the sales and distri-bution sectors. We are now able to give them the tools and support they need to run the business – marketing materials, displays, customer and after sales service.”
No looking back
This year, TechnoMarine has launched a wonderfully colourful collection of watches called the Technodiamond Chrono Ceramic. The research and development of the coloured ceramic bracelets has taken two years to perfect because ceramic is notoriously difficult to work with and therefore had a high rejection rate. However, the industrialization through injection moulding now means that the production process is up and running and the brand is the first to produce coloured ceramic bracelets – black and white have already been marketed by other brands.
i TechnoDiamond Chrono Ceramique
Delightfully smooth on the skin and elegantly sophisticated in appearance, the new collection, with its stainless steel case and diamond-set bezels, is causing quite a stir with the retailers and the demand is high especially for the pink and light blue models.
To accompany the reorganization of the brand, TechnoMarine has also launched a very eye-catching campaign ‘Portrait of the Ocean’ in which a cosmetic photographer, rather than a fashion or still life photographer, was used to highlight the skin and the make-up of the models and capture the extraordinary images of the models accompanied by real marine life.
In addition to the ceramic collection, Techno-Marine has also two TechnoSquare Tourbillons, one with a Spiderman image and one for the Maori Collection. Other new timepieces are the XS Lady Diamond (a sort of Casino Collection), Butterfly, Diva Dimitri, a diamond-set and an 18 carat gold Maori Medium in the Maori Collection … with the promise of more to come.
TechnoiSquare Chrono Diamond, XS Lady Domino & Maori Gold
As a final reminder that TechnoMarine is not about to disappear from the horological map, Franck Dubarry concludes with an enigmatic smile, “We’re not making a lot of noise, but we are quietly attaining all the goals we have set ourselves.”
Source: April-May 2005 Issue
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