highlights


BASELWORLD & SIHH: And the Shows go on ... and on Part 4

July 2005


Saturday & Sunday, April 2/3
The weekend is very busy at BaselWorld since hundreds of retailers make their visit and with the addition of the general public it’s a time when we can take time out to simply wander and admire the creations in the thousands of display windows.
I managed to spend some time with Christoffer Owers, the CEO of Gant and take a closer look at the brand’s new University Collection (see Europa Star 2/2005). These relatively inexpensive watches are aimed at the trendy and sporty men and women who enjoy traditional American-style sportswear.
The Stelux Group was another interesting visit. There, Thomas Dotzek, the Sales & Marketing Director, took me through the new Ellesse Collection and then introduced the new Everlast brand. A renowned brand name in the sporting world – especially boxing, the eye-catching watches have a chic macho appearance that will appeal to sporty and trendy individuals.
Tucked away in the Hall of Emotions, Luminox presented its new SR-71 Blackbird series of watches. Richard Timbo and Barry Cohen the brand’s co-owners were enthusiastically welcoming and they explained their licensing agreement with Lockhead Martin that brought about the creation of these watches dedicated to fighter jets (see the Sports Watches article).
Close by, I paid a courtesy visit to Pilo who not only had his new Doppio Orario (His Time/Her Time) watches on show (see Europa Star 1/2005), but also an attractive range of both mechanical and quartz watches at particularly attractive prices.
Strolling around the Hall of Emotions, I discovered a surprising brand called Cuervos y Sobrinos. The original shop of that name dates back to 1882 in Havana, Cuba where many of the important Swiss brands were available over the years, including Patek Philippe, Rolex, Longines and Omega. They then began producing their own branded watches, manufactured in La Chaux-de-Fonds, imported into Cuba and re-exported throughout North and South America. When Castro came to power, its watch business basically died.
In 2003, the brand name was taken over by a group based in Lugano, Switzerland and using original documents from Cuba watches were given a new lease of life with a more modern veneer carrying names of cigar shapes and sizes such as Prominente, Esplendidos and Torpedo.
Massimo Rossi, the brand’s Marketing and Sales Director, explained that the Cuervos y Sobrinos watches were now selling well in Italy, Spain, Portugal, South America and Russia at prices between 2,200 - 9,000 euros. Elegantly designed, in 18 carat gold or stainless steel, the watches have various sophisticated coloured dials, as well as more trendy colours such as sky blue, green apple, raspberry as well as the very distinguished ‘Tobacco’ colour.
The movements are both mechanical and quartz. A brand to keep an eye on.
Sunday evening was dedicated to Century. First we were offered a glass of champagne and entertained by an extremely lively band, and then transported on an unexpected visit up river to the Tinguely Museum designed by Mario Botta. Jean Tinguely was the pioneer of action/performance kinetic art. Colourful scrap iron, abandoned cans, bicycle wheels and other oddities, float, rotate and clink whilst lights of various colours flicker and grown-ups are whisked back in time to a child-like ambience when Meccano was king. Dinner followed and in addition to the excellent meal, we were kept amused as one of the musicians (they had accompanied us and played during the meal) magically turned himself into a conjuror.


Watch Fair

Everlast, Cuervos y Sobrinos, Century


Philip Klingenberg, Century’s President, had earlier told me that the brand’s major markets are Japan, the Middle East, Taiwan, Thailand and Switzerland – a difficult one for most brands. In Japan, where the brand has really concentrated its efforts, Century is now in the top ten of ladies’ watches.
“The brand has enjoyed a steady growth,” Klingenberg explained, “and 12,000 of our individually-cut sapphire watches sold in 2004. We hope to increase watch sales by around 10% this year which would correspond to about 20 to 30% in value.”
Century is basically a ladies’ brand (90%) but with the new Egos automatic watch there might be a slight swing to the men’s models. “We have a new corporate identity and
brand image and our strategy of underlining Century’s timepieces as ‘modern luxury’ appears to have impressed consumers,” Philip Klingenberg concluded.
The brand’s new diamond-set Grace model in 18 carat yellow gold with hand-cut monoliths of sapphire certainly underlines this concept whilst admirably illustrating the eye-catching elegance of the Century’s unique timepieces.

TO BE CONTINUED...
In the forthcoming days, the rest of this lenghty survey will be added to our europastar website.

BASELWORLD & SIHH: Part 1
BASELWORLD & SIHH: Part 2
BASELWORLD & SIHH: Part 3
BASELWORLD & SIHH: Part 4
BASELWORLD & SIHH: Part 5
BASELWORLD & SIHH: Part 6
BASELWORLD & SIHH: Part 7

Source: April -May 2005 Issue

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