Asia’s place in the watch industry
The Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair opened its doors for the 29th time this autumn. The first pleasant surprise of the fair was during the opening ceremony when Ms Yvonne Choi, Hong Kong’s Permanent Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, announced that timepiece exports from Hong Kong had grown by 24 per cent for the first half of 2010, amounting to HK$24.5 billion or US$ 3.15 billion. This was a great sign that recovery from the global financial crisis is underway and means that Hong Kong stays firmly in second position for the largest exporter of watches and clocks after Switzerland.
Swiss imports were also noted to be largely on the rise with figures for the first half of 2010 reaching HK$10.4 billion or US$1.34 billion. The 45.2 per cent increase in these numbers was stated as being largely due to the growing number of Mainland Chinese tourists who prefer to purchase timepieces in Hong Kong because of the quality services provided by Hong Kong watch retailers.

These positive figures reinforce the importance of Hong Kong as a strategic hub for the watchmaking industry in terms of both the importation and exportation of watches. Add to this, Hong Kong’s privileged relationship with China and the territory is continuously gaining strength. The Hong Kong Watch and Clock Fair is an annual meeting place that aims to bring the industry’s players together to improve business in the region. This year’s fair recorded over 700 exhibitors, 16,500 visitors and 68 buying missions from 64 countries.

Looking east
Mainland China was on everyone’s lips throughout the fair, with many brands voicing their desire to tap into the Mainland Chinese market. The Hong Kong Trade and Development Council held a special forum with members of the watch trade organisations from China, Korea, Japan, Switzerland, France and Hong Kong to discuss the huge potential of China and many other hot industry issues.

Que, Jacques Farel, odm

The delegates explained that it isn’t enough to enter into the Chinese malls, but that brands have to carry out continuous promotion to stay there. The Korean representative, Mr. Kim Dai-Bong, explained how many Korean watch brands had not had much success in entering the Chinese market with existing retail networks and that a few of them had decided to open their own shops on the Mainland instead. Mr. Patrice Besnard, representative of La Chambre Française de L’horlogerie et des microtechniques, shared “Many brands known in France are not known outside the country. The average brand has to find other ways of distributing, via the Internet or by finding ways to combine bags, watches and jewellery, for example.” Mr. Thierry Dubois, from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry shared how the Swiss are very excited about Asia. “Looking to the future, China is very important for us, but we are also looking at other countries in the region such as Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam etc. Take South Korea, for example, it is now the 12th market for Swiss exports.”

Enthusiasm about the mainland market was also reflected in an independent survey that questioned brands exhibiting at the fair about their sales plans for China. More than 60 per cent of exhibitors interviewed said their companies had already developed sale channels to the mainland market, or had plans to sell on the mainland in the near future.

News from the Hong Kong brands
One point that everyone at the forum agreed on was that to succeed in today’s market, brands need to focus on quality and originality. The Hong Kong watch brands exhibiting at the fair were already one step ahead with an array of products that were well-made, fun, colourful and offered a host of new concepts to attract new buyers. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.

Levi’s, Solus, Wize & Ope

odm is one of the most successful brands coming out of Hong Kong and was one of the first to concentrate on original, fashionable concepts. The star product at the show was the company’s 0°C collection that aims to remind people that its “Never too late to protect the environment”. The watch comes with a black or white strap and a case that is like a piece of ice. There is a choice of three types of hands with green blades of grass, birds or fish. The packaging continues the ecological theme with a recycled paper box and a biodegradable bamboo bag. For more odm collections see our article Over the rainbow with fashion watches in this issue.

Levis watches, which are also produced by odm Design and Marketing Ltd, presented a fun new concept this year where the watch case pops out of the bezel and strap and can be interchanged with other watches. So it is poss-ible to have a white watch with a blue face, or a yellow watch with a red face, depending on how many friends have the same watch! There are also a number of other collections for men and women that benefit from odm’s renowned design, experience and know-how.

Hong Kong has a great reputation when it comes to technical sports watches and there were a number of fantastic offerings this year. Solus was one of this year’s highlights with a new watch that enables the wearer to check his or her heart beat through a unique finger-touch heart rate measurement feature. The watch captures the heart rate by making a circuit through the finger to the back of the wrist. There is also a heart rate chest band for serious athletes who want a continuous readout while training or racing.

Universe Watch Trading Co. Ltd. has been manufacturing watches for over 35 years and took the important decision to create its own brand, Zerone, four years ago. This year, the company presented a number of new collections that have been created in collaboration with 13 different Japanese artists under the name of “Where Time meets Art”. Each collection is more exciting and original than the next with some incredibly innovative styles, concepts and designs. Photographed here is a collection by the famous Tokyo artist Sasu who fuses natural and urban graphics in feminine lines that work beautifully on the dial of a watch.

Romago Design, Ice-Watch, Zerone

Romago Design, a new brand that was founded just last year, presented some exciting new timepieces that contain blank mirrored dials that light up when you look at the time. The dial is illuminated thanks to a unique patented lens that has a built-in sensor that changes the mirror face to time display when rotating the watch 45° towards the face. The technology lends itself well to both feminine ladies models as it does to more sporty men’s collections. Foreign brands at the fair The Hong Kong Watch and Clock Fair is not only the place for the Hong Kong brands to showcase their products, but it is also an excellent opportunity for smaller brands to enter the Asian market. Distributors and retailers are so busy during the Swiss shows that they hardly have time to visit the smaller companies. The Hong Kong Watch and Clock fair is an ideal place for such smaller brands to meet partners from Asia.

Wherever you go Ice-Watch is catching your attention - from billboards to fashion magazines, from shop windows to people’s wrists. So what a nice surprise to see the company on full display in the centre of the Brand Gallery, where Europa Star could find out more about this vibrant brand. Ice-Watch started life in Belgium in 2007 with a concept to create a fashionable, cool, unisex watch that would look great at a party, in the office or on the beach. Ice-Watch is far from being the only brand in this segment of the watch market, however the difference is that they seem to have got all the elements right – product (Polycarbonite watch available in a huge range of vivid colours), packaging (Lego-like construction box that doubles up as a money box), price (69 to 200 Euros). The company has gone from selling 10,000 watches per month in 2007 to over half a million watches per month today. They have just opened their 81st country and boast a staggering 3,800 points of sale. Maybe they should have called themselves Hot Watch!

Phosphor is a new brand from the United States that uses electronic ink technology (just like the Kindle e-reader) in its time display. It works with millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair. Each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a positive electric field is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the user, and an opposite electric field pulls the black particles to the bottom. It is also possible to reverse the process for a contrasting display. Phosphor watches change from black numerals to white numerals at the press of a button, offering a fun and readable view of the time, even in bright sunlight.

Phosphor, Rainbow Watch, Max

More innovation was to be found at Rainbow Watch from Hamburg, Germany. This colourful way of telling the time uses coloured discs in cyan, magenta, yellow and black that are superimposed over each other and that turn with the hands, constantly changing the colour of the dial. The effect is very visual and well worth a look on the company’s website to see a demonstration – www.rainbow-watch.com. What was also extremely interesting to learn is that even if Rainbow Watch has sold extremely well through traditional retail networks, the brand has also had enormous success with the teleshopping channels in Japan, USA and China. “We can sell 3,000 watches in an hour with teleshopping, making US$400,000 to US$500,000 per showing, which would take a long time to do in a shop,” shares the company’s CEO Joachim Baer. “There are 38 shopping channels in China alone that broadcast infomercials,” he continues. As more and more watch companies try to find innovative ways to sell their timepieces, teleshopping seems to be a rewarding strategy.

A region in motion
The Hong Kong Watch and Clock Fair provided a host of surprises this year, from exciting new concepts, to original designs, different technologies and distribution ideas. On the doorstep with Mainland China, Hong Kong has never been more important to the international watch industry. It is a hub for Swiss watches coming into Asia, a shopping centre for Mainland Chinese customers and the second largest producer of clocks and watches in the world. The Hong Kong Watch and Clock Fair brings many of these elements together for a great show that just keeps getting better and better.

The Hong Kong Design Competition is always a highlight of the fair and this year was no exception. The competition is in its 27th year and was created to promote Hong Kong design. Each year the territory’s students sharpen their pencils and compete in creating the most original and unique watch or clock. This year’s winner was Kin Waily from the Hong Kong School of Business and Information Systems who designed a clock that doubles up as a plant pot. Not such a big deal, you may think, until you learn that the clock is powered using the solar and chemical energy from the mud in the pot! The ecological theme is also carried throughout the design, with the clock being created out of eco-plastic and eco-paint and with most of the clock parts being recyclable. The ‘green’ theme doesn’t end there either, the clock comes with a packet of wheatgrass seeds so the owner can enjoy watching the grass grow (which takes only a few days) and then squeeze it to make a one ounce wheatgrass shot (whose nutritional value is equivalent to 2.5 pounds of vegetables) – so it not only tells you the time but extends your lifespan – not many clocks can make that claim! (S.F.)

Source: Europa Star August - September 2010 Magazine Issue