According to the announcement earlier, the Chinese watch brand gave up the plan of directed additional shares as its share as its share price has been lower than the issue price, suffering from the global financial crisis. Meanwhile, some Swiss
luxury watch brands open more new branches in China and other countries.
“Pursue no optima; but the most expensive”- the typical consumer psychology has been fully expressed in luxury watch selling. The special law of value on luxuries consumption caused totally different situations for small brands and big brands under the financial crisis.
The impact of financial on watch cost above 300,000 RMB is smallest.. According to the famous HK watch collector Mr Yonglin Zhong, the financial crisis has certain impact on watch industry. However among luxury goods, watch industry suffers smallest impact. As far as he knows, from October last year to February the years, the overall luxury watch sales decreased by 20%, the sales of luxury cars dropped by 50% to 60%, and the sales of yachts, in particular, dramatically slumped.
Mr. Yonglin Zhong holds the opinion that, the main reason behind luxury watch suffer less is that the output of
luxury watch is relatively small to meet the demand of market. What is more, the luxury watch normally can hold its value in second-hand market. luxury watch consumers who can buy a watch costs more than 300,000RMB will not change their consumption habit because of financial crisis. They buying behavior comes from their appreciation and love to the watch. Those who buy watches with less than 100,000 unite price will not change their consumption psychology. In the case, the consumer group that suffer greatest from financial crisis should be the buyers like watches cost 100,000 RMB to 300,000 RMB These consumers attach great importance to investment and appreciation. They belong the blind buying group. They will keep close eye on the market trends.
One scholar holds that watches today are the fusion of timing function, conspicuous function and value-keeping. Under the financial crisis, the conspicuous function is left aside while the value-keeping function is given greater importance. Except gold, the high-end watches made of precious metals or paved with diamonds, as the collecting items of stable value, now find favor of consumers. That is why watches of higher value now are highly sought after. The consumption level of fashion watches,on the other hand, will go down obviously. According to the data from
Swiss Watch Federation, the Swiss export volume decreased by 22.4% in Feb,2009. The export volume of watches above 3000 Swiss francs was in smallest decline in 6.6%. Meanwhile, the export volume of watches between 500 to 3000 Swiss francs slumped by 50%.
