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major watch brands are staking out their claim in the chinese market and accelerating market expansion. on september 8, a beijing business daily reporter visited wangfu central and found that jaeger-lecoultre and iwc have reopened in wangfu central. an iwc staff member told reporters that the upgraded store is a flagship store, and the store display specially presents a new racing car of the mercedes-amg petronas f1 team to pay tribute to the 20th anniversary of the cooperation and friendship between the two sides. you can also enjoy the personalized customization service of the portuguese series chronograph in the store. the new jaeger-lecoultre store is a global flagship store, and its exterior wall is composed of thousands of customized glass tiles.

in addition, the new stores of panerai and blancpain are also about to open, and they are now fenced off. a staff member of the panerai store in wangfu central told reporters that "the current store will move to a new location in the near future, with a larger store area, but the specific opening date has not yet been received." in addition, in september this year, blancpain's first direct-operated boutique in hubei province also opened in wuhan skp. in terms of store location, most of the above five stores have chosen the main store location of the shopping mall.

in fact, due to the very limited annual production capacity of swiss watches, the number of direct-sale stores opened in mainland china has long been maintained in the single digit. under the current situation of performance pressure, they have to upgrade stores and accelerate expansion. jaeger-lecoultre, iwc and panerai are all affiliated with richemont group. the financial data of richemont group in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 showed that the group's sales fell by 1% at the current exchange rate. sales in all other markets except the asia-pacific market have achieved positive growth, and sales in the asia-pacific region have fallen by 18% year-on-year. in terms of departments, sales in the jewelry department increased by 4% year-on-year, while sales in the professional watchmaking department fell by 13% year-on-year.

blancpain's parent company swatch group is also under pressure. the company's first-half 2024 performance report shows that swatch group's net sales during the period were 3.45 billion swiss francs, a year-on-year decline of 14.3% at the current exchange rate. this is the first time the group's revenue has declined since 2021. swatch group further pointed out in its financial report that the slowdown in high-end consumption has had a particularly huge impact on its three high-end brands, omega, breguet and blancpain, whose watch and jewelry business segments have seen a sharp decline in sales in the first half of 2024.

behind the decline in watch brand performance is the downturn in the entire swiss watch industry. the latest statistics from the federation of the swiss watch industry show that in the first seven months, the total global export value of swiss watches was about 15.2 billion swiss francs, a decrease of 2.4% from the same period last year, and exports to mainland china fell by 32.8% year-on-year in july. as of july, about 40 watchmaking companies have applied to the state government for shortened working hours.

however, from a structural point of view, although the exports of swiss watches of different price ranges showed varying degrees of decline in june this year, the watches priced above 3,000 swiss francs saw the smallest decrease of 9.6%, while the export volume of watches priced between 200 and 500 swiss francs and between 500 and 3,000 swiss francs fell by 25.2% and 36.9% respectively.

according to the data in july, the export volume of watches priced above 3,000 swiss francs increased by 5.4% year-on-year, while the exports of watches priced between 200 and 500 swiss francs and between 500 and 3,000 swiss francs continued to decline. in comparison, the high-end watch market still has certain growth potential.

zhou ting, director of yaoke research institute, pointed out that the store renovation is an upgrade of existing stores based on the change of business model. the traditional stores dominated by display and sales are transformed into new stores dominated by experience and service. "these measures show that watch brands have realized that the new business model centered on customer operation will inevitably replace the traditional retail model centered on sales. at the same time, it also proves that brands are facing huge sales pressure and have to try new business models to adapt to market development and changes in consumer demand."

zhou ting further pointed out that in the future, watch brands will become more high-end. there will be no polarized development trend in the industry, because the low-end and mid-end watch markets will be gradually replaced. "in the future, the competition among high-end watch brands will evolve from competition among brands, products and channels to competition among brands, product and service teams. traditional watch retail channels will gradually withdraw from the market, and new service marketing with circle marketing as the core will become the main model. the circle label attribute of watch consumption will be further strengthened."

beijing business daily reporter lin yuwei