Industry News – Richemont Mid-Year 2018 Results Show Strong Growth (But To Be Nuanced)
In a press release published about an hour ago, Richemont just announced its consolidated results for the six month period ended 30 September 2018. Sales increased by 21% at actual exchange rates to EUR 6,808 million and by 24% at constant exchange rates. This comes as no surprise as Richemont had announced last month satisfactory sales for the first 5 months (up 25% at constant exchange rate). However, the growth rate seems to be slowing down.
The story in a second: It’s big, it’s complicated, it’s bloody clever. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I’ve got a real soft spot for German watchmaking, but especially for Glashütte Original. Underappreciated, and painfully under-marketed anywhere outside of Europe, they are one of VERY few brands that manufacture their own dials and cases (in a separate facility in Pforzheim, not in Glashütte proper). Over the years, things like the ’60s and ’70s collections have consistently grabbed my attention, as did last year’s steel versions of the Senator Chronograph Panorama Date, but in 2018 something slightly outside my usual lines of watch attraction caught my eye — the large, somewhat traditionally styled, yet uniquely configured Senator Cosmopolite in steel. This steel version arrives three years after its initial launch in gold, and cuts its retail price down a fair bit (20,700 euros versus 38,000). As a world timer of immensely practical design from a technical standpoint (more on that later), there’s an appreciable shift towards functionality with the inclusion of a steel case that just makes sense with this watch, which is precisely why I was eager to give it some wrist time for a more in-depth…
Editor’s note: For someone who loves watches, it’s a horrible question to ask, and one that hopefully remains hypothetical. But the short answer is, yes, you could definitely get away with wearing one of Omega’s lovely new Aqua Terras for the rest of your life. The follow up question is … which one? One of the secrets of the Omega Aqua Terra’s success is its versatile charm. In its dark-dialled and gold incarnations it’s super dressed-up, but put it on a leather or rubber strap and it becomes a much more casual proposition. This is a watch that could pull tuxedo duty or go with board shorts with equal ease (and the 150 metres of water resistance means it’s safe to take swimming). But no matter how you wear it, you won’t find it boring. The flash of the polished hands and applied indices ensure that, as does the shimmering, patterned dial. And then, of course, there are its more functional charms. It’s now a Master Chronometer-certified watch, which means that it is tough and accurate, and, in the larger size, has a nifty quick jump hour that’s super useful for travellers. Flexible style and feature-packed? That’s why we think…
If you take the term ‘game changer’ at its most literal, it is a development, a breakthrough that changes the game. No matter how you interpret the term, it’s a big call. And the watch world in particular is a big game to have any meaningful impact on, given the vastness of its history and the giants in its immediate and distant past. At a recent event in Shanghai, Bulgari unveiled their most complicated watch ever, the Octo Grande Sonnerie Perpetual Calendar, which combines grand strike and perpetual complications – no mean feat, and an achievement appreciated by an Asian collector who bought it within a month of its first release in Rome in July at a price that we cannot disclose (but was more than $1 million AUD). But this new pinnacle for Bulgari is not the subject of today’s interview. It is a forthright challenge to the Bulgari Managing Director Guido Terreni about the ongoing — some might argue increasing — association of the term ‘game changer’ with the Octo Finissimo collection. I asked him for three reasons it’s justified. 1. Because it makes ultra-thin watches contemporary “To me, Finissimo is a game changer because it takes the tradition of ultra-thin…
A little while ago Seiko lifted the lid on a tasty trio of dive watches with a marine conservation theme: a turtle, a samurai and a solar chronograph. All united by a gorgeous, graduated blue dial, inspired by both the blue of the sea and its mightiest inhabitant, the blue whale; these summer-suitable divers sure have plenty of presence on the wrist. But not as much presence as the newest member of the Save The Ocean clan — the appropriately nicknamed Tuna can variant, the SNE518P. Now, in case you’re not all over your Seiko dive nomenclature, the ‘tuna’ family of watches are as distinctive as they are significant. The design dates back to 1968, when a Japanese saturation diver wrote to Seiko with his particular dive watch requirements. Seven years later, in 1975, Seiko met the challenge with the 6159-7010, an epically impressive diver that boasted 23 world firsts, not least the distinctive protective shroud. It’s the combination of massive blocky case and shroud, which bears more than a passing resemblance to tinned fish, that led to the tuna can moniker. It’s a design that’s been an important part of Seiko’s Prospex line ever since, and one that has…