Business News – Richemont Announces Solid Double-Digit Sales Growth at Annual General Meeting
While times have been difficult for the industry in the last 2 to 3 years (see the 2016/2017 results of Richemont Group), signs of recovery are now more and more blatant. Indeed, Swatch Group’s Half-Year Report 2017 showed growth (with increase of sales and better profitability). It’s now time for the other luxury powerhouse, Swiss-based group Richemont, to announce a massive increase in sales for the five months ended 31 August 2017, as we’re talking double-digit numbers and no negative data to be seen in any region or segment.
Last night, as Australia slept, Apple unveiled their latest and (they hope) greatest smartphones, a new Apple TV and the Apple Watch Series 3. At the start of the year I had a prolonged tryst with the Series 2 Edition, and the functionality and utility were pretty compelling. The most surprising takeaway for me was how the Apple Watch, rather than adding another screen to my life, went a long way to freeing me from my at times intense love-hate relationship with screens. In particular, I noticed that my iPhone stayed in my pocket more and was no longer a fixture on the bedside table. And while there’s quite the bevy of technical upgrades on the Series 3, the really crucial one is cellular connectivity. This is huge. You are no longer tethered to your phone. I can easily imagine (like this guy), a world where my phone is optional. I’ve currently got 115 apps installed on my phone – I would use 10 per cent of those with any regularity. My first iPhone was mostly for phone calls(!), messaging and Doodle Jump. These day’s it’s a hugely powerful work tool that is, sometimes, too much work. Work that’s always…
There are a few select words and phrases regarding vintage watches that, when said, are sure to light the fires of enthusiasm inside a collector. One such phrase is “military provenance”; another, which can stoke either the flames of desire or disgust, depending on who you’re speaking to, is “vintage reissue”. We’re going to invoke both phrases here. In the 1960s, Zenith produced a watch with some serious military cred, which they recently celebrated with a faithful modern re-creation, limited to 1000 pieces. The original, code-named the Tipo CP-2 chronograph, was made for pilots of the Italian armed forces. It was also known as the “A. Cairelli”, after its Rome-based distributor, whose name is printed on the dial. Prices of these cockpit-appointed chronographs have gone sky-high in the last couple of years – one selling for CHF62,500 last year at Phillip’s Start-Stop-Reset auction in Geneva. It’s not inaccurate, then, to say that the demand for a handsome military-inspired chronograph is peaking, and the release of the new Zenith Cronometro Tipo CP-2 was perfectly pitched to delight both vintage and modern-day collectors. The appeal of the Tipo CP-2 is largely down to the fact that it’s an absolute dead ringer for the original. At 43mm, the stainless-steel…