China Omega Watch

In Shanghai, the president of the Swatch division, Arlette-Elsa Emch, told reporters one of the two watches on her wrist Wednesday will be exclusive to the new boutique, which features white walls, sand on the floor and colorful plastic timepieces. The company says it changed global watch-wearing habits with the Swatch, and analysts say it helped revive the entire Swiss watch industry. Today the company is a $5 billion behemoth with brands like Tiffany, Tourbillion, Breguet, Blancpain and Omega, and some of them have boutiques in the Shanghai watch super-store. In addition to selling watches, the $100 million Swatch Art Peace Hotel on the Shanghai Bund will offer studio space for visiting artists and hotel rooms to rent. The Swiss watch giant has opened a boutique on Shanghai’s Bund aimed at compelling Chinese to see that a watch is jewelry, not simply a timepiece.

Watch brands go where the money is. At least where the money being used to buy watches is. I’ve always felt that watch brands are a great bellwether of regions with new money, or high economic growth. That fact, mixed with China’s traditional high value placed on image and brands, makes for the perfect environment to market watches. This image is merely representative of a wave, a big tsunami-sized wave of watch brands pouring over China and other places in Asia. Resources like eBay and the gray market in the US and Europe have made people who do buy luxury watches less inclined to venture into a store and pay the full retail price. Recently, the Swatch Group (who owns Swatch, Omega, Breguet, Longines, Tissot, and other brands) opened up a Hotel (well reopened) with their name on it. In Shanghai, the Swatch Peace Art Hotel is just a small sample of Swiss attention on the orient. With China and surrounding countries experiencing growth unparalleled in other places in the world, spending for luxury items is high. A recent statement by the Swatch Group mentioned that about half of the major company’s income last year came from places like China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan.

Blancpain and Omega, and some of them have boutiques in the Shanghai watch super-store. About 28% of its global sales last year were in Greater China.

Its manufacturing plants are in China and Switzerland (Candino). The next largest Spanish watch groups by turnover, according to Gold & Time, are Munreco,

VX), which supplies the bulk of watch parts to Swiss watchmakers including Richemont (CFR.VX) with brands including Omega, Longines and Blancpain,

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The omega-3 fatty acids? – but they do agree that they're probably really good for you and certainly can't hurt. There are scores of studies demonstrating