Kingdom of Saudi Arabia closely following UAE to rank as the second top spending market with a total spends of around US$47 million with Swatch as the front runner with a total spend US$4.5 million followed by Rolex, Cartier, Versace and Mouawad among the top five.

Kuwait ranked third among the Top spending markets with a total spends of around US$13 million was led by Cartier as the top spender with a total spend US$1 million followed by Chopard, Omega, Swatch & Rolex among the top five.

Qatar spending showed a healthy growth with total spends of around US$12 million was led by Rolex as the top spender with a total spend US$0.86 million followed by Cartier, Audemars Piguet, Chopard & Swatch among the Top five spenders.

Bahrain reeling under the grip of cautious spending with total spends of around US$2.5 million was led by Rolex as the top spender with a total spend US$0.43 million followed by Cartier, Chopard, Smalto Watches & Audemars Piguet  among the Top five spenders.

Oman with total spends of around US$2 million was led by Patek Philippe as the top spender with a total spend US$0.30 million followed by Ulysse Nardin, Swarovski, Damas & Breguet among the Top five spenders.

Key considerations:

• Over 250 top, premium, international watch & jewellery brands were surveyed in this extensive report.
• Media: Magazines / Newspapers / Television / Outdoor / Radio & Cinema.
• Currency : All figures are in USD $ 000s
• GCC: Gulf Co-operation Council comprising the Arabian Gulf States of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the UAE .
• Pan Arab: Mix of Print Media / TV and Radio stations across the Pan Arab world.
• Levant: Primarily Lebanon, Jordan.
• For the purpose of this survey, advertising costs have been computed from the respective rate cards of individual publications. Barters, discounts and other considerations have not featured in this study.
• In this series, PARC has examined the media expenditure for specific brands as well as for principals / franchisees / retailers in the watches, jewellery and accessories both collectively and singularly for the Middle East region.
• The media has also been classified into Pan Arab Media which includes cross border TV stations such as MBC, LBC Sat, Future International (Al Mushtaqbal), Al Jazeera (Qatar) and Al Arabiya (UAE) to name a few; trans-national print media (publications with multi-country circulations) & regional radio stations.

Note to readers:

Cautionary & Acknowledgment:

All accompanying published data, numerical input, tabulated charts, statistical information, pie charts, histograms & graphics have been analyzed and provided by Pan Arab Research Agency (PARC) & Advertising Monitoring Services.

Readers are advised to note that the figures provided reflect advertising expenditure based on published rates of the various media involved. Not accounted for are the discounts provided, special rates applicable, barter deals, other bilateral considerations nor the commissions accrued to advertising agencies. Whilst the discounts would factor in the arithmetic and computation, MPP-ME believes it will not significantly alter the overall perspective and emerging indicators of this very protracted and exhaustive PARC study.

As in previous years and with previous analyses, the MPP-ME & www.mpp-me.com research team acknowledges with appreciation and gratitude the tremendous input, hard work and co-operation of the entire team at Pan Arab Research Centre, PARC, for access to all published data. Specifically, we would like to thank Mr. Sami Raffoul - General Manager, Mr. M Shaharyar Umar - Marketing Director and his dedicated team for their unstinted co-operation and support to this project.

Disclaimer: Spend is calculated in the published rate card and do not account for incentives or discounts that advertisers may avail from media owners.