Swiss watch exports sharply lower in July; Chinese visitors to Dubai increase 25% but their spending falls as yuan weakens; Tiffany profit misses estimates as currency weighs on sales

Market News

Swiss watch exports sharply lower in July

According to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, July was not a good month for the Swiss watch industry with exports 9.3% lower than in July 2014 at CHF1.9 billion ($1.95 billion). Asian markets all reported sluggish sales and weighed heavily on this result. Overall, sales in Asia were down by 21.4%. The fall in China was particularly strong (-39.6%). Watch industry exports to the United Arab Emirates (-29.8%) and South Korea (-19.7%) also experienced difficulties.

Chinese visitors to Dubai increase 25% but their spending falls as yuan weakens

According to Gulf News report, the number of Chinese overnight visitors in Dubai grew by 25 per cent in the first six months of this year. There were 241,000 Chinese visitors in Dubai in the first half of this year, said Issam Kazim, chief executive of the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), during a press conference in Dubai.

Tiffany profit misses estimates as currency weighs on sales

Tiffany & Co. posted second-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates after currency fluctuations took a bite out of international revenue. Profit was 86 cents a share, excluding some items, the New York-based company said in a statement. Analysts had estimated 91 cents on average. A strong US dollar has lowered the value of the Tiffany’s sales overseas.

Owner of Atlas Jewellery chain and his daughter detained in Dubai

An Indian jewellery chain owner and his daughter have been arrested by the Dubai police. Police said the 73-year-old Indian businessman, M M Ramachandran (MMR), was arrested after a number of banks lodged complaints against him. The police have received five complaints against M.M.R. from different banks. The jewellery chain owner’s daughter, who manages an insurance company affiliated to her father’s group, was also arrested after police received at least 15 complaints against her in bounced cheque cases worth several millions of dirhams. According to bankers, the businessman owed about Dh550 million to more than 15 banks, while the report quoted a source as saying that he had borrowed funds and the decline in gold prices affected him adversely.

Company News

Brian De Palma to receive Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker 2015 Award

The Biennale di Venezia and Jaeger-LeCoultre announced that the great American director Brian De Palma will receive the Venice International Film Festival’s Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker 2015 Award, dedicated to personalities who have made particularly original contributions to contemporary cinema. The award will be given to Brian De Palma on September 9th at 9.30 p.m. in the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema) during the 72nd Venice International Film Festival (September 2-12, 2015), directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by the Biennale chaired by Paolo Baratta.

Montblanc launches Bohème Moongarden Under The Stars

On 9th of July 2015, for one night only, Montblanc transformed the Orangerie in the heart of the famous Jardin des Tuileries in Paris into a magical and captivating Bohème Moon Garden. Under the stars, VIP guests including Montblanc brand ambassadors Charlotte Casiraghi and Gwei Lun Mei joined the Maison for an unforgettable journey on which they discovered the elegant and feminine timepieces and jewellery from Bohème Moongarden. Evoking the captivating romance of the moon, the new collection is a poetic and alluring extension to the Bohème line launched in 2014, giving the contemporary Bohème lady new ways to express her femininity, sophistication, and her passion for fine watchmaking.

The 7 Paix, Piaget’s worldwide Haute Joaillerie flagship store

More than just a boutique, the 7 Paix offers a unique and contemporary rendezvous place of elegance and warmth that all are invited to experience in their own way. Since 1874, the Maison has cultivated a passion for sharing the Piaget spirit nourished by the symbiosis between the Haute Horlogerie and Haute Joaillerie crafts that are the fundamental part of the company. The story continues today with Piaget. Spread over 510m2 and created by architect Christine Querlioz from Atelier Sasha, this third millennium sanctuary offers its guests a succession of wonders through rooms designed like those of a stately home. Overlooking an elegant landscaped garden, the Haute Joaillerie area pays tribute to the craftsmen of the Maison.

Baume & Mercier and Al Manara International Jewellery launch an Instagram Competition

To accompany the worldwide launch of the Classima line, Baume & Mercier is releasing an exclusive film that embodies the spirit of this talisman-watch to the fullest, in addition to a local participatory competition in collaboration with Al Manara International Jewellery. Running between September 3 to October 3 2015, the competition invites young entrepreneurs embarking on their professional careers to share the moment they tasted their first professional success in the form of text, photos or videos on Instagram, using the hashtags. The winner, to be announced on the 7th of October, will receive a Classima watch from Baume & Mercier in order to launch the winner on his road to future successes.

Gucci and Dover Street Market Global Collaboration

Gucci and Dover Street Market announced their first collaboration, which will include all four DSM locations in Tokyo, New York, London and Beijing, launching with Gucci Creative Director Alessandro Michele’s first collections – Fall Winter 2015-16 and Cruise 2016. The partnership will come to life with the opening of a dedicated Gucci shopin-shop at Dover Street Market in Ginza, Tokyo, the home city of Dover Street Market’s founder Rei Kawakubo. Thereafter, Gucci will open similar spaces at Dover Street Market New York on September10th, in conjunction with the city’s fashion week; Dover Street Market London on September 10th, in coincidence with London Fashion Week; and the new Dover Street Market Beijing in the fall.

Product Launch

Rendez-Vous Ivy Tourbillon by Jaeger-LeCoultre

Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Rendez-Vous Collection draws its essence from a triptych that makes it so truly unique. Every watch thus achieves a marriage between classic aesthetics, a watchmaking heart equipped with one or more complications, and Métiers Rares® (Rare Handcrafts) which bring their own particular touch of grace. For its most recent creations, Jaeger-LeCoultre has chosen to explore the theme of ivy. Less than a year after the launch of the Rendez-Vous Ivy Minute Repeater, which captivates the ear with the charm of its pure, feminine melody, the magic is once again weaving its spell with an emblematic Jaeger-LeCoultre complication. In this new creation, the tourbillon displays the high-level mechanics of its mobile carriage. It rotates once a minute, thus compensating for variations in rate due to gravity, whatever the position of the wrist.

Carl F. Bucherer creates Manero ChronoPerpetual for Only Watch 2015

Carl F. Bucherer has created a unique timepiece for "Only Watch 2015": the Manero ChronoPerpetual in white gold. Limited to a single model, this watch is to be auctioned off as the culmination of a global road show at the “Only Watch” auction for the benefit of the Monaco Association Against Muscular Dystrophy (AMM). Featuring a "grand complication" perpetual calendar, the Manero ChronoPerpetual is able to show the date, day, month, year and moon phase without requiring correction. The mechanism accommodates the differing month lengths so it will only require manual adjustment in the year 2100. The Manero ChronoPerpetual additionally combines the perpetual calendar with a complete chronograph.

Richard Mille presents the RM 69 Erotic Tourbillon

Richard Mille presented its new RM 69 Erotic Tourbillon, its name a clear affirmation of the creative longing to reveal most secret intentions in all their glory. Erotic timepieces are part of watchmaking history. On the RM 69, however, love and eroticism proclaim themselves proudly and clearly in words. The bridges and plate of the self-winding tourbillon caliber are machined from grade 5 titanium. Designed in collaboration with Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi, this movement features 505 components and 41 jewels, and is extremely compact thanks to its unique construction that enables the tourbillon and barrel to be aligned on the same axis. Enhanced by steep bridges, the 3 Hz tourbillon carriage and the barrel insist on being seen.

Faberge introduces the Lady Faberge

Designed especially and exclusively for women, the timepieces in the Lady Faberge collection boast perfect manufacturing quality, refinement and authenticity. Surprising, authentic and unexpected, the first watches in the new Lady Faberge collection are for women who date to be different. Inspired by original shapes imagined by Peter Carl Faberge himself, the design showcases an unusual element: a ring contained at the heart of the case. In the same vein of certain model is divided into two superimposed elements. These two characteristics open up infinite creative possibilities that Faberge is only just beginning to explore.

Philip Watch launches the Complications

The jewel of the Philip Watch collections are the watches with complications, exclusive and refined timekeeping, synthesis of the artisanal mastery of Swiss watchmaking with unmistakable Italian style. Through these watches stands the Sunray Heritage Automatic Régulateur the brand’s best-selling model. This small masterpiece of technology and precision features the Régulateur movement, which boasts no less than three separate measurement instruments: the central hand for counting minutes, the small hour face, and the small seconds face. Another model from the Sunray Heritage is the automatic watch with a power reserve displayed through the hand indicating the number of hours left until the power runs out, with a power reserve of 42 hours (ETA 2897).

Mouawad introduces new Yellow Diamond Jewelry

Ever since Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton with Princess Diana’s sapphire engagement ring, brightly colored sparklers have become the most sought after jewels. Mouawad’s glamourous yellow diamond engagement collection captures this very modern trend, sparkling with warmth, shimmer and elegance. Exceptionally beautiful and graceful, the range of earrings, rings and pendants put the unique yellow diamond at the center of an artistically wrought 18k white and yellow gold setting. The results are irresistibly romantic, luxurious and a la mode. There’s no better way to celebrate love.

Chaumet presents the Lumieres D'Eau Collection to Dubai until October 2015

Whispering streams, childhood ricochets, rain-drenched skies and sun-lit lakes - Chaumet’s new High Jewellery collection celebrates water in its myriad forms. Flowing, frozen, cascading - water is revealed in a swirling sea foam, a river of diamonds, a marine efflorescence… to be discovered like the immersed treasures of a golden palace at the bottom of the ocean. Under incandescent stars, water transforms into flames of yellow sapphires and aquamarines like heavenly pebbles casting their blue reflections on the skin. Light, pure lines and movement come together to offer a fountain-like long necklace, a diaphanous cuff bracelet, a shower of emeralds, a scintillating wave of tourmalines, an abyss of lapis lazuli and a precious web of sapphires with a jonquil yellow diamond in its centre, sparkling like a star above still water.

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