The new VACHERON CONSTANTIN Boutique in Riyadh

April 12th, 2010 – Three weeks after the opening of the first Vacheron Constantin boutique in India located in New Delhi, the world’s oldest Haute Horlogerie manufacture with 255 years of uninterrupted history unveils a new exclusive boutique in Riyadh. This boutique is the second in the Middle East after Dubai, and the very first in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – located in the heart of Olaya Street, the bustling trade hub of Riyadh.

In line with the design aesthetic values of the historical Vacheron Constantin Maison in Geneva, the new boutique offers an exclusive and warm setting with a comforting atmosphere, dedicated to technical and precious Haute Horlogerie. It is adorned to highlight the spectacular architecture and stylish interiors with precious wood, leather and fine furnishings creating an atmosphere of confidence and serenity.

For collectors and watch aficionados, the boutique houses a complete timepieces collection as well as a wide range of services including changing a strap or a bracelet, servicing a watch, providing watchmaking advices and information about Vacheron Constantin.

This boutique has been launched in partnership with Al Fardan Jewellery and enjoys the exclusivity of Vacheron Constantin in Riyadh. Mr. Jamil Matar, CEO of Al Fardan Jewellery in KSA said: “At Al Fardan Jewellery, we strive to build enduring relationships and long-term partnerships with the best jewellery and watch brands in the world, thereby offering the widest choice for our consumers in KSA.

This has enabled us to establish a fruitful partnership with Vacheron Constantin who has a history of success and over 250 years of distinctive watch making. We have unveiled the new exclusive boutique in Riyadh, and we hope that this boutique is the beginning of a long-term relationship with Vacheron Constantin”.

Mr. Yassin Tag, Regional Director for Vacheron Constantin added “We are glad to continue long-term fruitful and respectful relationships with our friends the Al Fardan family for years in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha. The opening of this boutique in Riyadh comes as an important step not only for the long history of our brand in this geographic part of the world, but also for the recognition of the Saudi watch clients as the most demanding and faithful watchmaking connoisseurs”.

The Corum Boutique in Hong Kong

Opened on Christmas day in the Central District, the CORUM boutique is the first flagship store of the brand. Representing 40% of Corum’s turnover, the Far East market has grown quickly by double digit yearly increases since 2007. Hong Kong has thus become the place to be and a key market for the brand. A strategic opening that crowns a strong distribution network of 17 POS in Hong Kong.

For several years, CORUM has been a privileged partner of Swiss Prestige, one of the major partners for fine watches in Hong Kong & China. Convinced by the tremendous potential of the Asian market, CORUM has strengthened its retailers’ network in Asia opening 3 new POS in 2009 and plans to open between 5 and 10 new addresses in 2010 in the 4 major areas of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzen and in major cities of Harbin, Changchun, Hangzhou, Kunming, Shenyiang.

At the end of 2009, the two partners merged their skills and strengths to open the first CORUM boutique in Hong Kong. A very strong message given by the two partners, a snub to the economic downturn, and reflecting the increasing attractiveness of CORUM in the market.

Located on one of the finest streets in the world, CORUM has selected the Mecca of Asian prosperity to host its brand showcase. Situated close to the famous area of LankwaiFong, the boutique sits among the most prestigious addresses & prime financial area in Central, which is the heart of the business district. It is also one of the major tourist attraction areas in Hong Kong, where major celebrations are held attracting thousands of local people & travelers alike. This Haute Horlogerie boutique offers an exclusive CORUM showcase, helping to promote our image, whilst playing an ambassadorial role for CORUM’s points of sale around the world.

The brand slogan “UNLOCK & CONQUER” welcomes you to a symbolic representation of our brand. Showcasing eye-catching decor, the Corum boutique invites you into an area of 25 square meters to discover our brand DNA and to experience the Corum philosophy.

The Corum Boutique in Hong Kong

Asian Market

In Macao, the brand will open its second point of sale at Europe (1 Central Mall). Macao has become the place to be as Chinese visitors have selected it as the preferred location for their shopping activities.

In Hong Kong, Corum will relocate some of its points of sale to enhance its visibility by being showcased in more prominent areas. The brand wants to strengthen its presence as 80% to 90% of the business is generated by Chinese clients. To ensure our brand visibility and to respond to growing market demand, we will reinforce our presence with 5 to 10 new POS in 2010.

Corum has gained tremendous visibility in the past few years by benefiting from retailers large corner exhibition areas ranging from 12 to 18 m2.

de GRISOGONO boutique in Las Vegas at Crystals

December 15th 2009 — de GRISOGONO has opened a boutique in Las Vegas at Crystals, the new premier luxury shopping destination at the City Center. A new space filled with baroque touches that reflect all the magic and creativity of the jewelry and watch making brand created by Fawaz Gruosi.

After Geneva, London, Gstaad, Hong Kong, Rome, Porto Cervo, Paris, St. Moritz, Kuwait, New York, two in Moscow, Tokyo, Saint-Barthélemy, Dubai and New Delhi, it is in Las Vegas that de GRISOGONO has chosen to open a second boutique in the United States, which brings its worldwide total to 17. Those who already know the de GRISOGONO “style” will be surprised upon entering this new boutique, because unlike the rest, it will have a new décor. Faithful to the brand and closely following Fawaz’s vision, this new treasure trove will appear as a more modern version of the other boutiques around the world. All in a space of 85 square meters, in the most luxurious of style, the interior highlights the company’s traditional yellow and grey walls, dark cherry hardwood floors and imported furniture from Florence. The exterior is in sleek black and modern, shining the company’s brand name in gold.

For more information contact:

de Grisogono Las Vegas
Crystals at CityCenter
3720 Las Vegas Boulevard South Suite #205
Las Vegas, NV 889109

OMEGA, the Official Timekeeper of the Olympic Games, celebrated the opening of its Boutique in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver

Friday 04 December 2009 – OMEGA, the Official Timekeeper of the Olympic Games, celebrated the opening of its Boutique in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver today. The breakfast event and ribbon cutting ceremony featured Caroline Faivet, CEO of Swatch Group North America, OMEGA Brand Manager North America Gregory Swift, Dave Cobb, Executive Vice-President and Deputy CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), 1980 Bronze Medallist Olympian Steve Podborski, and six time Paralympian medallist Karolina Wisniewska.

The OMEGA Boutique will remain open throughout the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and will host all of the events featuring the brand’s family of ambassadors scheduled to take place throughout the Games. The Boutique occupies a space of nearly 50 square metres on the ground floor of the Fairmont and showcases a full range of OMEGA’s timepieces, including the Olympic Games-themed Timeless Collection and the Seamaster Diver 300M “Vancouver 2010” Limited Edition watch created to commemorate the 24th time that OMEGA has served as Official Timekeeper for the Olympic Games.

The Boutique is the first retailer in Canada to offer OMEGA’s completely redesigned Constellation line. The popular, instantly recognizable Constellation will be presented with the brand’s three other main watch families, De Ville, Seamaster and Speedmaster. In addition to the timepieces on which OMEGA has built its reputation since 1848, the Boutique at the Fairmont will feature OMEGA’s Fine Leather Collections as well as the new Aqua Terra Eau de Toilette pour Homme, OMEGA’s first fragrance.

Dave Cobb, Executive Vice-President and DEputy CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and paralympic winter games behind watchmaker bench at the OMEGA Olympic boutique in Vancouver

The OMEGA Boutique’s façade has been designed around the themes of the sun, water, the earth and, of course, time. Brilliant lighting illuminating the products in the show window represents the sun’s energetic light rays.

A stroke pattern above the displays casts shadows and reflects light – a perfect depiction of clouds, which gather water to generate the rain. Vertical tracks express rainfall. The rain, in turn, symbolizes time which is never still and which never returns in exactly the same form.

Finally, below the displays, chiselled and silvered glass represents an exposed cross section of the earth intended to convey a history of time.

The OMEGA Boutique has a multilingual international staff selected from the brand’s headquarters in Switzerland and from other OMEGA Boutiques around the world. The staff will also include a watchmaker who will have a fully outfitted bench in the Boutique, allowing visitors a chance to see how the horologists do their detailed, precision work on OMEGA’s legendary watches.

The Vancouver Boutique is one of just four exclusive OMEGA Boutiques in North America. The other three are located in Beverley Hills, Mexico City and New York City, which opened in April of this year.

About OMEGA and the Olympic Games

OMEGA, as the Official Timekeeper of the Olympic Games, is not only responsible for timing every Olympic event, but also for data handling, the display of the results at the venues, and the distribution of the results to the world’s media.

At OMEGA’s first timekeeping assignment for the Olympic Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany in 1936, a lone OMEGA technician brought 27 stopwatches that were used to time each event at the Games.

Seventy years later in Turin, OMEGA deployed 208 professionals – 127 timekeepers and 81 data handlers – armed with 220 tons of equipment.

Those numbers will be exceeded at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games as OMEGA mobilizes the largest timekeeping contingent in the history of winter sport.

The OMEGA Seamaster Diver 300m « Vancouver 2010 » Limited Edition

OMEGA began its Olympic Games timekeeping tradition at the Los Angeles 1932 Olympic Games. In addition to its prominent role at the Olympic Games, OMEGA has been behind many of the most important technological developments in all of sports timekeeping.

The Games in Vancouver will take place over a 17-day period beginning on the 12th of February. More than 5,500 athletes and officials from more than 80 countries will make it the largest Olympic Winter Games ever. The Paralympic Winter Games, for which OMEGA is also Official Timekeeper, start on the 12th of March and will continue for ten days. The Games’ organizers anticipate that the Paralympic Winter Games will attract 1,350 athletes and officials from more than forty countries.

Corum Black Ti-Bridge

This acquisition is in line with CORUM’s global distribution policy and allows a stronger presence of the brand in the American market, whose significant size and commercial opportunities are considered of utmost importance. CORUM’s goal is to strengthen contacts with its retailers in Northern America and the Caribbean Islands and continue to build long-term relationships with optimal support for the sales of its timepieces.

Michael Wunderman, Johnny Wizman and Steven Wizman, owners of the American distribution since early 2008, remain involved in the watch business as owners and operators of the W Luxury Group, the exclusive North American distributor of Franc Vila timepieces. Michael will remain as President within the subsidiary company until the end of October. From November, Mr. Antonio Calce, CEO of CORUM Watches, will assume the interim presidency until the appointment of a new President.

The employees of Corum USA LLC will remain in office and continue as usual. CORUM’s management is grateful to count on the commitment and motivation of its new subsidiary company’s workforce. Relations with the distribution network will thus not be interrupted.

CORUM’s management would like to thank Michael Wunderman for his personal commitment to the brand’s development not only in the American market but all over the world.

With 160 employees worldwide, the independent family-held company CORUM is aware of the value of its teams and importance of human value. The brand initiated a global repositioning process several years ago and intends to continue its growth and reinforce its reputation in the American market thanks to a product strategy based on four iconic pillars and a strong distribution network.

Montres CORUM Sàrl
Rue du Petit -Château 1 – Case postale 374 – 2301 La Chaux-de-Fonds – Switzerland
Tél. +41 ( 0 ) 32 967 06 70 – Fax +41 (0) 32 967 06 00 – info@corum.ch

The new Hublot store in Prague

Admirers of Hublot can now visit a unique concept store where design reflect s philosophy of the brand – a fusion of materials – in the very heart of
Prague.

“We are proud to represent the leading Swiss watch brand, that Hublot undoubtedly is, in the Czech Republic. We believe that Hublot will find fans among watch connoisseurs and enthusiasts and that the Hublot store will become the pearl of Pařížská Avenue,” says Jan Zvada, Hublot store co-owner.

This design store full of fine details, in a black-on-black colours scheme and premium materials such as granite or carbon, provides an ideal backdrop for the beauty of Hublot watches.

With a unique café for clients and prestigious guests located in the back of the store, the whole space creates the impression of an exclusive gallery.

Address: Pařížská 1, 110 00 Prague 1
Opening hours: Monday-Friday 10am-7pm, Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday 11am-5pm
Contact: Jan Zvada, tel.: +420 775 011 574, e-mail: jan.zvada@jgap.eu

Weehawken, New Jersey (April 26, 2009) – The Swatch Group Ltd, the world’s largest watch company, announced today the expansion of an entirely new retail concept to the United States with the opening of the second Tourbillon Boutique on New York City’s Wall Street.

Tourbillon is a multi-brand watch and jewelry boutique network, bringing all the prestige brands within the Swatch Group together under one roof. The brands currently presented in the Tourbillon boutiques are Breguet, Blancpain, Glashütte Original, Jaquet Droz, Léon Hatot and Omega. In homage to the parent company’s namesake, a selection of exclusive watches and jewelry from the Swatch brand is also featured. Prior to the arrival of the New York City boutique, the Tourbillon network comprised of seventeen boutiques, first one in the United States in renowned South Coast Plaza, five within Swiss national borders (Crans-Montana, Montreux, St. Moritz, Lausanne, Lugano), eight others dotted across Europe (Amsterdam, Baden-Baden, Kitzbuhl, Mykonos, Nice, Porto Cervo, Portofino, Puerto Banus), two in Beijing, China and one in Singapore. The second Tourbillon boutique to open in the US will be located on Wall Street in the heart of New York’s financial district.

The Swatch Group is especially proud to continue its expansion in a time when so many are downsizing. After Omega boutique on Fifth Avenue, Tourbillon is the second Swatch Group owned retail store to open in New York City within this month. In this uncertain market, the Swatch Group is pleased to have the opportunity to create jobs and looks forward to another successful luxury venture.

The Tourbillon philosophy embraces the longstanding Swiss tradition of exceptional horological expertise. Tourbillon boutiques present extensive collections of each brand, offering consumers the broadest choice of premium watch models. Recruited from among the finest professionals in the sector, the carefully trained sales people are dedicated to providing customers with impeccable and highly personalized service. As ambassadors of the magnificent brands represented, Tourbillon associates cultivate a passion for the art of watch making and a devotion to sharing with clients the wonderful history of each brand.

About Swatch Group:

The Swatch Group Ltd is the largest manufacturer and distributor of watches and jewelry in the world. It is a synonym for emotional and luxury products of high quality and has its own worldwide network of distribution organizations. The Group is an expert in the manufacture of finished watches, movements and components. Its watch brands are Breguet, Blancpain, Glashütte-Original, Jaquet-Droz, Léon Hatot, Omega in the luxury and prestige segment; Rado, Longines, Union in the high end range; Tissot, Calvin Klein, Certina, Mido, Hamilton, Pierre Balmain in the middle range; Swatch, Flik Flak in the basic segment, and Endura.
www.swatchgroup.com

New OMEGA Boutique in New York on Fifth Avenue

New York (USA) – Monday 06 April 2009
On April 4th, OMEGA comes to New York City. Its new flagship store at 711 Fifth will be the 51st OMEGA Boutique. The company’s entire product palette will be on offer.

The flagship store is an important part of OMEGA’s retail strategy. In December of 2000, Nicolas Hayek, the Chairman of the Swatch Group, made a bold announcement at the grand opening of the first OMEGA Boutique in Zurich. OMEGA’s ambitious goal, he said, was to extend the corporate boutique network to include 50 retail shops devoted exclusively to OMEGA products within ten years. OMEGA met that target in 2008.

A piece of history – JFK’s inaugural watch

On display will be the OMEGA Ultra-Thin watch, which was worn by John F. Kennedy during his inaugural address in January of 1961. The watch now belongs to the OMEGA Museum at the company’s headquarters in Biel, Switzerland. Stephen Urquhart, the president of OMEGA, pointed out, “Given the watch’s history and provenance, it is an ideal piece to share with the visitors to our New York City Boutique It was on President Kennedy’s wrist when he urged Americans to ‘ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.’ We’re pleased to have this opportunity to share it with our American friends.”

New OMEGA Boutique in New York on Fifth Avenue

A platinum Moonwatch – available exclusively in New York City

It was also President Kennedy who set the goal for Americans to land a man on the Moon and return him safely before the end of the 1960s. When the Apollo 11 Lunar Module landed on the Moon’s surface in July of 1969, the astronauts were wearing OMEGA Speedmaster watches (as has every NASA astronaut since 1963’s Mercury Faith 7 mission). On July 21st, 1969, the Moonwatch was born.
This year, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing, OMEGA is releasing limited editions of the Speedmaster Professional Apollo 11 “40th Anniversary” Moonwatch in stainless steel (7,969 pieces) and platinum (69 pieces).

The platinum version of the watch, which features an 18 Ct gold Apollo 11 patch on the caseback with a reduced version below the small seconds hand on the dial, will initially be available exclusively at the OMEGA Boutique in New York City.

Inside the OMEGA Boutique

When visitors enter the OMEGA Boutique, they will be warmly greeted by a staff whose members are specialists in the 161-year-old watchmaker’s product line. Display and sales areas are on each side of the ground floor towards the front of the store.

There is also an enclosed area where VIP guests can view the products undisturbed and at an unhurried pace.

Beyond the sales areas are special displays with showcases featuring OMEGA’s brand ambassadors on one side of the hall and selections from the Fine Jewellery and Fine Leather collections on the other. Many of these products are available exclusively at OMEGA Boutiques. There are also presentations dedicated to special launches and to seasonal products.

New OMEGA Boutique in New York on Fifth Avenue

Expert after-sales service

At the back of the shop, a staircase leads to the second floor where the after-sales service department is located. Here it is possible to receive expert consultation and warranty servicing on all OMEGA products.

The members of the specially-trained staff at OMEGA’s Boutique in New York City are enthusiastic about sharing their unparalleled knowledge of one of the world’s most respected watch brands.

The façade

The concept for the OMEGA Boutique was created by Kazuo Adachi of design Fresco designed by Adachi and his colleague Hiroshi Yamashita. The façade has been conceived around the themes of the sun, water, the earth and, of course, time. Brilliant lighting illuminating the products in the show window represents the sun’s energetic light rays.

A stroke pattern above the displays casts shadows and reflects light – a perfect depiction of clouds, which gather water to generate the rain. Vertical tracks express rainfall. The rain, in turn, symbolizes time which is never still and which never returns in exactly the same form.

Finally, below the displays, chiselled and silvered glass represents an exposed cross section of the earth which conveys a history of time.