Still can't believe this: In a recent video call, Breitling’s chief executive, Georges Kern, unwrapped the story, saying the company had invested “around 60 million Swiss francs” ($70.5 million) for the rights to produce watches with the Universal Genève name and for access to the company’s archive.
More news slowly trickling out.. Recently big boss of Breitling Kerns mentioned there will be new in-house movements made for these reflecting those of old and one thing I know may cause some grumbling is the price points will be higher than your average Breitling and more for luxury market consumers. I think they are angling to use UG brand to enter into the luxury market of watches. My best guess is they will start in the usd8-12k range.
Start savin up😉
I think that 8-12k price range would be a disaster starting point, price wise.
UG has a big history behind but it is unknown to the general public. Nobody is going to spend the same amount as the price of Rolex…without the brand being (re)established on the watch market. This would probably take several years (I’d say around 10). In this time, people get to know the brand and (maybe) are going to get comfortable to spend that kind of money on a UG.
They should start slowly, at around 3-4k usd and step by step build up the brand reputation and market value.
I think that 8-12k price range would be a disaster starting point, price wise.
UG has a big history behind but it is unknown to the general public. Nobody is going to spend the same amount as the price of Rolex…without the brand being (re)established on the watch market. This would probably take several years (I’d say around 10). In this time, people get to know the brand and (maybe) are going to get comfortable to spend that kind of money on a UG.
They should start slowly, at around 3-4k usd and step by step build up the brand reputation and market value.
. If they start at $3-4k, they'll always be labeled an entry level watch brand. Look at Longines or Tudor. They'll never be at the same level as Omega or Rolex.
Because Tudor and Longines do not intend to be at the same level as Rolex and Omega. It would be suicidal to start charging 7-8-10k usd for their watches as people have much better alternative for that price.
Also, Rolex created Tudor to catch the lower market, people who wanted a decent watch and do not want to spend more than 3-4k (in todays money). They have to keep their watches cheaper than Rolex. They are interested to take away from the lower players not to compete with themselves.
I appreciate the passion for UG but watch industry is savage. No place for dreamers.
Resurrecting a brand is no easy business. Im sure Bretiling will do several studies before making a decision on how to approach this.
My 2 cents is that UG cannot be in the 10k usd price range. They have never really been there so it makes no sense to make that jump after the brand has been dead for so long.
It will take time and a lot of money for Breitling to convince people to buy a UG for even 3-4k to start with…..let alone 8-10k.
When you look at reincarnated car marques, they don’t set their aim low in the hope of one day going upmarket, which is nearly impossible to do.
No they aim high, they go for their target market, which is quite difficult enough to achieve successfully as it is.
Why do you think Toyota invented Lexus, Nissan cooked up Infinitely and others have done similar, it’s because brand recognition cuts both ways, I doubt anyone on the planet doesn’t know that Toyota is a car brand, but most people equate their brand virtues as being reliably, affordable quality, and entry level.
They created Lexus to break away from the confines of the Toyota brand perception, in order to gain market presence in a more profitable sales arena, as they could only reach so far with the Toyota brand with out trashing it’s currently very valuable brand values.
So with no real Japanese up market heritage brands to resurrect, they had to conjure one up.
And they’ve been by far the most successful of the Japanese manufacturers to do so, even though a great may of their offerings are really just tarted up Toyotas with a few more gizmos and an extremely butt ugly grill stuck on the front,
They didn’t start low, to do so would only cannibalise sale from their Toyota brand.
And most of the public out there don’t recognise that there are alternative brands in the same market sector as Rolex, let alone any thing above.
I assume the Breitling is not looking at selling to those people now, but possibly doing so in the future, as they reestablish the UG brand.
In the short term they will be relying on the enthusiast market to get the ball rolling……only time will tell if they’re right.
Your car brand analogy is not really relevant to our discussion. Toyota, Nissan and Honda created Lexus, Infinity and Accura to compete with german brands like Mercedes and BMW in the US market.
This was the market where they could sell more by offering a “luxury” product and enter a segment they did not have a product for.
Accura is not offered in Europe to this day, while Lexus and Infinity are limited to few models and have very high prices due to European protection laws for cars built outside EU. So, in Europe, these brands are irrelevant….which is ok because they do better on other markets that they were intended for.
Coming back to UG……Breitling cannot resurrect UG by relying on (the very, very few) vintage enthusiasts of the brand.
You cannot (as a business) invest 100m usd and “hope” to sell a few watches to a small community of watch nerds that hunt for good condition Polerouters and Tri-compax. It is a romantic view on how the watch business works.
They’ll need to start by making the brand known so public becomes aware of its existence and they need to make the product accessible price wise. This takes time and money……and a healthy approach is to have a 10 year plan which of course Bretiling shall have.
The only issue with that argument: That is where good watches are now. Granted that is due to scarcity but there is the price point.
The motor industry analogy is relevant, let me try again…..when VW reanimated the corpse of Bugatti they didn’t piss fart about with some entry level shitbox they went straight to the market level they wanted to be in, yes I know they took over the remains of a previous reincarnation effort which itself was aimed at the top tier.
Now at that time how many ordinary non car enthusiasts had ever heard of Bugatti……bugger all would’ve been the answer, but now there is a much greater awareness of the brand. And they’re probably not where they wanna be yet.
And getting back to those Japanese brands, you emphasise the “US market”……what you don’t think they will sell the UG brand there?
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