Bulgari: the new confident watchmaker, despite Hong Kong

The new director of Bulgari's watch division, Antoine Pin, initially intends to increase the visibility of the brand's timepieces. The new models launched should allow for the manufacture of Neuchatel to end the year on a positive note, despite the decline of Hong Kong.

"We want to raise awareness of our collections such as Octo, Lucea and Serpenti, which already have a strong identity," said the man who took over the watch industry in early September.

Highlighting the "remarkable" work done in terms of the constitution of collections in recent years, the former marketing director of Zenith now plans to put the models developed in the spotlight. "We can do better", in terms of communication and marketing, he said without wishing to detail the amounts he intended to allocate to this goal.

Bulgari, although present with around 300 employees at three watchmaking production sites in Neuchatel, Le Sentier and Saignelegier, is in fact better known for its jewelery, which is the main source of revenue for the LVMH subsidiary.

The watchmaker, whose core business oscillates in the price range of 5'000 to 30'000 francs, will inaugurate in November in Saignelegier its new dressing site, in which "several million francs" were invested .

Confident for 2019

"With the exception of Hong Kong, our numbers are generally pretty good," said the former Tag Heuer employee. And to point out that the growth of Bulgari's watch division is slightly better in the first nine months of 2019 than that of Swiss watch exports. The latter rose by 1.9% year on year to 14.1 billion francs.

"In Hong Kong, we clearly have a reduction in traffic, although we see some resistance," Pin said. While observing "interesting traffic" in mainland China, the boss declined to conclude on a transfer of sales from Hong Kong to China: "It is avoided to draw conclusions on Hong Kong for the moment", a- he supported.

Japan, Greater China (including Hong Kong) and the United States represent Bulgari's three main markets.

If the geopolitical environment did not deteriorate, the manager also said he was confident of ending the year on growth, thanks to the recent launch of the Serpenti Seduttori and the Octo Chronograph. "We have very good sales with these new models," said Pin.

Balanced distribution network

The Frenchman who has spent a large part of his career at LVMH has also said he is satisfied with the current distribution network of Bulgari watches, with just under 1,000 points of sale. "It's a lot, and we do not want to reduce it," he said, noting that there may be slight changes in some markets.

He also highlighted the importance of working with retailers. "They are key players for our success, and we can live together very well," he says.

Last March, on the sidelines of Baselworld, Bulgari's CEO, Jean-Christophe Babin, for his part said that the company was planning to reduce its outlets to around 600 in the next two years. / ATS-mts