Omega boutique in Brown Thomas price increase

bren2002

Just got a email from the Omega outlet in BT that said they were putting their prices up in March.

Are they serious! Clearly there's no recession there.

Blackpitts

bren2002 wrote: »

Just got a email from the Omega outlet in BT that said they were putting their prices up in March.

Are they serious! Clearly there's no recession there.

look at this and you will understand there is no recession for the watch industry

http://video.ft.com/v/753890024001/Putting-the-tick-back-into-Swiss-watchmakers

Wibbs

Yep. The Asian market is huge and getting huger(:)). On the main brands it's interesting that brands like Longines are far higher(and aimed that way) in the Asian markets than European/America. I'm watching a couple of my vintage pieces move upwards on that score. Then again prices are going up on all collectables that I've looked at. People are looking to things other than "money" for investment I suppose. Plus no matter how bad it gets there will always be very well off people on the world stage. This has always been the case. The diff now is you can sell to them more easily.

Cyrus

sheerhans were doing 20% off of all omegas for a good while after christmas

not sure if they still are?

foxyboxer

Unfortunately it's true.

It seems Omega are striving to encroach on Rolex's price territory.
The new Planet Ocean due in Baselworld may have a similar RRP to a new Rolex Submariner. There was a modest increase last March too and they are certainly pricing a lot of people out with the new levels.

The Speedmaster has increased by $1,000 in the US in 3 years. :eek:
They are also moving away from the authorised dealers network too and seem intent on selling through boutiques á la Brown Thomas exclusively, maybe as a means of price control.

The asian market is indeed huge for Omega (or more accurately, the Swatch Group), hence the continued inclusion of the hideous modern constellations in the line up.

Whereas once they were regarded as makers of quality watches that could be got at a reasonable discount and provide years of service (think of the Brosnan Bond Seamaster). They are heading in a direction of admittedly nice watches but completely over-priced coupled with (anecdotally) woeful customer service. It seems Longines are taking over that territory now.

foxyboxer

Cyrus wrote: »

sheerhans were doing 20% off of all omegas for a good while after christmas

not sure if they still are?

Quite possibly because they may no longer be on the AD network.
Quite a few places in the UK have Omegas on sale at similar levels for that reason.

Wibbs

foxyboxer wrote: »

Whereas once they were regarded as makers of quality watches that could be got at a reasonable discount and provide years of service (think of the Brosnan Bond Seamaster). They are heading in a direction of admittedly nice watches but completely over-priced coupled with (anecdotally) woeful customer service. It seems Longines are taking over that territory now.

+1 on your post and I've heard similar of the Omega customer service.

Longines are a weird name. Used to be huge. Particularly in the US. Started off as high end and expensive, particularly their chronos. Certainly compared to the local makers. Then ended up as upper mid range in the 50's and 60's. They seemed to drop off the radar in the last 20 years. Surprising given they have more history than quite a few. More aviation milestones than Brietling could dream of, in house chronos(and the first flyback) unlike Heuer and timed more sporting events than them too, more early 20th century explorers than Rolex and a long military spec history to boot. They even had the first LCD watch sold to the public. Yet few enough non watch nutters and nutterettes would know them from Adam today. Someone dropped the ball there. I hope with this new focus they dont just stick with the past and/or go the whole gaudy Asian look. And they stay good value. An uncle of mine bought one of their chrono aviators a few years ago in France(on hollidays) and three odd years later the chrono failed. He emailed them directly and they sorted it out for nothing. Fair enough. I found them very helpful with vintage inquiries too. Ditto with Zenith. They'll have a root through the archives for ya. Heuer on the other hand can't seem to tell you jack


As for prices hikes, didn't the aforementioned Zenith pull this a few years back? Hiked up the prices substantially and not with upgraded models either. Mad.