Replica Watches Essentials LVMH Watch & Jewellery Division Outperforms in First Quarter of 2017
Last year, Hublot Watches India Online Replica announced its partnership with Chelsea Football Club in the English Premier League. Along with that announcement, they also unveiled the Hublot Classic Fusion Chronograph Chelsea FC watch, which was the first watch created in collaboration with Chelsea and the official opinion of this club. Now, a year later, Hublot and Chelsea have teamed up again for a different view, and here it is, the Hublot Big Bang Chelsea FC.Football (or football, if you are American) is one of the world’s hottest and watched sports. As a result, soccer has become a significant marketing device for Hublot. It sports a 44mm satin-finished stainless steel case and a glowing blue bezel made out of carbon fiber and Texalium. The bezel is held in place by Hublot’s distinct H-shaped screws, which are made from polished titanium. The crowns and chronograph pushers are stainless steel and include black rubber inserts. Last, the watch is water resistant to 100m and comes with a rubber-lined blue alligator strap with white stitching.Like that the bezel, the dial is a bright sunray blue but is satin-finished. At 3 o’clock you have the 30-minute counter to get your chronograph, and at 12 o’clock you have the 12-hour counter to get the chronograph. The subsidiary seconds dial is at 9 o’clock and it features the engraving “SW6” — the postal code where Chelsea’s stadium, Stamford Bridge, can be located.
Consensus amongst many industry insiders at Baselworld 2017 was that the stable of watch and jewellery names owned by LVMH – Bulgari, Hublot, TAG Heuer and Zenith – are doing well relative to their peers. That appears to have been borne out by the luxury group’s first quarter results for 2017, with Bulgari and TAG Heuer singled out for “market share gains”.
Quarterly revenue at the luxury powerhouse that owns Louis Vuitton (its Parisian art museum designed by Frank Gehry is pictured above) rose 13% at constant exchange rates, while its watch and jewellery division saw an 11% rise in sales. In more ordinary times that might seem a meagre figure, but times are tough for the luxury watch business.
In comparison, LVMH rival Richemont’s most recent quarter (until December 2016) was less impressive, perhaps explaining the management overhaul earlier this year. The Swiss group that owns watchmakers like IWC and Panerai saw group sales rise only 6%, helped by its jewellery business, with the watchmaking division seeing a dip of 2%.
That being said, the sales growth at LVMH comes off from a low base. Last year the group recorded revenue growth of just 6%, with the figure for the watch and jewellery division being 5%. It prudently notes in the announcement: “The trend currently observed cannot reasonably be extrapolated for the full year.”
