After encountering a difficult time over the past two years, the company has started seeing a brighter future as its performance in the first half of this year improved significantly, according to Christophe Viguerie, managing director of Brequet Thailand.
"In almost six months of this year, luxury watch demand has grown steadily and we enjoyed double sales growth when compared to the same period last year," he said.Also expected to help drive Brequet's sales growth this year are two new women's watch collections: Reine de Naples Automatic Strike and Reine de Naples Steel and Cammea.
Automatic Strike, made to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the company's first watch, is priced at over 5.3 million baht, while Steel and Cammea is valued at around 530,000 baht.
Brequet said the number of new watches expected to be sold depended mainly on supply from Switzerland as each watch takes six to seven months to produce. The limitation of production is therefore its main constraint.
Meanwhile, the currency exchange rate positively helps sales in Thailand as Thai customers can buy Swiss watches at a lower price.
According to Mr Viguerie, Brequet's sales in Asia are currently better than in Europe. Markets such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Thailand have seen brisk sales growth.
The company said the Thai watch market was probably one of the most competitive in the world. Many new brands have entered the market while existing players are increasing their marketing budgets to stay competitive.
"I believe we still have great potential to grow in the Thai market but after all it depends on supply from Switzerland," said Mr Viguerie.
Brequet is also watching Thailand's political situation for potential impact on buyer sentiment, and plans major campaigns this month to build consumer confidence.
source : bangkokpost