Those people familiar with the shops at Bal Harbour knows how each luxury brand situated there feels the need to one up each other. This makes sense given the locations ability to attract the wealthiest Floridian buyers, as well as those who travel to the shopping center from around the world. Over the last few year Audemars Piguet has been playing with a new type of marketing campaign dedicated to enhancing the artisan-like feel of the brand. This essentially means that they want you thinking that watch makers time traveled from 1875 to the present day, and are hand-making Audemars Piguet watches in candle light somewhere in the heart of Switzerland. Most of this is true - save for the candle light.

Selling ultra luxury watches is as much about selling the final product as it is about selling how they were made. For this purpose, the Audemars Piguet Bal Harbour boutique has been temporarily transformed to include watch movement sketches, work tables, tools, and other items of traditional watch making construction. The good news is, that if you visit an actual Swiss watch making factory, all of these same tools are pretty much used - though maybe modernized a bit. Audemars Piguet does take much pride in the fact that they practice "traditional watch making" techniques. The display is a good idea , because it attempts to show a manufacture made mechanical watch in its natural element. If you are in the area, check it out. The window display will be up through the end of the year at the Audemars Piguet store at the Bal Harbour stores in Miami, Florida.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Most of what you need to know is right there in the invitation. The Montblanc boutique store located near Union Square in San Francisco is having a two week private sale. What does private mean? That you are invited, and others aren't of course. Sales such as this aren't scheduled to my knowledge, and mean that there are deals to be had at the impressive Montblanc store. Among the included items are watches, pens, jewelery, and their fine leather goods. Did you know that Montblanc makes really nice wallets? Even belts and bags I think. If you are nearby and have been looking for the right time to incorporate some new Montblanc in your life, this is the time.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Vacheron Constantin recently opened up a new boutique in Hong Kong. To celebrate, they have also released three new limited edition Dragon watches. There will only be nine of each of the three watches made in this highly limited edition. The dragon motifs are each hand made, involving an incredible amount of delicate work. in addition to the hand applied decoration, there is also a fair amount of guilloche machine engraving that also requires a very skilled artist to apply.

Each of the three watches is done in a different shade of gold, along with a different image of the Chinese style dragon. Vacheron Constantin is well versed in artistic watch creations such as this. The Mask collections come to mind when thinking of their talents here. Inside the watches is a manufacture made Vacheron Constantin movement, and each is attached to a high quality black alligator strap. Vacheron Constantin is serious about China, not just Hong Kong, as the country is poised to breed a new generation of watch buyers given the current economic growth there in comparison to the rest of the world. Plus, Hong Kong remains one of the most important watch market capitals of the world - so the opening of the new "Flagship Boutique" by Vacheron Constantin there makes sense. I suspect it is the only place that these watches can be acquired.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Want to check out the Breguet Ref. 1160 pocket watch that you've been hearing so much about? Didn't get a chance to see it while it was at the Breguet exhibit at the Lourve in Paris? Well if you are in Los Angeles or New York City at the right times in October, you'll have your chance to see this amazing replica. No, you won't get to see the original. That is going to be unavailable for the masses to enjoy out side of the vault display in Israel for a while I suspect.

If you are unfamiliar with the story, it is pretty simple and you can Google it for more details, though understand that no one really knows the whole story, so take what you read about the "later history" of the watch with a grain of salt. Breguet was commissioned almost 200 years ago to make the most complex watch in the world for Marie Antoinette. She died before it was completed, but Breguet eventually finished the Marie Antoinette Pocket watch after years of efforts. After passing ownership several times over the years, the watch eventually ended up as part of a pocket watch and clock exhibit at a museum in Jerusalem, Israel. There it was mysteriously stolen in the early 1980s, and just as mysteriously discovered again about 2 years ago. Which leads me back to the replica. Swatch Group (which owns Breguet) owner Nicolas Hayek wanted to make a replica of the Marie Antoinette watch that was faithful to the original. Only problem is that he didn't have the original to model it after. All that existed were some diagrams and photos. Ironically, soon after the replica was finished, the original turned up. I am sure the people who spent the few years painstakingly trying to reproduce the pocket watch were frustrated to say that least - that if they had only waited a bit longer they would have had the original to check out. Oh well!

Breguet is planning a quick tour of the Breguet Ref. 1160 to be shown at the Breguet Boutiques in LA and NYC this month (see details below). The one-off piece is NOT for sale, but you'll conveniently be at a Breguet store if you are feeling up to a new timepiece acquisition.

Beverly Hills
October 14 (10-2 pm)
October 15 & 16 (10-6 pm)
The Breguet Boutique
280 North Rodeo Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Telephone: (310) 860-9911

New York City
October 19 (2-6 pm)
October 20 & 21 (10-6 pm)
The Breguet Boutique
779 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10065
Telephone: (212) 288-4014

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

You might have heard the saying "a sales person is born, not made." There is a lot of truth to that. Good sales techniques often don't rely on too many particular skills or knowledge of a product. Hell, sometimes they don't even rely on there being a good product. If you are an honest and straightforward person who is interested in really helping out the consumer - you'll make a terrible sales person.

Finding a good sales person is tough, because they are either in high demand, or often times their personalities makes them... less than reliable. A good sales person can effectively help erode logic and focus from an unwilling consumer and get them to purchase not on principle, but on emotion. And there are people out there who train others on how to do this. Only the most manipulative and shiestiest survive. You are good if the consumer doesn't even know they are being sold.

It is no secret that luxury watches have been hurting, bad. Estimates say that luxury watch sales in the US are down at staggering 42% or more from when times were "good" a few years ago. A recent story in the Wall Street Journal discusses how Richemont Group brand IWC hired sales consultant Jean-Marie Brücker for their Beverly Hills boutique store. His role is to train the sales people on proper selling techniques for items whose values aren't always on par with their price. Being a watch fan, I am not saying that watches are necessarily overpriced given their complex construction and typically low volume, but the price of entry for most luxury watches is intense to heart-stopping. Plus, if you are of the "I am so rich I don't care segment of the population" the sales people only need to be good enough to keep you in the store while you are looking around - so they don't have to play the "let's evade the matter of price" game.

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Is the era of the boutique over? Many high-end fashion lines have been struggling with decreased sales and the small boutiques that offered expensive clothing and personal service are finding their business greatly diminished during this recession as well. The Washington Post reports that after 30 years Harriet Kassman's eponymous boutique is closing its doors. Harriet Kassman has been a Washington D.C. institution for the city's most influential and wealthy women. Kassman's boutique offered more than just beautiful clothing, her boutique is famous for personal service and the relationships cultivated over years of buying. Kassman's specialties lay in expensive suits for those who work on Capitol Hill as well as gowns suitable for Washington D.C.'s many galas and formal events. But as budgets have gotten smaller, galas are less frequent and the need for a new gown for each one has become an extravagance rather than a necessity.

The Washington Post article is full of plaudits for Kassman's store and the special place it represented in the lives of many women. Kassman is currently holding a retirement sale but is still holding out hope that someone else might want to come along and buy the boutique and keep it open. She is keeping the bridal portion of the store open until all existing orders have been completed.

The Tourbillon Boutique is a chain of retail stores operated by the Swatch Group that offers its most exclusive watch brands (and Swatch). While most of the shops are located in Switzerland, the US is about to see its second Tourbillon Boutique store, due to open in New York City sometime in May, located in the Financial District on Wall St. Recently, Swatch owned Omega opened up its flagship store on 5th Avenue, and this second new opening indicates a distinct focus on the US market for the Swatch Group watch brands.

Until now, the only Tourbillon store in the US was located in Costa Mesa, just south of Los Angeles. The purpose of the store is to house the most luxurious brands and timepieces that the Swatch Group offers. This includes Breguet, Jaquet Droz, Blancpain, Glashutte Original, Leon Hatot, Omega, and Swatch (though I am not sure how the Swatch branded watches fit in as they are mainstream as opposed to luxury watches for the most part). The Tourbillon Boutique stores are not limited to watches with the expensive and complex tourbillon complications, but any of the firm's best timepiece offerings.

Questions arise as to why the Swatch Group is currently expanding during difficult economic times. My guess is that the US market has more promise in terms of expansion than Europe, while at the same time the Swatch Group is investing in the future when the economy will eventually bounce back. Lower real estate prices and the availability of labor makes it an enticing environment for market positioning once the demand for fine timepieces edges its way back up, once again.

Ariel Adams publishes the popular watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

The modern version of Cuervo Y Sobrinos was started in the late 1990s, but is based on a Cuban watch brand that started, and was popular, in the pre-communism days of Cuba. In the late 1950s when Cuba's government changed and Fidel Castro entered power, the original Cuervo Y Sobrinos watch brand was no longer. With the name, comes the taste and style of old Havana in all new Cuervo Y Sobrinos watches - each watch even comes in a humidor. Regardless, today Cuervo Y Sobrinos has no actual presence in Cuba - but that is about to change.

The new Cuba, while still communist, is opening up its doors again slowly. Havana might never be the play city for the rich and famous as it used to be, but signs of new life can be seen. In a few months, now Swiss watch maker Cuervo Y Sobrinos will open up a new boutique store in Havana. Finally the original Cuban watch brand returns to Cuba in the city that helped make it famous. Pictured above is a Cuervo Y Sobrinos Esplendidos Monopulsante watch. Prices for the brand range from about $2,500 and way up.

Via WorldTempus (in French).

Ariel Adams publishes the popular watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Luxury items and watch maker Philip Stein is opening up their first "Americas" store this fall. Interestingly enough the boutique store will be opened in Cozumel, Mexico - likely to due a large volume of wealthy tourists. Instead of just 'any store,' the shop will focus on an unique and immersive shopping environment. Philip Stein called it their "Natural Frequency Technology," and the idea is to create a calming and personalized shopping experience for luxury buyers. The theme of the technology is to harmonize the shopper's Chi energy. To do this they will be presented with messaging in the form of video, verbal information, and hands on experiences with the products. Imagery in the store will impress upon customers the various design elements of the products as well as the unique design prowess of Philip Stein. Through that process the customer is apparently prone to staying calm, relaxed, and open to purchases.

The whole idea is to create a sense of well being in the customers to the point that they are so impressed with their experience at the shop, they themselves become individual Philip Stein brand ambassadors. Customer testimonials are the best type of advertising if you can manage to get it. Pictured above is a Philip Stein Sport Chronograph with dual quartz movements and rubber accents. Retail is about $1,600 with prices on Philip Stein watches going up from that. Don't miss Philip Stein's "Wine Wand" as well and other interesting luxury themed products and watches.

Via National Jeweler.

Ariel Adams publishes the watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

The the most stalwart of luxury companies have taken a big hit from our current economic realities. While not suffering proportionally more than anyone else, Cartier is seeking new ways to grow and thrive in extremely unpredictable times. According to Cartier CEO and President Bernard Fornas, the new strategy is the expansion of boutique stores in areas showing promise or high growth in recent trends. While Cartier's statement that "we are the number one luxury brand in China, the Middle East, and Russia," may be speculative opinion only, it is true that Cartier has always been a symbol for a "luxury brand," whose performance can almost be market determinative.

Due to the fact that less people globally can afford Cartier products, or that less people are willing to incur the expense, the new strategy (among all luxury brands really) is to focus on core markets that include a large volume of "high-net-worth individuals." The concept is simple; do exactly what you are currently doing, but put your efforts into areas with a proven (and ongoing) hunger for luxury goods.

China will see more than 30 new Cartier boutiques open over the next year, while plans further include stores in Macau, Dubai (that I am sure is getting to the point of over-saturation), Qatar, Bahrain, Khobar, and Jeddah. It has typically been true that luxury brands are of the first to identify new wealthy areas and position themselves there. Like prospectors, luxury brands like Cartier would rather enter new and growing markets than cultivate presence in existing locations all over the Western world. Some luxury makers such as Bvlgari take slightly different approaches, as they have reportedly been planning to reduce the average cost of their luxury items and watches to better conform with current spending trends. Cartier's approach seems to be that what has worked for them for 160 years through many types of world economic problems will again help them persist through these times until luxury consumer spending is back on the rise.

Via Business 24-7.

Ariel Adams publishes the watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Iradj Moini, a former couture designer for Oscar de la Renta, makes some of the most exquisite and unusual jewelry we've seen this millennium.

As you shop in NYC's Soho neighborhood this holiday season, be sure and stop by the Spring Street boutique (198 Spring, near Sullivan). The boutique has been open since Spring 2007, and feels like an art gallery. You won't believe you're looking at new pieces, released seasonally, and not well-kept relics of the 1920's.

If you're not in NY, you can also browse a number of Iradj Moini's items at Domont Jewelry, a West Hollywood, CA jewelry dealer with an exceptional selection of Iradj Moini on display their website.

Almost every piece is stunning, and worth a look if only for inspiration.

It was this same week two years ago that we first heard about the opening of Vera Wang's first lifestyle boutique at the Halekulani resort in Waikiki. The small 600-suare-foot boutique sold clothing, sunglases, jewelry fragrance, china and crystal but will now close after selling off the store's inventory. In an article by Fashion Week Daily, Donna Bebber, the boutique's owner said that Wang's decision to discontinue her high-end jewelry line led to a drop in sales. Bebber has three years left on a five-year lease with the hotel that says she can only stock Vera Wang merchandise but hopes to change the lease so she can add other products. If not, the boutique will be permanently closed. In the two years since the Vera Wang boutique opened, the brand has spread all over the place including a low-priced fashion line at Kohl's and Bebber mentioned that some customers may have felt that she is spreading herself too thin.

Care to go designer handbag shopping at the local museum?

Wait...what?

Not just any local museum will do, but if you're in the vicinity of the Museum of Contemporary Art in L.A. you can totally go do that. Or you will be able to, once their exhibit honoring Japanese artist Takashi Murakami opens at the end of October. From October 29th to February 11th the museum will have high-end Louis Vuitton handbags and other pricey leather goods available for sale.

The explanation? Some say that in general with museums lately "the lines between commerce and pure art are increasingly blurred." Yeah, that's pretty blurry.


Via Styledash

Radisson has become the latest hotel chain to launch an online boutique. The new boutique for guests in the U.S. and Canada includes bedding, bath products and even the wall mirrors and wall-mounted hair dryers. It isn't the most luxurious offering we have seen by far but this ice bucket set is sort of cute. The ice bucket and shaker are stainless steel with an acrylic center wrap that's been coated with a rubber frost spray and is double wall insulated and he tray is stainless steel. The ice bucket is $75, the cocktail shaker is $38 and the tray is $48.

Coach is planning to open two new, upscale concept stores this fall. The Coach Legacy boutiques will be located on either coast, with one on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles and the other on Bleecker Street in New York's Greenwich Village. The stores will be more intimate than the larger, more commercial stores, and will stock more innovative bags, as well as a unique selection of Legacy limited edition items. Instead of being marketed towards upscale, stylish consumers, the Legacy boutiques will be specifically aimed at fashion consumers, including celebrities and other trendsetters, to see of Coach can further raise the cache of their brand.