Jérôme Lambert (left) is planning to open up the world of fine watchmaking
Prices for high-end watches and jewellery by leading brands start in the region of €50,000. However, last month at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva, Montblanc launched the Meisterstück Heritage collection, which includes a perpetual calendar watch in a stainless steel case that will retail for €10,000, and a gold monopusher chronograph made entirely by hand in its Villeret workshop for €27,000. Both are uncommonly low prices for watches in their category.
Led by Jérôme Lambert, the new chief executive appointed in 2013, the German company known for its dominance of the luxury pen market is implementing an aggressive strategy
“We want to open this world of fine watch making to new clients,” he told the Financial Times following the announcement at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie fair in Geneva.
At Jaeger-LeCoultre, which Jérôme Lambert headed until taking up his new post, he pioneered a pricing strategy that broke with fine-watch making conventions. At Montblanc, he is pushing more accessibly priced high-end watches harder still.
In an industry where significant new collections can gestate for two years or more, Montblanc's Meisterstück Heritage collection was ready in less than 6 months
According to Mr Lambert, writing instruments make up 45 per cent of the business, leather goods and watches 25 per cent each, with the final 5 per cent attributed to jewelry and other accessories.
This is the first move by a prominent watch maker towards the “accessible luxury” macro-segment, a space exploited by US apparel and accessories brands like Michael Kors, Tory Burch and Ralph Lauren over the past three years.
Montblanc Meisterstück Heritage collection watches will target younger first-time buyers and wealthy international shoppers with less disposable income than the brand’s traditional clientèle.
Data released last week by Bain & Company suggests middle-class spenders in emerging markets make up almost 130m of the world’s 330m luxury consumers and are fast becoming the engine of industry growth.
Montblanc’s decision to reposition its entry-level price points runs counter to some industry thinking in Europe. Louis Vuitton and Gucci have both said brands must go more upmarket and exclusive to be considered “absolute luxury”. That's why they raised their prices by as much as 10 per cent last year.
Montblanc is the second-largest business owned by Richemont – behind Cartier – and accounts for 8 per cent of the €10.15bn sales reported by the group in its past financial year.
Many analysts think that balancing high-end exposure with a more accessible mid price and entry price point will be vital, since future luxury market growth will come from the explosion of the emerging market middle class, who have lots of appetite but reduced spending power.
By Elizabeth Paton in New York and Robin Swithinbank in London
edited from The Financial Times
