Record Breaking Altiplano Skeleton 1200S To Boost Piaget Sales

Record Breaking Altiplano Skeleton 1200S To Boost Piaget Sales

Seth Semilof
By Seth Semilof January 20, 2012

 

When the Swiss watchmaker introduced the Altiplano Skeleton 1200S, it came with a $53,000 price tag and record breaking title of the world’s thinnest automatic skeleton movement watch. The Altiplano Skeleton timepiece possesses a 2.40mm Caliber 1200S movement and an entire case of just 5.34mm thickness, housed within a 38mm 18-carat white gold case. Skeleton movement simply involves a case that has openings to reveal the inner workings of the watch.

While Mainland Chinese customers continue to drive sales in Asia, Piaget’s growth in the area may slow down because of a high basis of comparison. Leopold-Metzger, CEO of Richemont, commented that Korean sales are rising “very strongly” and Japan “is back on the growth trend,”. Piaget gets more than half of their revenue from Asian customers while The Middle East and the Americas are other “bright spots”.

Piaget is convinced innovative timepieces will help elevate sales this year amidst worries of a recession in Europe and sluggish market in Asia. Piaget plans to expand with another 10 to 15 boutiques a year adding to their current 79. The 138-year-old company also expects to hire more personnel in stores and production, he declined to say how many. “Like every other brand, we would have sold more if we had bigger production,” he said.

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