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Watch tablet aims to simplify timepiece sales

By Teresa Novellino
June 05, 2009
The Watch Tablet, introduced during the Las Vegas jewelry shows by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, is a new timepiece training tool for retailers.

Las Vegas--One of the challenges of selling high-end watches with complications is that, well, they're complicated. Adding to the uphill climb of the sale is the fact that watch enthusiasts who want to buy these timepieces are often as well-versed as the person behind the counter, if not more so.

Enter a new sales and training tool that the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) introduced during the Las Vegas jewelry shows called the Watch Tablet. The tablet, a PC with an extra-thin touch screen that is about the same size as a mini-laptop computer minus the keyboard, offers information in three specific areas that the FHH calls "zones."

One zone includes specifications on each of the 29 brands that are members of the FHH, brand histories and watch images; a second features general information on both watchmaking and gemology, including an in-depth look inside mechanical watches and explanations of some 20 watch complications; and a third contains information for the specific retailer who has purchased the tablet for their store, including training modules for various brands, developed exclusively for sales associates.

Together, the tablet's three zones are meant to cover every base for a watch salesperson, from the definition of what a tourbillon is to details on the latest brand ambassadors for TAG Heuer. It also includes brand news releases, which can help retailers stay on top of developments in the timepiece industry. There is also an area on the tablet where a jeweler can add its own presentations on the store's history and the like.

All the content is fully interactive through the touch screen and is illustrated throughout with animations.

"We want it to be first and foremost a way to help the retailer in the store," said Pascal Ravessoud, development director of the FHH, which is based in Geneva.

The tablet will be available to jewelers in September, in both English and French versions. The tablet costs $6,000 and comes with a recharging dock and a year's worth of free updates, which would include new information on the various brands' product releases, Ravessoud said. After the first year, maintaining updates on the tablet will cost $50 per month.

The FHH, which was formed in November 2008 at the headquarters of the World Economic Forum in Geneva with a stated mission to address key issues such as sales training and the fight against counterfeit watches, now includes as members 29 brands and five institutions.

The brands included in the FHH are: A. Lange and Sohne, Antoine Preziuso, Audemars Piguet, Baume and Mercier, Boucheron, Cartier, Chanel, Chopard, Corum, Daniel Roth, Gerald Genta, Girard-Perregaux, Greubel Forsey, Hermes, Hublot, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, JeanRichard, Montblanc, Panerai, Parmigiani, Perrelet, Piaget, Richard Mille, Roger Dubuis, TAG Heuer, Vacheron Constantin, Van Cleef and Arpels and Zenith.

Another FHH mission, unveiled in January, is to combat fakes: Currently 40 million counterfeit Swiss watches are sold annually compared with 26 million genuine Swiss watches, according to the FHH. Through its ad campaign titled "Fake Watches Are for Fake People," the group hopes to convince those who can afford a real watch to buy one, Ravessoud said.

Low-grade counterfeit watches cost $2 to $20 to produce, but sell for anywhere from $4 to $1,500 worldwide. The higher-end counterfeits, often passed off as genuine, might cost as much as $100 to produce, but ultimately the finished product can never match that of the original, and the fakes dilute the brand, damage its reputation and lead to lost revenues.
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