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Swiss brands from Omega to Bulgari are expanding their travel retail offerings to match the resurgence in tourism.
The Swiss watchmaker Breitling is planning to open a store in Paris, on the Champs-Élysées, in 2025, but with millions of visitors expected to descend on the City of Light over the next six weeks for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the brand decided it couldn’t wait.
“We are hosting a pop-up next door to where our permanent store will be,” Georges Kern, Breitling’s chief executive, wrote in an email. “Paris is the place to be this summer.”
While there is no doubt that the French capital is the belle of the international ball this season, many luxury watchmakers in the city have tempered expectations about watch sales during the Games.
“We have a network in Paris with 25 points of sale, including three boutiques,” Carlos Rosillo, co-founder of the French watch brand Bell & Ross, said on a recent video call from its headquarters in Paris. “But frankly speaking, we are a challenger. We cannot compete.”
Raynald Aeschlimann, the president and chief executive of Omega, the Games’ official timekeeper since 1932, struck a similarly pragmatic note. “Those millions of people are coming to Paris for the sport,” he wrote in an email. “Omega’s primary focus will always be on the timekeeping, not on marketing.”