THE watch industry is upbeat about the future of the market although sales have dropped moderately as a result of the financial turmoil.
ATG Watch Sdn Bhd, the sole importer and distributor of EPOS and Titoni watches in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia, is looking for business growth and aims to enter Laos and Cambodia in two to three years.
It wants to be a pioneer in the upcoming markets, and will set up offices in partnership with locals, chief executive officer Tham Onn Chuan said.
"While some watch companies are downsizing due to the financial tsunami, we at ATG are talking about growth, and maintaining our earnings."
ATG is sponsoring two EPOS watches, worth RM17,000 collectively, for the Business Times CEO of the Year Award 2008. It has been a sponsor of watches for the event since 2006.
Woohing KL Sdn Bhd, the authorised distributor in Malaysia for Rolex and Tudor watches since the 1950s, is the main retailer for EPOS watches in the country.
The retailer, which operates the EPOS boutique at Starhill in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, is also a partner for the CEO awards.
Tham said sales are in double digits, with 10 per cent profit margins, adding that ATG's office in Singapore will drive the growth of the company this year.It will spend 10-15 per cent of its revenue to promote and position its products.
"People are buying watches for their own collection and as giveaways. During the festive seasons, sales are on the uptrend."
ATG has eight collections of watches under the EPOS brand, with six to eight variances under each. They are priced between RM2,800 and RM178,000 a piece.Titoni is a more affordable range. It has 10 collections and the watches under each are priced from RM2,000 to RM25,000.
ATG imports the watches from Grenchen, the heart of the watch-making industry in Switzerland. Tham said ATG is targeting entry-level collectors for the EPOS brand who are not big spenders, but want to own a complicated Swiss-made watch.
Collectable watches are more expensive than the battery-operated ones because of the tedious and complicated watch-making process involved. These include hand engravings and linking components like the case, dial and hands, to give a precise time, Tham added.
"EPOS is positioned as a hand-crafted, complicated watch which is affordably priced. We have serious collectors who have the money to buy and do not care about how much they pay."
Tham said the collectors go mainly for watches with vintage movements, with high collector's value. While watches are harder to sell now, it is leveraging on EPOS' strength of hand-crafted and mechanical watches to boost sales volume.
