It’s been a challenging couple of years for the luxury brand sector as it continues to adapt to erratic consumer behaviour, the blurring of channels to market, increasing international travel and the millennial luxury customer. For a handful of renowned labels, teaming up with Asian investors poses as the best strategy in ensuring continued brand development while achieving a more global and exclusive footprint. The Peak takes a look at some of the most significant acquisitions in recent years that have raised a number of well-defined eyebrows in the world of luxury retail.
The quirky shape of the Chinese Hat watch was inspired by the conical hats worn by rice farmers in Asia.
01 CORUM
Renowned for its incredible timekeeping creations that blend innovation with distinctive design, the history of the luxury Swiss watch manufacture can be traced to 1955, when Gaston Ries decided to establish a manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds with his nephew, Renee Bannwart. In 2013, Corum made headlines when it became the first high-end Swiss watchmaker to be acquired by a Chinese company. The new owner, Citychamp Watch & Jewellery Group (formerly China Haidian Holdings), are a Hong Kongbased investment holding company principally engaged in the watch and property businesses. Other notable brands in the company’s portfolio include Eterna and Rotary.
