Panerai Gets Ambitious in China

The top Italian watch brand Panerai is planning to increase its development over the next three years.

Angelo Bonati is a serious and composed man. As the CEO of Panerai, a top Italian watch brand, his personal character explains and represents the character of the brand. The company started as a designer and manufacturer of navigation devices for the Italian navy, and its products are famous for their unparalleled preciseness and quality.

As declared in the “Seven Set Rules” of the luxury industry, a luxury brand must “look back before it goes forward”. This is a way of reminding luxury brands to remember their roots and foundation. They can only development well if they know what they have done in the past.

From military to personal, target high-end market

In Bonati’s opinion, Panerai shares a different piece history than other luxury brands because “it seems to be a self-owned brand but is actually not”.

Bonati says, “Panerai was born long time ago. But at first it was not purely a watch producer. Instead, it specialized in making navigation devices for the Italian navy. Before being acquired by Richemont Group, Panerai never made watches for everyday individual use. Though its products were very famous among the navy, it could not have been called a brand.”

Panerai officially became exclusive for the Italian royal in 1938. During the Second World War, all navigation devices used by the Italian navy were from Panerai.

In the second half of the 20^th century, Panerai began to provide waterproof watches, depth meter and underwater compasses for the Italian navy.

Richemont Group from Switzerland acquired Panerai in 1997. Before that, Panerai only produced about 300 watches over 60 years. After the acquisition, Richemont Group decided to launch Panerai-brand personal watches and establish Panerai as a high-class sports watch. The transformation was successful. Panerai became a famous watch brand. Richemont Group also took a certain share in the high-class sports watch market.

20 exclusive stores in 3 years

Six years ago, Panerai stepped into the Chinese market by establishing an exclusive store in Shanghai. It also launched 12 limited-edition watches combining Chinese elements. Today’s high-class watch market is filled with heated competition. Richemont Group’s Panerai, LVMH and Zenith have seen unparalleled success, which is praised by experts.

Nowadays, Panerai has two exclusive stores in Shanghai and one exclusive store in Beijing. In addition, it rents counters in 20 shopping malls in China. Presently, the high-class watch brand is developing at a fast pace, any luxury brand, including high-class watches, cannot miss this opportunity. Bonati says, “The fourth exclusive store is going to open soon. We plan to establish 20 exclusive stores in China in the next three years. Panerai will focus on the expansion of exclusive stores, which could expose our products to more customers and still keep close relations with the customers.”

Bonati himself holds personal feelings for China. As a man who has loved sailing for 20 years, Bonati bought the legendary Eilean sail boat two years ago. From then on he wished one day he could sail this boat from Italy to China.

But Bonati knew that developing in the Chinese market is as difficult as traveling from Italy to China by sail boat. “The biggest difference between China and the other markets is the huge investment made to build sales channels. In other countries, watch makers can open stores to sell their watches exclusively. But in China, most watch stores are established in big shopping malls. The competition in China is intense. A brand should open in a smart location with an eye-catching slogan and advertisements that will attract and gain customers’ favor. Otherwise it will be ignored and go out of business quickly.”

Bonati admits that Panerai has already gained a large amount of return from China. Europe is still the largest market for Panerai. The U.S and Japan are the largest overseas markets for the Italian watch maker. But Bonati is confidant about China. “In the next three years, Panerai will see a drastic increase in the Chinese market. We all attach more importance to the construction and improvement of sales channels. We also plan to take measures to improve our brand awareness and product quality,” says he.