Buying time
Treasures are precious things that we keep throughout time. Luxury watches are the treasures we use to keep track of time, but time itself is something we cannot keep, and that’s why time is perhaps now the most precious commodity and our greatest luxury. Luxury has been traditionally defined as that which you don’t need, but luxury in this age is having the time to do everything you want — and we certainly don’t have enough of that. Omega, the 160-year-old watchmaker, opened up its second Philippine boutique in Greenbelt 5 last week, along with seven other Swiss watch brands under the Lucerne Group, all on the elegant first-floor row called Treasures, the new center for luxury timepieces.
Stephen Urquhart, Omega global president, flew to Manila to inaugurate the store, cut the ribbon with celeb couple Richard and Lucy Gomez, raffle off an orange Seamaster Planet Ocean autographed by George Clooney, and ponder on how the times, they are a-changing.
“What is the current economic situation?” Urquhart challenges back the question about the global recession/slowdown/crisis. “I read the papers every day and I still don’t know. It’s uncertainty that’s bad now, nobody expected this. But I still think people will continue to buy quality products. We just opened up a shop on Fifth Avenue New York, one in Singapore. You walk around here, people are still smiling. Asia will come out of this even stronger than before.”
Indeed, Greenbelt 5 was abuzz with people checking out the new watch stores and actually buying the costly arm candy. Certainly the MasterCard fishbowl with raffle stubs for cardholders who spend more than P50,000 was filling up, and the watch hub had just officially opened, oh, a few hours earlier.
And if there ever was a concern that cell phones would replace watches, it was vanquished several years ago. “You can never say never. We were concerned a few years back, but the electronic era came and went (for watches). Nobody is comparing a cell phone to a watch. Every cell phone, iPod, and laptop keeps time, perfect time, and can jump dates correctly. This is different — we are selling art, craftsmanship, workmanship, history.” Urquhart recalls getting a report in the ’90s saying that all the Japanese ladies were carrying their pink mobile phones. “People ask me about technology. Imagine if you had to bring out new technology every five years. We have a product that is 250 years old.”
Omega is known for their responsibly glamorous brand ambassadors like Nicole Kidman and George Clooney, but of course also for the eternal rogue James Bond. The current limited-edition Quantum of Solace watch features a textured black face dial inspired by the grip of Bond’s weapon of choice, the Walther PPK. “We always look for someone on the level of Omega and who’s world famous,” says Urquhart about choosing brand ambassadors. Nicole is involved with UNICEF, and Clooney’s made some controversial films. More important, however, is how we use them, not just have them on an ad, but involved with the brand. Most of them already have a history with Omega.” When Clooney signed up with Omega, he called his father to tell him the news. The father said that he had one himself, and went upstairs to get the watch. “It was a 1962 Omega, and George gave it to me to have it fixed. The watch was working perfectly. True story.”
Urquhart’s own favorite watch model is the Speedmaster, designed in 1957. It went to the moon, a testament to Omega’s history, versatility, and timelessness. Having been the luxury watch business for 40 years, Urquhart says that it was just “destiny. I joined Omega in 1968, it could’ve been anything else. Luckily not banking,” he jokes. “It’s a unique business, and a beautiful product. There’s a mechanical and technical aspect to it — it’s not like a handbag. More than that it’s also been the people. I’ve known the distributors here in the Philippines for 20 years. It’s good to have this kind of partnership, as opposed to having the products distributed through large chains.”
The expensive watch, with its numerous and layered movements like tiny dancers on the head of a pin, is the kind of cult object that increases in value over time, precisely because it is a throwback to mechanical, artisanal craft. It has an analog soul that will long outlast its owner. Not just a keeper of time, it is a test of it. “The watch has been nurtured as a talking piece, a statement, over the last 30 years,” states Urquhart. “It’s not just fashion, but your personality. Products of lasting quality will remain during the slowdown more than the bling products. People are looking for things that have a lasting value.”
