Niche high-end products beat established brands

The luxury consumers care more about the experience of buying and wearing the watches, rather than the price, he added.

Montres DeWitt entered the China market four years ago and has three authorized stores - in Beijing, Shanghai and Dalian.

Jerome De Witt, founder of Montres DeWitt SA, is showing his production to a visitor. [Photo / China Daily]

China already is one of the five main markets of Montres DeWitt and buys about 200 pieces from the stores every year, De Witt said.

Some niche brands got their buyers in China, even before they occur at China's market.

Laurent Lecamp and his young team came to Beijing for the luxury expo in September to introduce his brand - Cyrus, which is a new watch brand in Switzerland but received the award "Best Independent Brand" during the Nuit de I'horlogerie de Monaco (Watchmakers' Night of Monaco) in 2011.

"We do not have any distributors in China yet, but our products already have Chinese consumers, who bought the watches overseas," said Lecamp, founder and managing director of Cyrus Watches RL SA.

He said Cyrus is considering opening its stores in China, although only 480 Cyrus watches will be produced this year.

"Cyrus' consumers are the group of people who want to be different from others, no matter in China or any other countries in the world," Lecamp said.

Chinese luxury consumers' preference on the niche brands also shows the business opportunity to small French chateaus.

"Chinese residents do not just buy names, but the taste of wine they like," said Bernard de Laage de Meux, development director of Chateau Palmer in Margaux, a wine-producing region in Bordeaux.

He said that in the past, only the most famous wine brands, like Lafite and Latour, could be popular in China, but many Chinese consumers turn to the smaller chateaus now.

"Our chateau welcomed Chinese visitors almost every week, and they show their interests in our wine," he added.

Some uncommon luxury products also find their consumers in China.

Buben & Zorweg, the world's largest "time mover" manufacturer, has three boutiques in China, and the store in Beijing sells two products every month on average.

China is one of the brand's best markets, together with Middle East, eastern Europe and Russia, said Christina Zorweg, company president.

"Our customers are super-rich people who own several top watches before buying a time mover," Zorweg said. The buyers of time movers priced from 20,000 to 3 million yuan cannot show off the large products anywhere.

"They only enjoy our products at home," he added.

However, because of the low production rate and the attention on private contact, the business of niche brands is still around the big cities in China, and the mass-market brands occupy the larger market in second- and third-tier cities.

Consumers in smaller cities choose the luxury brands according to their publicity rather than the difference, UIBE's Zhou said.

"The structure of China's luxury market makes clear that niche brands are popular in big cities, and mass-market brands enjoy the business in smaller cities."

wangwen@chinadaily.com.cn