TAG Heuer enters mobile market with high-end handsets

Dubai: Would you buy a mobile phone for Dh16,500?

You might, if you were rich enough and if it were a TAG Heuer brand.

But why would a luxury watchmaker venture into mobile phones when it makes more than enough by selling exclusive timepieces?

There could be a number of reasons. Here is one:

When top executives of Swiss watch company TAG Heuer gathered for a board meeting, they felt something on the table was not matching. It's an essential tool. But those small items did not reflect the style and the philosophy they stood for.

"Hence, the company executives decided to roll out a luxury mobile handset that matches the lifestyle of people at a different level," Steve Amstutz, general manager of TAG Heuer Communication Instruments, told Gulf News.

The company decided to launch the handsets in 2005. "By the end of 2008, we launched the products in international markets," he said.

It rolled out the handsets in the UAE earlier this year through Ahmed Siddiqi and Sons, and they have been well-received by the high-end consumers, Amstutz said.

"Our first set of products was sold out in advance when we launched in the UAE in February this year," he added.

Retail prices of TAG Heuer handsets are sold in the local market from Dh16,500 and Dh22,500 apiece.

"However, we have diamond-studded ones retailing at Dh150,000 and more," he said.

The current economic situation did little to dent the luxury spending market.

"We have not been able to produce enough to meet the market demand," he said.

Although the global handset market is about a billion units per year, the ultra-luxury segment is about 100,000 units a year, dominated by three brands — Virtue, TAG Heuer and Christian Dior.

"The market size of this segment is about $2-$3 billion (Dh7.4 billion)," Amstutz said. "And this is growing despite the current situation."

In the UAE, TAG Heuer is retailed through 22 points of sale and 22 independent boutiques.

"Although we have witnessed a double-digit decrease in sale of some products, I see light at the end of the tunnel," he said.