Eberhard owns its niche identity

Being an independent watchmaker within a price segment dominated by brands owned by large groups with enormous financial support systems can prove to be exceptionally daunting. Eberhard’s assertiveness and self-assuredness, however, has ensured healthy and sustained growth within the segment – and the brand continues with its winning strategy to ensure increased production and sales

‘Day & Night’ magazine caught up with Eberhard’s CEO, Mario Peserico, at the 2015 Baselworld Exhibition, where Eberhard introduced its range of novelties for the year, to get an update on the brand, the business, and its activities.

What is the current status of your Middle East distribution?
Eberhard is currently available in the UAE, Iran, Lebanon, and Oman. We are working on establishing ourselves in the other Middle Eastern markets, and are evaluating these developments in a number of ways. We will soon see something significant happening for us in the Middle East – either through a general distributor or through something more independent. There will ultimately be a more solid structure than the current situation.

Which model is shaping up to be a bestseller in the Middle East, and are there similarities with consumer activities in other parts of the world?
I must say that the results in the last few months, which is perhaps related to the drop in oil prices, reflected greater sales from tourists as opposed to local consumers. This might explain why we have sold more of the Chrono 4 models than any other products, because it is more popular in Europe and Russia, for example. The Chrono 4 has been the definite bestseller over the past six months. 

For a long time, Eberhard has been renowned for its men’s watches, however, there has recently been more effort being put into the female line; have you seen a positive outcome from this increased effort?
The female line makes up approximately five per cent of our turnover, so it’s not that big for us. The men’s watches are an important part of our DNA and are the most important part of our collections, but nevertheless, we are still focusing more on the ladies’ segment. It is a segment that is growing quickly. We are concentrating on one model, interpreted in different ways. We had never immediately expected a good result, the difficulty being that it is a new market for us and the competition is very strong, but it is improving step-by-step and we are happy. New models are being proposed every year to enrich the collection, and I think that we are moving in the right direction – this is being reflected in some markets already.

Of all the markets that Eberhard is available in, which is the strongest?
Our strongest market is Europe, and more specifically Italy.

How would you characterise the wearer of an Eberhard timepiece?
When you’re in this price range, where there is a wide selection of other brands, who are obviously “giants” in the industry, and some brands belong to very powerful groups that gives them an added advantage. Digging deeper, however, our brand is doing well because our quality and price positioning is very appealing, and often we include creations that reach the top end of the product spectrum.  Some of the other brands tend to spend more on marketing and communication as opposed to investing in the product research and development, whereas we prefer to focus the majority of our budget on product development. When you are really willing to understand what you buy, it is important, and therefore, I would say that our customer is an individual who makes this choice based on research and a clear understanding of horology.

The Chrono 4 is an iconic design for the brand. How do you ensure that interest is maintained in the different variations of this design?
I think that a product can easily fade away if you do not believe in it. We strongly believe in the greatness of the Chrono 4 and continue to invest in it by updating the product. It’s a matter of applying creativity and supporting the product with the right marketing strategy. We are a niche brand, and the Chrono 4 is a product in a niche, so it is vital to our brand identity.

As a niche brand, how many watches are you producing annually?
We produce around 16,000 pieces – which is nothing compared to the hundreds of thousands to millions being produced by the brands owned by bigger groups with the same price positioning. We do not have a target number that we hope to reach as we work year-by-year and focus on a healthy and sustained growth.

Are there any markets that you hope to be in?
Let’s say that we are facing some difficulties to develop within the United States, but we do believe that it is a very important market so we are hoping to accomplish something there soon.