aston.db4
121
years back...
Jan 07, 2019,11:46 AM
It's true that GP doesn't have broad consumer awareness in the US. Prior to the last recession in 08/09, GP watches were being sold brand new at 20-30% of MSRP on grey market dealer sites. ADs couldn't sell them and had them on permanent discounting. Pricing was ridiculous though, imagine being a consumer who purchased one of those GP watches then and later find out they could have bought the same watch on liquidation pricing later on.
Kering Group (GP's parent) has been slowly trying to revamp the entire line and get back into the market. Unfortunately in the US, GP's lost market share has been swallowed up by the usual suspects (ie. Rolex, Omega, AP, Patek, etc.). It's very hard to regain market share when brand power has been lost with consumers.
Prior to the last recession, US consumers were willing to buy watches from different xyz brands. During the recession, the poor resale value of those watches left a poor taste in their mouths when many of them were offloading at fire sales. It still lingers up until today, thus top notch brands such as Rolex, FPJ, Patek and AP are in high demand by current consumers, particularly "resale value" that has been ingrained with newbie collectors who tend to be only interested in Rolex.