Grey Market...

Hi Anthony,

This maybe a silly question... but isn't it the idea that AD's of any brand are not met to dump excess stock onto the grey market at a cheap price? The WISeKeys are anti-grey market as only the AD can activate the card and warranty.... therefore if they sell the watch onto to a grey market dealer they would have to activate the card and therefore the warranty time would already be ticking! No more blank warranty cards being handed out!

I am unsure what information they transmit to Hublot but when I have had them activated in the shop I have never been asked to fill in my name, address, etc (it would be interesting to know what is transmitted) and the watch only ties up with you personally at home when you log in and agree to link it up with your Hublotista memebership which holds all your personal information.

Of course the benefits to the brand are more than just trying to stop fakes (people will always buy fake watches and the people who buy fakes are unlikely to buy the real one anyway), as above it stops the selling on by AD's to wholesalers but it also gives them all the information of who owns the watch, where they are located, how many others they own and any other information you wish to register.

Andrew

Hublot Fusion, Passion, and Philosophy in Paris - as delivered by Jean-Claude Biver

By: 219 : March 21st, 2011-15:22

The next stop was Paris. As part of the pre-Basel build up Jean-Claude Biver has been on the road to introduce the new collection this year, to talk to journalists who might not make it to Basel or be unable to meet, and talk about what the watches mean t...

Can you tell us more about the Hublot watch guarantee system?

By: AnthonyTsai : March 21st, 2011-16:58

What if a Hublot watch doesn't come with the Hublot card? I'm sure this will happen a lot in the secondary markets. And how does a consumer verify this Hublot card in the secondary market? Let's take for example, if a person puts his Hublot watch up for s...

Thank you, Andrew, for your fantastic report on the session!

By: KIH : March 21st, 2011-17:29

I wish I could be there, but you did much better job than I would have. Thank you, indeed. The guarantee system seems (although I want to know more how it work) innovative and the separation from Bulgari is assuring, and the new line-up sounds intriguing....

Great report & card info...

By: andrewluff : March 22nd, 2011-01:51

Great report Andrew... has got me (more) excited about Basel and what we will see there... esp the carbon fibre repeater! Anthony, the card works well as you say on the original sale but also offers quite good checks for the buyer on the secondary market ...

A few more details....

By: mikemargolis : March 22nd, 2011-08:59

Hublot uses WiseKey, which is a bank-level encrypted smart card. When the authorised dealer sells the watch, he activates the two year warranty and the clock starts ticking. Each watch comes with it's own USB reader and wisekey card. Any service or "event...

What happens when an AD dumps excess inventory to a grey mkt dealer?

By: AnthonyTsai : March 23rd, 2011-04:44

The AD is not supposed to activate the warranty? If so, then what if the AD does activate the warranty? How does Hublot catch the AD for dumping inventory to the grey market? What info does the AD enter when he activiates the warranty? Since this info wil...

Grey Market...

By: andrewluff : March 23rd, 2011-05:04

AD's are not supposed to dump to grey mkt dealers but it happens

By: AnthonyTsai : March 23rd, 2011-05:11

so if the AD activates the card and the warranty starts ticking that same day, then it really doesn't hurt the grey mkt dealers that much since they now have a watch w/ a a valid warranty. And now they have 2 years to try to flip the watch before the 2-yr...

.

By: mikemargolis : March 23rd, 2011-23:06

If the authorised dealer resells to another dealer, he either activates the warranty when he sells the watch (because the card has to go with the watch) or he doesn't. If he does, then the clock is ticking, and the customer gets less than two years warran...

Clever system, indeed.

By: KIH : March 24th, 2011-05:28

Thank you for your explanation, Mike. Another nice feature of Hublot! Ken This message has been edited by KIH on 2011-03-24 05:29:00

K thanks for the info. So looks like this e-card is just to help with authenticity

By: AnthonyTsai : March 24th, 2011-08:51

It really isn't "anti-grey market" because now the grey mkt dealer has a watch with warranty at time of purchase. In reality, this e-card actually benefits grey market dealers because usually AD's don't stamp the warranty card when they sell inventory to ...

I guess you would be right

By: mikemargolis : March 24th, 2011-23:25

if we were a weak brand who had to dump inventory. Thankfully we are not, so this works for us, not against us.

Great Answer!

By: andrewluff : March 25th, 2011-02:50

Great Answer Mike...

JCB is the man

By: icyremy : March 22nd, 2011-09:08

JCB is such a great personality. It is he who makes Hublot famous with the financial help from LVMH.Thank you very much for the report.

With the help of Hublot

By: jcbiver : March 22nd, 2011-09:49

Thank you for the compliments. Please allow me two comments: 1.What I am doing at Hublot is only possible thanks to my team and its creativity 2.We certainly have support from LVMH in certain fields, but please note that we are still financing our develop...