What you need to know before the open – 07/02 February 7, 2014 With the US employment report out later today, European bourses are expected to open higher. Yesterday's better-than-expected jobless numbers have helped ease investor fears. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank decided against upping interest rates, with president Draghi insisting Europe has no inflation problem, although he hinted at the possibility of action in the medium term. [...]
Statoil slashes spending as profits wane February 7, 2014 Norwegian energy company Statoil has announced net income of 14.8bn Norwegian Krone (£1.4bn) for the fourth quarter. The results came in below estimates of a Bloomberg poll of 20.8bn Norwegian Krone but were better than the more bearish forecasts of RBC Capital Markets of 12.3bn Norwegian Krone. The company said the results were "impacted by [...]
Asian shares bounce back in wake of US data February 7, 2014 Asian shares are continuing to stabilise – rebounding from five-month lows – after the US posted better than expected employment numbers, signalling a strengthening recovery in the world's largest economy. The positive US data has helped temper concerns over the recent volatility seen in emerging markets. Japan's Nikkei is up 2.2 per cent, continuing its [...]
Mr Smith goes to London February 6, 2014 It may have escaped your knowledge that Great Britain harbours the only watchmaker in the world capable of making his watches entirely by hand. But it certainly hadn’t passed No. 10 unnoticed, and the Isle of Man’s Roger Smith was an immediately obvious candidate for the UK government’s international “GREAT Britain” campaign, promoting our nation’s [...]
An exponential expansion for Patek Philippe on Bond Street February 6, 2014 BREMONT and William & Son may be making Mount Street the watch district to watch, but venerable heavyweight Patek Philippe is proving that Mayfair’s Bond Street is still the place to be, and to be seen. Having secured an agreement with Watches of Switzerland’s Aurum Holdings, the family-owned Swiss watchmaker has taken over the leasehold [...]
Breva forecasts sunny outlook for William & Son February 6, 2014 Look beyond the leather bags and shotguns, and the windows of William & Son on Mount Street boast the most interestingly curated clutch of independent watch brands in the UK. New among the FP Journes, De Bethunes and H Moser & Cies is a truly unprecedented bit of horological gadgetry, courtesy of start-up brand Breva. [...]
Sentence passed on Swatch Group vs Tiffany & Co February 6, 2014 SHORTLY before Christmas, the Dutch Arbitration Institute passed judgement on a lawsuit between Swatch Group vs Tiffany & Co, sentencing the Fifth Avenue jeweller to pay the titan of Swiss watchmaking damages totalling CHF402m (£273.8m). This brings a lengthy dispute to an end, waged since September 2011 when Swatch terminated its collaboration for breach of [...]
British watch brand firing on all cylinders February 6, 2014 Recent visitors to the Square Mile’s super-exclusive Royal Exchange shopping mall will have noticed a new next-door neighbour to Watchfinder’s pre-owned WF&Co boutique, its window populated by an ejector seat and a model of Louis Blériot’s Channel-hopping XI of 1909. But rather than selling Airfix kits, this is the second London boutique for Bremont – [...]
Wafer-thin and mint February 6, 2014 Piaget earns its place in the record books with the ultra-thin 900P Piaget’s Altiplano 900P slipped into the record books at SIHH this year, becoming the world’s thinnest mechanical watch. At just 3.65mm deep, it’s a whole 0.4mm thinner than the previous record-holder, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Master Ultra-Thin Jubilée. In the business of skin-tight watches, that’s miles. [...]
How shopping for watches online went mainstream February 6, 2014 DM London chairman David Coleridge tells us how the watch retail industry is changing with the times DAVID Coleridge has always been a man with a vision; one of those people who are ahead of the curve, a leader rather than a follower. It sounds hyperbolic but without him, in his auspices as chairman of [...]