12 May 2009 Singapore, The Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) met the press members of Singapore and introduced the FHH  and  Watch@Tablet^® .

The two-person team (Pascal O. Ravessoud and Rana Karam) is on Asia tour,  just flown in early this week after Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The previous day, they had already met up with the brands representatives and the retailers.

The objectives of the session were to :

1) introduction of FHH
2) the Anti-Counterfeiting Campaign and the impact of counterfeiting and
3) introduction of the Watch@Tablet^®



The collaterals ...




Press members present...


At 11:30am,  John Werner (FHH Mission Delegate Singapore)  opened the session introducing Pascal and Rana. Also provided the objectives of the  session.



Pascal O. Ravessoud (Development Director of FHH) began with the founding of the FHH.  Next the objectives of the FHH:

1) to be a platform to inform those who are interested in watches from the consumers to the retailers. FHH will aim to organise 2 to 3 exhibitions per year. Supplementing that are updates through the FHH website.  Currently only in English and French, will be planning for Mandarin and Japanese as demands from these 2 countries are significant.

Now, there is a hardcopy magazine which features the best 20 articles on the FHH website and distributed to partners during the SIHH.  In future, FHH may be considering quarterly editions and discussion with press groups is ongoing.

In the pipeline, also developing programme for 3-hour workshop of assemble and disassemble of an ETA movement.

2) to inspire the vocations and arouse interest/awareness in watchmaking

3) to take up the role as a think tank for the Fine Watch Industry.  Recently FHH has organised a 1-day meetup for 40 CEOs of the watch industry to discuss and share various points of views and reflect on the state of the industry.  FHH also has tied up with a university in Milano to conduct data gathering about the watch industry and will publish
a book later.

4) Train Fine Watchmaking professionals
FHH has started a pilot programme of certification to validate the knowledge of salespersons in France. The salesperson will be tested on his sales skills, watch knowledge before awarded the certificate.  The result would increase the credibility of the point of sale and would deliver a better experience for the buyers.




Highlighted that currently the FHH has 29 brands and five institutions.

Each demonstrates the authenticity, creativity and innovation that make them a legitimate partner to the FHH. 
They are: A.Lange & Söhne, Antoine Preziuso, Audemars Piguet, Baume & Mercier, Boucheron, Cartier, Chanel, Chopard, Corum, Daniel Roth, Gérald Genta, Girard Perregaux, Greubel Forsey, Hermès, Hublot, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, JeanRichard, Montblanc, Panerai, Parmigiani, Perrelet, Piaget, Richard Mille, Roger Dubuis, Tag Heuer, Vacheron Constantin, Van Cleef and Arpels, Zenith.

Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry - Musée de l'Horlogerie et l'Emaillerie,
Geneva - Musée d'Horlogerie Beyer, Zurich - Musée d'Horlogerie du Locle,
Château-des-Monts - Musée International d'Horlogerie, La Chaux-de-Fonds.


Next he proceeded to another initiative of the FHH - The Anti-Counterfeiting Campaign and highlighted the impacts to the industry and also consumers.  More details in the press release after this post.






Next was the introduction of the Watch@Tablet^® , a project started in last September.



Pascal holding a Watch@Tablet®

Watch@Tablet® is a sales and training tool, developed by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) and set to become the essential resource for Fine Watch sales associates.  This extra-thin touchscreen tablet PC provides information and advice on demand.




John preparing the tablet for hands-on session ...


Rana Karam has her set ready.  She is the Project Manager for the Watch@Tablet^®   project.



Pascal was explaining how Watch@Tablet^®  was suitable to monobrand (for brand boutique) and multi-brands for retailers. Understand during this trip, 18 sets ordered.
Perhaps some of the new upcoming boutiques in ION (Singapore mall) may incorporate the Watch@Tablet^® .



The startup screen of the Watch@Tablet®


After that 3 Watch@Tablet® were handed out for the press members to try them....




Rana with the Watch@Tablet®




Guiding the users along ....










You can hear many inputs while the users were testing

It would be good to have a voice recorder on to hear the real comments about the experience of the Watch@Tablet®
 


Pascal handling questions raised by the press members/users ....



Some interesting information (gathered from the Q&A)

It may not be neccessary to buy the tablet as the key is the software which is developed by FHH through a vendor.

However, a tablet is encouraged instead of using a notebook with mouse as mobility would be limited  and most importantly, the playability and spontaneous movement would be hindered during an explanation to a customer.   It also looks more progressive and impressive with a tablet.

We have also raised if it could be planted into iPhone or other Smartphones.  The answer is
possible but the screen size may be too small.  Anyway low price tablet is coming by the manufacturer of the first netbook, so the real price is at the licensing of the software and updates.

The initial pricing released is the hardware (tablet with docking station) is USD3,000 and
per license of the software is also USD3,000 which includes one year of free updates of software and news (about twice per week).  One license for one device.  Subsequently, the update fee per license is USD600 per year.



Some pictures of the contents ...







































A picture of the FHH trio with the HH Magazine, the  Watch@Tablet®  and the Anti-Counterfeiting Campaign booklet .     

For more information about FHH, please visit  www.hautehorlogerie.org



Kong
 



Related post:

The Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) Debuts the Watch@Tablet® at the Las Vegas JCK Show