PARIS – Luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer must be pretty sure fans of its brand aren’t affected by the state of the economy.
How else to explain the timing of the preview of its new phone, which will retail anywhere from $5,700 to $14,000 and beyond (depending on how many diamonds encrust it.) Maybe the sales strategy will be $400 and a 50-year contract…
The Meridiist is the first phone the watch company has ever placed its high-end brand upon and the global launch of its web site precedes Baselworld, the World Watch and Jewellery Show that starts March 26th 2009 and during which the most recent Meridiist collections are to be presented as a preview.
Following an exclusive two month presentation for VIP clients, the web site now enables the general public to discover the Meridiist as well as other available collections and allows customers to find the closest retail location by country (er, not in Canada). One section of the web site is specially dedicated to preorders and enables customers to reserve the model of their choice.
The phone collection consists of seven models, all made of 316L stainless steel yet offering different kinds of keyboard finishing. A range of colors and materials (genuine calfskin leather, rubber and alligator skin) is available to customize the back of the phone and provides clients with the ultimate opportunity to design their phones according to their most luxurious tastes. Prices range from 3,400 Euro for the base model with diamond-finished models starting at 8,500 Euro.
The successive Meridiist launches that have started last August within a selected international distribution network in London, Paris, Geneva, New York, Los Angeles, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore “have been particularly impressive,” says the press release.
"The success of Meridiist surpasses our keenest expectations and manifests itself in the rapidly growing luxury telephone category. This bears witness to the phone’s incredible attractiveness: a subtle combination of performance with its autonomy of 28 days of stand-by time and attractive design based on precious materials such as stainless steel and sapphire crystal. Customers are in search of an object of differentiation and the Meridiist perfectly fits that mindset," said Steve Amstutz, TAG Heuer’s Managing Director of Communications, in the press release.
