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Tag: watch

  • Breitling unveils Seoul flagship with a cafe and its first restaurant

    Breitling unveils Seoul flagship with a cafe and its first restaurant

    Breitling opened its largest flagship, the 8,000-square-foot Breitling Townhouse Hannam. Located in the fashionable Hannam district of Seoul, South Korea, known for its international embassies and luxury fashion flagships, the space combines retail with a Breitling Café, terrace, and the first-ever restaurant, Breitling Kitchen. The Breitling Townhouse’s combination of retail with food and beverage will make it a top destination in this vibrant area.

    All Breitling boutiques are designed as chic industrial lofts that combine vintage decor with streamlined contemporary design for a modern-retro feel. A second recurring motif is “air, sea, and land” – the three universes that the Breitling watch families were developed for. In the Breitling Townhouse Hannam, these design themes are very prominent.

    The flagship boutique is a 2,000-square-foot retail space that has Breitling’s latest watch collections on display in an aviation-lounge-inspired atmosphere. The brand’s newest flagship is also home to Breitling Equipment – a shop-in-shop that carries tools and accessories inspired by Breitling’s universes.

    Breitling Kitchen is the brand’s first-ever restaurant led by chef Kim Hyeong-Kyu. Guests can choose from seating zones themed by air, sea, and land or reserve a private dining room in the Breitling universe of their choice. Breitling Café is an inviting street-level coffee shop that serves a well-crafted selection of specialty coffees, freshly baked goods, and fine patisseries.

    Customers and visitors can also enjoy an outdoor seating area that serves as both an extension to the café and private event space. Vintage Corridor is a walk-through heritage experience that tells the Breitling story with interactive displays.

    This opening gives a clue at what to expect from Breitling as a leader in the neo-luxury space.

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  • WatchBox secures $165 million to fund expansion

    WatchBox secures $165 million to fund expansion

    Luxury watches online platform, WatchBox, has raised US$165 million of equity capital led by The Radcliff Companies and The Spruce House Partnership.

    The lead investors were also joined by CMIA Capital Partners together with other existing investors. The funds raised will be invested in scaling its digital platform and expanding into new markets, according to the company.

    “Our investors and partners hail from a wide range of industries, from consumer to technology, finance, and professional sports, yet we are all bound by our love of watches,” said Justin Reis, co-founder, and global CEO at WatchBox. “With that foundation, we are now able to use technology to create the best customer experience in the industry.”

    Founded in 2017 by Justin Reis, Tay Liam Wee, and Danny Govberg, WatchBox has global locations in the US, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and Dubai, with additional locations on the way. WatchBox is endorsed by professional athletes and watch enthusiasts including Giannis Antetokounmpo, Chris Paul, Devin Booker, and Karl Anthony Towns.

    “We are reshaping the way high-value luxury is transacted online,” added Reis. “We built our proprietary concierge platform to enable efficiency and scale as we build personal connections with collectors around the world.”

  • Apple releases watchOS 7.6.1 to fix serious security issue

    Apple releases watchOS 7.6.1 to fix serious security issue

    Apple is urging owners of the Apple Watch to install the update to watchOS 7.6.1. Why the urgency? A flaw called the IOMobileFrameBuffer may have been actively exploited, according to a report that Apple is aware of. With the flaw, an application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges which means that an attacker could gain unrestricted access to the timepiece.

    With watchOS 7.6.1 disseminated to patch the vulnerability, it would behoove those with a Series 3 or newer Apple Watch to install it ASAP. To do that, open the Watch app on your iPhone, tap on General > Software Update and you should see the prompt for the update. To install the update, your Apple Watch needs to be on its charger and in range of your Wi-Fi connected iPhone.

    Once the timepiece is charged to at least 50%, the installation will begin. Do not restart the watch or remove it from its charger until the update is completed. The patch delivered by watchOS 7.6.1 addresses the memory corruption issue using improved memory handling.

    Earlier this week Apple released iOS and iPadOS 14.7.1 to patch the same serious security issue that the watchOS 7.6.1 update is patching. The update weighs in at 64.6MB.

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  • Malaysia’s Industronics to launch online pre-owned watch platform

    Malaysia’s Industronics to launch online pre-owned watch platform

    Industronics Bhd is tapping on the US$17 billion pre-owned luxury watch market through Ecgo International Ltd, its wholly-owned subsidiary in Hong Kong.

    This follows the launch of Industronics’ luxury watch e-commerce platform, watch-exchanges.com.

    Executive director Datuk Chu Boon Tiong said based on data and overall market performance, the pre-owned luxury watch market showed promising growth prospects.

    “We are excited to capitalize on the growing trend with the launch of WatchExchange and aim to pave the way for a streamlined trading platform that will not only revolutionise the transactions of pre-owned luxury watches but drive further growth in this industry,” he said in a statement today.

    WatchExchange aims to be the first luxury watch e-commerce platform that issues authenticity certificates for pre-owned luxury watches in Malaysia and Asia Pacific.

    Some of the leading brands profiled are Audemars Piguet, Hublot, Patek Philippe, Tag Heuer, IWC, Omega, Jaeger LeCoultre, Panerai, Rolex and Breitling.

    Chu said pricing and demand for pre-owned luxury watches had been so strong over the last few years that even high-end watch brands were moving into the pre-owned market themselves.

    “However, the biggest challenge for the pre-owned luxury watch market lies in authenticating the watches.

    “Our role here is to ensure that the shoppers can safely purchase luxury watches on WatchExchange without having to worry about the security and authenticity of the pre-owned luxury watches,” he said.

    Industronics, with its team of professional and experienced watch appraisers, said it wanted to create a professional, safe trading environment that would elevate customers’ experience of purchasing pre-owned luxury watches to a new level.

    The company will set up offices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, Canada and Europe, where sellers worldwide could visit for physical appraisals of their watch collections.

    The success of WatchExchange will depend on excellence in several key areas namely stability, sustainability, search engine optimization (SEO) and new media marketing.

    This will also require extensive funding to carry out both online advertising and offline promotional activities.

    Chu believes the competitive advantage for WatchExchange lies in the company’s ability to build a “unicorn” ecosystem around the region.

    “We do not think that the strength of the platform lies solely in the certification and authentication guarantees.

    “We intend to replicate the business models globally via partnerships with a locally listed company in the respective countries.

    “Among the markets that we are looking into are Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China and several emerging markets in Europe. Once our ecosystem matures, we will have so much more to offer to our customers, in terms of the variety of brands, models, and other services,” Chu said.

    According to a management consultancy firm Bain & Company, the global pre-owned luxury watch market was valued at US$17 billion in 2018.

    However, less than 20 per cent of that market is in the Asia Pacific region, while only 25 per cent of the total pre-owned luxury watch sales were online transactions.

    Euromonitor International, an independent strategic market research provider, estimates the value of retail sales of timepieces in Malaysia to grow by five per cent per annum between 2019 and 2022, to reach up to RM2.5 billion.

    Industronic is looking to set up a fund in Hong Kong to raise RM250 million from potential investors.

    Proceeds raised will be utilised to purchase different brands of luxury watches for resale on the company’s platform.

    Industronics aims to invest around RM25 million or 10 per cent of the total funding required, together with the Hong Kong Cyberport Fund, which will invest an equivalent amount or at a 1:1 ratio.

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  • Apple Watch heart rate monitor saves woman from blockage that had 88% chance of killing her

    Apple Watch heart rate monitor saves woman from blockage that had 88% chance of killing her

    Of all the life-saving features on the Apple Watch, perhaps the most employed one is the heart rate monitor because it is the easiest to use and understand. When your heart rate rises above a certain level or falls below a certain level, it means that you need to visit the ER immediately. ABC13 in Michigan reported the story of Diane Feenstra, a woman from Norton Shores Michigan whose Apple Watch allowed her to survive the kind of massive heart attack that only 12% survive according to the AHA.

    This type of heart attack, which affects what is known as the widow-maker artery, is fatal 88% of the time when it happens outside of the hospital. Diane explains what happened on April 22nd, the day that she nearly died. ” The day in question, April 22, I had 169 beats per minute heart rate even though the most vigorous exercise I had done was to walk up 12 steps. So I called my husband at work and said do you think this is concerning? And he said call your doctor.

    At the hospital, an EKG revealed that she had recently had a heart attack, but didn’t know it. “Unlike men who feel an elephant on their chest many times, a woman’s symptoms are very different. I had pain going down my left hand, I had a little swelling in my left foot, I had indigestion that I just explained away as acid reflux that I was experiencing as I got older.”

    Pain in her shoulder she explained away as coming from a recent bit of vacuuming that threw her muscles out of whack. But the truth was that she was experiencing a life-threatening medical emergency. “I think God used that watch to alert me to the fact that my heart wasn’t functioning properly,” she said.

    It turned out that Diane suffered a full blockage in the widow-maker artery. A stent procedure was done and today she is alive and well. Now she and her husband will be able to celebrate their 48th wedding anniversary this coming August.

    Diane had purchased an Apple Watch for her husband Gary and even though she didn’t want one, he bought it for her anyway and all the gesture did was save her life. Feenstra said, “It’s such an easy thing to see what your heart rate is, had I not done that that morning who knows but I may have had another heart attack that would have been fatal.”

    Just the other day, we told you how the timepiece’s fall detection feature helped save a 78-year old man who had fallen, breaking his nose and becoming unconscious. Thanks to the fall detection feature, he was able to receive medical assistance and credited the watch with saving his life.

  • Oriental Watch profit soars as Chinese shop at home instead of travel

    Oriental Watch profit soars as Chinese shop at home instead of travel

    Most readers would already be aware that Oriental Watch Holdings’ stock increased significantly by 37% over the past three months. As most would know, fundamentals are what usually guide market price movements over the long term, so we decided to look at the company’s key financial indicators today to determine if they have any role to play in the recent price movement. Specifically, we decided to study Oriental Watch Holdings’ ROE in this article.

    Return on equity or ROE is an important factor to be considered by a shareholder because it tells them how effectively their capital is being reinvested. In short, ROE shows the profit each dollar generates with respect to its shareholder investments.

    The ‘return’ is the profit over the last twelve months. That means that for every HK$1 worth of shareholders’ equity, the company generated HK$0.05 in profit.

    So far, we’ve learned that ROE is a measure of a company’s profitability. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or “retains”, and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that don’t share these attributes.

    On the face of it, Oriental Watch Holdings’ ROE is not much to talk about. We then compared the company’s ROE to the broader industry and were disappointed to see that the ROE is lower than the industry average of 8.5%. However, we were pleasantly surprised to see that Oriental Watch Holdings grew its net income at a significant rate of 42% in the last five years. So, there might be other aspects that are positively influencing the company’s earnings growth. Such as – high earnings retention or efficient management in place.

    Next, on comparing with the industry net income growth, we found that Oriental Watch Holdings’ growth is quite high when compared to the industry average growth of 8.5% in the same period, which is great to see.

    The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. What investors need to determine next is if the expected earnings growth, or the lack of it, is already built into the share price. This then helps them determine if the stock is placed for a bright or bleak future. Is Oriental Watch Holdings fairly valued compared to other companies? These 3 valuation measures might help you decide.

    The three-year median payout ratio for Oriental Watch Holdings is 45%, which is moderately low. The company is retaining the remaining 55%. So it seems that Oriental Watch Holdings is reinvesting efficiently in a way that it sees impressive growth in its earnings (discussed above) and pays a dividend that’s well covered.

    Moreover, Oriental Watch Holdings is determined to keep sharing its profits with shareholders which we infer from its long history of paying a dividend for at least ten years.

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  • Tidal launches Apple Watch app, adds offline playback

    Tidal launches Apple Watch app, adds offline playback

    Tidal follows in the footsteps of other music streaming services like Deezer and Spotify, which recently announced new offline playback features for the Apple Watch. Beginning today, Tidal subscribers can download the new Apple Watch app and start listening to their favorite tunes.

    Although Tidal was until recently the only music streaming service to offer lossless audio format, that will not be available on the Apple Watch. Tidal announced that subscribers using its Apple Watch app will be limited to 96 Kbps.

    It’s important to mention that the new Tidal app is only compatible with Apple Watch Series 3 or later running WatchOS 7.1 and up. To start listening to music on your Apple Watch, simply download the Tidal app on the smartwatch, head to link.tidal.com, and use the code shown on your watch screen.

    Keep in mind that you can also download music on your Apple Watch and listen offline from anywhere without internet connectivity. Also, you can control the playback of Tidal directly from your Apple Watch independent of your iPhone.

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  • Piaget to expand store network across China

    Piaget to expand store network across China

    Piaget, the luxury watch brand from Switzerland, will be opening more stores in 2021, especially in the Middle East and China, Chief Executive Chabi Nouri has told Reuters.

    “We’ll open more stores this year. We’ll reopen a flagship store in Beverly Hills and also have projects in the Middle East and China,” Nouri noted in an interview at the Watches and Wonders online event held last week.

    Piaget, with its array of well-known sleek and slim timepieces, has opened 130 brand-specific outlets and has a network of 300 retail partners.

    Piaget said in a January statement that high demand from China had driven sales to increase by five percent in the last quarter of 2020.

    Nouri noted that Piaget, which also creates watches encrusted with gems, diamonds, and jewelry, had bolstered its e-commerce presence while remaining focused on its own outlets, retail partnerships, and online selling to assist the distribution process.

    Nouri stated that in the wake of the coronavirus disease pandemic, Piaget was left with no choice but to reassess its strategies on connecting with its customer base and partners, though not impelling it to make adjustments to its product line.

    At the Watches and Wonders event, Piaget displayed timepieces, including the Limelight Gala Precious Rainbow gold model that is bedecked with colorful rainbow-hued sapphires and is priced at $106,922.99.

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  • Swatch launches art-themed Macau pop up

    Swatch launches art-themed Macau pop up

    Swiss watch giant Swatch Group said Thursday it suffered a net loss of 53 million Swiss frances (49 million euros) last year as the coronavirus ravaged the global economy.

    Sales were down more than 32 percent at 5.5 billion Swiss francs, short of analyst forecasts compiled by the AWP agency for 5.8 billion Swiss francs.

    In 2019, the company, famous for its trendy multi-color plastic watches, had posted a profit of 748 million Swiss francs.

    Swatch said the pandemic slashed sales by more than 43 percent in the first quarter last year as the authorities imposed a sharp lockdown to try and curb the spread of the virus.

    As restrictions were subsequently eased, sales picked up again but remained well below normal levels, with business in tourist hotspots and airports hit badly.

    Swatch said it closed 384 outlets over the course of the year, with Hong Kong especially hard hit, falling from 92 in 2019 to 38 last year.

    For this year, the company said it hopes sales will recover to close to 2019 levels as the economy stabilises, citing China’s example.

  • Apple Watch picks up another update today

    Apple Watch picks up another update today

    Today is a happy day for Apple fans, as the Cupertino-based company is rolling out new software updates for three of its popular products: iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. If you’re rocking one of the first two, you should be able to download iOS 14.2 today.

    On the other hand, Apple Watch owners can download watchOS 7.1, a rather important update that brings some interesting new features for select users. The first one is the ability to be notified when your headphone level could impact your hearing.

    Then, we have a fix for an issue that prevented some users from unlocking Mac with Apple Watch. Another fix included in the update should address an issue where the screen may be dark on wrist raise for some people using the Apple Watch Series 6.

    The next two new features are specifically aimed at Apple Watch users in two countries: Korea and Russia. Those users living in one of the two countries will finally get support for the ECG app on Apple Watch Series 4 or later, as well as support for irregular heart rhythm notifications.

    Make sure that you check your Apple Watch app via your iPhone to see whether or not the new watchOS 7.1 update is available for download. You should find it by heading to General / Software Update.

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  • Swiss Watchmakers Believe In-Store Shopping Will Prevail

    Swiss Watchmakers Believe In-Store Shopping Will Prevail

    Despite the pandemic, Swiss watchmakers believe in-store shopping will prevail over digital platforms. The majority of Swiss watchmakers believe that bricks and mortar stores will remain the preferred sales channels for their products and will prevail over online in the coming years. This, despite the recent impact of the pandemic and accelerated digitalization.

    In-store experiences are still viewed as an essential part of the customer journey, and companies are investing considerably in experiential brand marketing. Pessimism is rife among Swiss watch industry executives with 85 percent forecasting a grim outlook for the industry. Despite the challenging outlook, the industry is not complacent, prioritizing omnichannel strategies, delving into the pre-owned market, and shifting towards more sustainable and ethical ways of production.

    Hopes were high in January 2020 for a positive year for the watch industry after a challenging 2019. COVID-19 had other plans leading to one of the most disruptive periods in the history of the Swiss watch industry. Over two-thirds (67 percent) of watch industry executives surveyed in the Deloitte Swiss Watch Industry Study 2020 predict a gloomy outlook for the Swiss economy in general, with 85 percent forecasting a grim outlook for the industry specifically which shows the seriousness of the current situation and the monumental challenge for the industry.

    COVID-19 has hit the industry hard and the emerging second wave is a stark reminder that the crisis is not yet over. The decline in exports has affected entry-level quartz watches even more acutely, a segment suffering since 2012. The collapse of global tourism due to travel restrictions, which is likely to continue in the coming months, a drop in domestic demands due to the lockdown, and cautious spending habits are having a direct impact on the industry. Production halts in China exposed gaps in some of the producers’ supply chain and inventories, perhaps leading to a rethink of regionalizing production back to Switzerland.

    Over 70 percent of Swiss watch executives believe that offline channels will continue to dominate digital ones across all price brackets. Over 60 percent of brands surveyed are prioritizing the development and strengthening of their omnichannel strategy. The in-store experience is an essential part of the customer journey, which is why executives are looking to implement experiential brand experiences, a mobile-driven workforce, and mobile apps to enhance their in-store customer experience. Technologies like augmented reality or virtual reality are not prioritized at the moment.

    For an industry that largely relies on the emotional connection from seeing and handling luxury watches, the challenge moving forward will be how to combine physical and digital with so-called phygital experiences. This will be essential to create not only a seamless journey for customers but also increase resilience should another lockdown happen, Karine Szegedi, Head of Fashion & Luxury at Deloitte Switzerland, said.

    When it comes to which marketing channels influence consumers’ decisions to buy a watch, print ads are still most influential in Switzerland and Germany, while in France, China and the U.K., in-store events have the greatest impact. Social media and influencers are most effective in Hong Kong, UAE, and Singapore. Radio and TV are still quite important in many countries, showing the importance of getting the marketing channel mix right.

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  • Hermes Japan opens a new store in Osaka

    Hermes Japan opens a new store in Osaka

    Luxury fashion house Hermes has opened a new store in Osaka, its fourth store in the city. Located at Parco shopping center, the new Hermes store spans two stories and occupies a 515sqm space.

    Designed by the Parisian architecture agency RDAI, the store facade features floor-to-ceiling undulating glass windows, creating a “water-like effect” on both floors. Meanwhile, the store interior is decorated with ropes hanging from the ceiling, showcasing traditional Japanese craftsmanship with the Kumihimo braiding technique.

    Hermes’ silk collections, including the new double-sized scarves, are displayed at the store’s center while ready-to-wear collections are presented at both sides of the store. Far end of the store is an “intimate salon”, featuring women’s accessories, including shoes, jewelry, and watches.

    The new Hermes Osaka store features a bar and a made-to-measure service on the upper floor.

    “Echoing the annual theme for 2020, Innovation in the Making, this new retail space mirrors Hermes’ tribute to the human hand and to the ingenuity of its artisans,” the company said in a statement.

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  • Google Maps returns to the Apple Watch

    Google Maps returns to the Apple Watch

    Back in 2017, Google Maps no longer worked with the Apple Watch. The reason why Google pulled it from the Apple Watch reportedly had something to do with the app’s limited capabilities on the watch compared to the iPhone app. At the time that Google made this announcement, it promised that Maps would return to the Apple Watch. And that apparently is what is happening. After a new update, Google Maps is once again available for Apple Watch wearers providing them with directions and the estimated time of arrival.

    Users cannot input a new destination directly on the watch and Google directs wearers to enter a location using the phone app and then moving to Apple Watch. Using Google Maps on Apple Watch will allow those walking, driving, taking public transportation, or riding a bicycle from point “A” to point “B” to receive step-by-step directions and show the Estimated Time of Arrival. The primary screen on the Apple Watch shows the user’s current trip with travel times to other destinations such as work and home. Icons show when a turn needs to be made and also identify the current mode of transportation being used. Haptics help users know when they need to make a turn and there is a complication on the Apple Watch that shows the Google Maps icon and opens the app.

    Live Google Maps are not available on the Apple Watch (although live Apple Maps are). Version 5.5.2 of Google Maps is available for the Apple Watch through the App Store.

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  • Swatch cuts 2400 jobs, speeds up Hong Kong store cull

    Swatch cuts 2400 jobs, speeds up Hong Kong store cull

    Swatch Group has cut about 2400 jobs, its biggest cull in at least three decades, and will trim its store network as the Swiss watchmaker recorded its first-ever loss.

    The maker of Omega and Longines timepieces said Tuesday it accelerated plans to shut stores definitively in Hong Kong as well as shops that sell its colorful namesake brand and CK. The loss came as sales in the six months through June plummeted 43 percent due to tot the impact of Covid-19.

    In a break with its strategy during previous crises such as the 2009 financial downturn, Swatch is leaning more on slashing jobs, a signal that this year is different. CEO Nick Hayek has said that during hard times, the problem with cutting jobs is it’s difficult to find qualified staff when the market rebounds.

    “Winston Churchill said ‘never waste a good crisis’, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do, especially in the second half of the year,” Hayek said in prepared video remarks.

    The stock was little changed in early trading, having dropped 28 percent this year.

    The CEO said Swatch expects a profit this year as countries ease lockdown measures that had led to shuttered shops and travel bans amid the coronavirus pandemic. The company’s first-half operating loss of US$347 million was twice as big as analysts expected. In the second half, Swatch plans to introduce new products, including a Tissot smartwatch.

    Swatch announced the end of its 22-year-old contract to sell Calvin Klein watches in October, and many of the closures were related to that decision, Hayek said. The company’s plastic namesake brand is also reducing its reliance on brick-and-mortar stores and will rely more on e-commerce.

    Swatch forecast that the industry will recover quickly as consumers catch up on shopping after lockdowns, as seen in China and Korea. The month of June already was profitable, thanks to pent-up demand in mainland China, where sales rose at a double-digit rate in May and June.

    Still, only about half of its employees in Switzerland have returned to work full-time. Some 6000 employees were on short-time work on average last week, while about 2500 were taking an unused vacation or reducing overtime, according to chief controlling officer Peter Steiger.

    The company had to shut up to 80 percent of its sales outlets around the world during lockdowns. Swatch closed 260 stores definitively and now has about 1800.

  • Reduced rents, high-end products help Oriental Watch stay in profit

    Reduced rents, high-end products help Oriental Watch stay in profit

    Listed Hong Kong timepiece retailer Oriental Watch Holdings has weathered the multiple crises of the last financial year to record a decrease in turnover of just 3.5 percent and a profit of US$12.9 million.

    While turnover was down to $303.6 million, gross profit was up by 7 percent to $83.2 million, “mainly due to the group’s positioning at the high-end luxurious watch market where our long-term customers maintain strong purchasing power, as well as our vigorous efforts in the control of inventory,” the company said in its results announcement.

    The net profit attributable to shareholders of $12.9 million was down by 27.5 percent, the decline largely due to impairment losses, an increase in the allowance for slowing-moving stock and decreasing sales due to Covid-19 in the first quarter of this calendar year. But the company warned the full impact of Covid-19 had not been represented in the 2020 year results.

    Chairman Yeung Ming Biu said the company had introduced “stringent cost-control measures, especially in rent costs” which were down by 15.7 percent to $18.7 million.

    “We have successfully negotiated lower rental rates and more flexible leasing terms, and hence lowering the overall rental cost. In addition, we conduct a regular assessment on the performance of all retail stores and close down non-performing ones to improve resources allocation. The Group will continue to closely monitor our stores’ performance as well as rental contracts in order to improve our efficiency and cost structure,” said Yeung

    Oriental Watch has 62 luxury watch stores in Greater China, 47 on the mainland, 11 in Hong Kong, three in Taiwan and one in Macau.

    By market, Oriental Watch achieved a 17.5-per-cent increase in sales on the mainland to $129.1 million, despite the declining consumer sentiment and the advent of the pandemic. In Hong Kong, year-on-year sales were stable despite the social unrest from June last year until the arrival of Covid-19. As a result, sales fell by 17.3 percent to $154.6 million.

    Sales in Taiwan and Macau grew slightly, but recorded a loss largely due to increased allowance for slow-moving stock.

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