Audemars Piguet, the Swiss maker of the rugged Royal Oak watch, plans to open stand-alone shops to buy and sell second-hand timepieces, seeking more control over its products throughout their life cycle as the industry looks for new sources of growth. The preowned business could be 10 to 20 times the size of the market for new watches, CEO Francois-Henry Bennahmias said at a show in Geneva. Until now it’s mostly been left to auction houses, independent local shops and online platforms such as Amazon.com and eBay, with Swiss brands focusing on building an aura of exclusivity around their new creations. "We have to recapture that market, because we believe we can do that better," he said in an interview at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie. Switzerland’s four-century-old watchmaking industry is experimenting with new strategies after a multiyear slump that came amid a crackdown on corruption in China and the rise of the smartwatch. Last year’s export growth of about 3% wa...
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