IWC Schaffhausen

When someone mentions China, you automatically think of the country’s sheer size and its virtually unlimited opportunities for those in search of success. Both are truisms, but it is not quite that simple. The true road to success is a stony one and demands the total expertise and commitment that someone intimately familiar with Chinese culture can have. “In China the shortest way between two points is often not a straight line,” says Dennis Lee, who is currently establishing the market for IWC in this enormous region.

Born in Taiwan, he emigrated to the US with his parents, was educated there and returned to Asia. Lee is in a position to compare and knows what it takes to be successful. His job is to build a bridge between East and West, and he started by establishing a market for watches from Schaffhausen in Taiwan. Now it is China’s turn, starting from Shanghai and moving out in the direction of other megacities with their rapidly burgeoning and affluent populations. Practically not a month goes by when Lee and his dedicated team do not open at least one new boutique in another huge city.

Small wonder, then, that Lee is on the road half the time and rarely to be found in his Shanghai office. Visiting customers, assessing potential locations and appointing staff: his working days are long and stressful. A normal one is from eight to eight, usually followed by a long business dinner. Relations with retailers, media representatives and many others who play an important part in the brand’s success need cultivating. But the time is well invested. In China, people forge deeper relationships and finalize deals – obtaining a prime location in a shopping mall, for instance – at the dinner table.

It is certainly difficult to succeed in a country so enormous without personal connections. Dennis Lee falls back mainly on his Taiwanese roots, which stretch back into China, from where his grandfather once emigrated. In mainland China, because of the similarities in language and culture, the Taiwanese have a widespread reputation of being among the country’s most successful investors and business people.

Two years ago, when Lee first set his sights on the Chinese market, IWC was relatively weakly positioned. “Back then, the market hadn’t realized the true value of our watches,” explains Lee. In the meantime all that has changed completely. With the support and trust from the company to do drastic changes, success has come from clean-up of distribution with closure of 30% of inferior shops, more strategic pricing, and with a marketing positioning based on focus together with the strapline “Engineered for men” found on the ads that appear only in the best business, lifestyle and professional watch magazines.

Giving IWC this positioning has gone down well with successful Chinese men, who are really not in short supply. Their expensive watches from Schaffhausen set them apart and have become a status symbol signifying success. And, as Lee explains, the Chinese are pretty emphatic about that: “They do not mind showing their affluence to the outside world.” Understandably, because economic success is still a relatively new phenomenon.

They probably tend to hold by the same principle IWC’s man in China extends to his work: “I always try to do my best. That way, I have nothing to regret even if things go wrong.” Commitment like this leaves him little free time. It’s enough for a brief get-together at the weekend with his beloved daughter, who he loves to cook for, at home in Taiwan. On Sunday evening, it’s time to get back to Shanghai, which takes him 80 minutes by plane.

Going around in his head are probably the names of the other megacities in China that he could try conquering for Schaffhausen. After all, there are still many of them.