The North American Watch cocktail party, held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel on Jan. 12, drew 300 guests. According to Gerry Grinberg, chairman of the Lyndhurst, N.J.-based firm, sales in 1995 were up about 20 percent from the year before. For the fiscal year 1994, which ended Jan. 31, 1995, sales were $160.9 million.
“We’re grateful for the support of our retailers,” Grinberg noted. The company distributes the Movado, Esquire, Piaget and Corum watch brands in the U.S., Canada, Central America and the Caribbean.
The Baume & Mercier party, held the same evening at the Lotos Club, had a turnout of 400. Steven Kaiser, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. division of Baume & Mercier, said that the firm had the best sales year in its history last year.
“I think a lot of that is due to new products that we introduced, as well as our new ad campaign, ‘Baume & Mercier and Me,”‘ Kaiser said. “But we also owe a lot to our retail partners, who really came through for Christmas,” he added. “Every one of them had significant sales increases for the holidays, ranging from 15 to 35 percent.”
Baume & Mercier is part of VendOme Group. Its sales figures are not broken out.