“調好手表，走向世界”

大約在去年，媒體對中國奢侈品市場的大幅增長進行了連篇累牘的報道。全球幾大管理咨詢公司【如麥肯錫（McKinsey）、貝恩（Bain）、波士頓咨詢（Boston Consulting Group）】紛紛發布了研究報告，詳細分析了奢侈品銷量與日俱增的現象，并對該市場各層面的未來走勢進行了預測。

奢侈品的范疇定義方法各有不同。例如，上述大多數報告都沒有包括私人飛機和游艇在內，重點多放在高級時裝、佩飾、手表、珠寶、書寫工具和名酒等產品上。

但在中國，有一類產品卻是大家公認的奢侈品，那就是手表。凡是了解中國文化的人，無論是古代文化還是現代文化，對此都不會感到意外。

北京故宮（the Forbidden City）有一間專門的陳列室，在那里人們可以欣賞到許多從君主時代就流傳下來的精美時鐘，中國人對計時古已有之的癡迷從中可見一斑。

在中國，除了上年紀的人以外，很少有人知道在1949年以后乃至1966年文化大革命（the Cultural Revolution）開始之前，手表是人們能在北京王府井商業區亨得利鐘表店等地方買到的為數不多的進口商品之一。

1979年改革開放之初，一家外國品牌【精工（Seiko）】鐘表店在王府井開張營業的消息登上了世界各國媒體的頭條，釋放出中國在停擺30年之后開始有選擇地恢復進口商品市場的信號。

我初到香港的時候，我的中國老板宅心仁厚，循循善誘，我上班沒多久就送給我一塊手表。那時我還沒有戴表的習慣，但他說這可不行，原因有兩個。第一，不戴手表開會可能會遲到。第二，有身份的中國人寧死也不能不戴手表，假如我不戴的話就會貽笑大方。

香港零售業的朋友告訴我，經驗老到的香港精品店售貨員會特別留意每位進店客人佩戴的手表品牌，以此作為判斷他們消費能力的關鍵線索。

所以，如今世界高檔手表制造商無不將中國視作全球手表市場的大魚，也就不足為奇了。現在，富裕的中國消費者已經對很多歐洲高端名表品牌，至少是它們（短而易記）的中文品牌耳熟能詳。

正如我在新博客的開篇介紹中所述，全球化讓世界變得更小，也讓生活和工作的節奏變得更快。講求效率的全球商務人士不僅要按自己的模式思考問題，還要設身處地替生活在世界另一端的人們著想。

時區象征著遙遠的距離和不同的人種，也是人們跳出本土環境和價值觀去思考問題的根本出發點。

手上戴著這個星球上的某款名表，懷揣全球理想的中國人已經做好準備，在沖出時區的征途上邁出了微小但卻重要的一步。

"If You're Going Global, Adjust Your Watch"

There has been a lot of media coverage during the past year or so about the phenomenal growth of the luxury market in China. Several of the top global management consulting firms (McKinsey, Bain, Boston Consulting Group) have published research reports detailing the meteoric rise in luxury product sales and forecasting various aspects of this important segment's future trajectory.

The scope of the luxury goods category can be defined in various different ways. For example, private airplanes and yachts are excluded from most of these reports, which tend to focus more on high-end fashion, accessories, watches, jewelry, writing instruments, fine wine, etc.

One category that is included in everyone's definition of the luxury product segment in China is wristwatches. This should come as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with Chinese culture, modern or ancient.

Beautiful, elaborate timepieces dating from the imperial era can be seen in a dedicated display hall in the Forbidden City in Beijing, showing the historical fascination with timekeeping in Chinese society.

It is also a?little known fact, except to older Chinese people, that watches were one of the few categories of imported Western consumer goods which remained available after 1949 even up to the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, at shops like Hengdeli in Beijing's Wangfujing shopping district.

In 1979, during the earliest days of the Open Door and Reform policy, the opening of a foreign branded watch shop (Seiko) in Wangfujing made headline news around the world as a clear sign that China was selectively re-opening its market to imported consumer goods after a 30-year hiatus.

When I first arrived in Hong Kong, my Chinese boss, who was a kind and patient mentor, gave me a watch soon after I reported for duty. I was not in the habit of wearing a watch, which he said was not acceptable for two reasons. First, I might be late for meetings. Second, no respectable Chinese executive would be caught dead without a wristwatch, and I would look foolish without one.

Friends in Hong Kong retailing told me how experienced retail sales staff in Hong Kong's upmarket shops would pay careful attention to what brand of watch an incoming customer was wearing. This was an important clue as to their spending ability.

So it comes as no surprise that any premium watchmaker in the world today sees China as the big whale of global timepiece markets. Affluent Chinese consumers are adept at pronouncing the names of many super high-end European watch brands, at least the Chinese versions of their brand names (which are shorter and easier to remember).

As the introduction to my new blog suggests, globalization has made the world smaller, and the pace of life and work much faster. Effective global business people need to think not only in their own frame of reference, but to be able to put themselves in the shoes of people on the other side of the world.

Time zones are symbolic of great distances and human diversity. They are a very basic starting point for thinking outside of one's local context and values.

Wearing some of the best watches available on the planet, Chinese people with global ambitions are well equipped to take one small but important step on the road to thinking outside their own time zone.