In true pioneer style, SiberHegner had begun importing timepieces to the Far East in 1890, far earlier than other Swiss trading companies. By the mid-1950s, Omega (with which SiberHegner had a long-standing partnership agreement), was by far the best-selling Swiss watch brand ever: almost 30% of watches imported into Japan were Omegas.

In the 1960s, SiberHegner became the first foreign company in Japan to set up its own sales and marketing network, including a tailor-made after-sales service organization – a ground-breaking strategy for promoting customer loyalty. Because of our can-do and collaborative attitude, we continued to provide Market Expansion Services for Omega in Japan for 99 years, until they were sold to the Swatch Group.

SiberHegner sold Omega watches very successfully to the Japanese, not only in Japan but to Japanese tourists in Switzerland too. SiberHegner also supplied modern Swiss watch making equipment to the Japanese Hattori family business, which later launched the famous Seiko brand.

It just goes to show: being truly interested in people and in determining what drives them allows us to understand local consumers to successfully exploit business opportunities.