Timex Phl shifts to online selling amid store shutdowns

The iconic American watch brand Timex has shifted to online selling in the Philippines, opening last week a Facebook page, as the coronavirus pandemic has kept its key brick-and-mortar branches shuttered.

Among the stores that have shut down are two in Greenbelt and Glorietta – these we have seen with our eyes – and, according to Google, so did the shops in Rockwell, in Tiendesitas and in various SM branches in Metro Manila. In Cebu, Timex also “temporarily closed” the retail shops in the two SM malls, while leaving its Ayala Center store open.

Meanwhile, the new Facebook store, which actually leads to the Timex Philippines website, complements the two online shopping sites, Lazada and Zalora, where the watches may also be ordered.

With the online shift, Timex sweetened the offer by extending free shipping nationwide for any order made in the three online channels. Payments may also be made online or COD, a mode preferred by doubting Thomases.

A check yesterday showed 83 watches, of the hundreds of models available online, were on sale in the Philippine website, as against the 136 in the US Timex website.

Strangely, despite being made in the Philippines – sourced from its manufacturing complex in Mactan, which supplies over 80 percent of all Timex watches sold worldwide – the local Timex bestsellers seem to be priced higher than in the United States, even after factoring in Philippine VAT, US sales taxes and exchange-rate fluctuations.

For instance, the Q Timex Reissue M79 Automatic model with 40 mm stainless steel band carries a price tag of P15,790, against the $279 quoted in the Timex US website.

Add another 10 percent US sales and other taxes, and the US pricing for the same model works out to nearly $307, or about P14,754, still over a thousand pesos cheaper than the local McCoy.

And, yes, US Timex also offers free “standard” shipping in all 50 states.

Still, the Philippine website offers a few pleasant surprises. For one, a number of sub-P1,000 models abound. A classic looking Briarwood Terrace is also available for P1,130, compared to the “sale” price of $55 (P2,643) in the United States. Another old school model for men, Easy Reader, and ideal for seniors with weak eyes, is a tad higher at P1,190.

And for Todd Snyder fans, the local Timex site offers one model, no longer available in the famed New York boutique or even its website.

The Todd Snyder model, shown above, a three-hand 39-mm quartz with a champagne dial and Arabic markings housed in a gray metal case, is being quoted at P5,870, substantially reduced from P8,390.

Six grand is still an affordable price to pay for shopping therapy in these parlous times.

Heard through the grapevine

In another sign of the times, the HongKong-based parent of Shangri-La Fort has reduced in half the management fee that it would collect on the luxury hotel, capping this year’s combined marketing, reservation, licence and royalty fees to $2.6 million from a pre-COVID rate of $5.8 million.