Cartier launches new models even in industry downturn
卡地亚力推新品刺激市场
广州时尚翻译公司：面对豪华手表业的寒冬，许多瑞士手表品牌纷纷缩减产品线，卡地亚今年却已推出83款新品，刺激消费。
While other Swiss watch brands are responding to the global downturn by paring back their collections and exploiting best-sellers, there is no such parsimony at Cartier, which this year has unveiled 83 pieces. “In this environment, distinctiveness is key,” says Pierre Rainero, director of image, style and heritage.
面对全球下行的行情，其他瑞士手表品牌的回应方式都是缩减产品线，充分利用其销量最好的产品。然而，卡地亚(Cartier)却不存在这种谨小慎微，今年该公司已披露83款新品。卡地亚形象、风格及传承总监皮埃尔•赖内罗(Pierre Rainero)表示：“在如今的环境下，独特性是关键所在。”广州时尚翻译公司。
Cartier’s 2016 collection includes the Drive de Cartier, a cushion-shaped men’s watch, and Hypnose, an elliptical diamond-set watch for women — two original designs it hopes will shore up its foundations. At a time when most brands are peddling “consolidation” and “building on a core collection”, Cartier is sticking to its guns. “We have a tradition of coming to the market with a lot of new creations — we have our own rhythm and culture,” says Mr Rainero.
卡地亚的2016年产品线包括枕形男士手表Drive de Cartier和椭圆形镶钻女式手表Hypnose。卡地亚希望这两款原创设计会夯实卡地亚品牌的基础。在这个多数品牌都在以“整合”和“建立在核心产品线基础上”为卖点的时代，卡地亚依然坚守其本色不变。赖内罗表示：“我们有以大量新的创意产品进入市场的传统——我们有我们自己的节奏和文化。”
The luxury watch industry in Switzerland has seen two of its biggest markets shaken: exports to Hong Kong and China between January 2015 and April 2016 were down 28 per cent and 11 per cent respectively, a drop in total sales value of SFr721m ($727m), according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.
根据瑞士钟表协会(Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry)的数据，瑞士豪华手表产业已遭遇两起最大规模的市场动荡：2015年1月到2016年4月期间，对香港和中国内地的出口分别下滑28%和11%，总销售额下滑7.21亿瑞士法郎（合7.27亿美元）。广州时尚翻译公司。
Meanwhile, the unpegging of the Swiss franc against the euro last year led to a rapid rise in its value, only partially reversed, which has undermined exports.
同时，瑞士法郎在去年不再紧盯欧元汇率，这曾导致该货币迅速升值，而其升幅只回落了一部分，这种情况也削弱了瑞士的出口。
The worry for the industry is that it faces a painful tangle of factors. Anti-corruption moves in China, the threat of an unravelling Europe, currency fluctuations, crises in Syria and Ukraine and other problems besides have left some wondering if Swiss watchmaking is facing its biggest challenge since the quartz crisis of the 1970s.
人们对该行业的担忧在于，该行业面临的是由多种因素揉成的令人痛苦的局面。中国的反腐运动、欧洲解体的威胁、汇率波动、叙利亚和乌克兰危机及其他问题，已经令部分人怀疑，瑞士钟表制造业是否正面临上世纪70年代石英表危机以来的最大挑战。
In times of crisis, some brands retrench rapidly. Zenith was among the first, slashing hundreds of models at the end of the past decade.
在发生危机的时期，部分品牌迅速收紧了开支。真力时(Zenith)就是首批这么做的品牌之一，它在本世纪头十年后，砍掉了数百款产品。广州时尚翻译公司。
Audemars Piguet did the same more recently, simultaneously taking the knife to its global retailer network. Yet François-Henry Bennahmias, chief executive of Audemars Piguet, announced in January that his brand’s turnover was up year-on-year.
爱彼(Audemars Piguet)则在更近的时期采取了同样的举措，同时还大刀阔斧地砍向了其全球零售网络。不过，爱彼首席执行官弗朗索瓦-亨利•本纳明(François-Henry Bennahmias)曾在今年1月宣称，爱彼的营业额同比上升了。
Others have simply dropped their prices — TAG Heuer says its sales are climbing following a repositioning of its collection in 2015.
其他品牌则只是简单地下调了价格——豪雅(TAG Heuer)表示，在2015年对其产品线加以重新定位之后，其销量正在攀升之中。
Not all companies are on board with this strategy of scaling back. Cartier has taken to introducing new models and ranges every year, confident new products will stimulate the market.
并不是所有企业都认同这种缩减策略。卡地亚已习惯于每年推出新款产品和新的成套产品，该公司相信新产品会刺激市场。
“We are present in more markets than any other house and we have many different types of clients,” says Mr Rainero. “It would be a reduction of what we are [to reduce the inventory]. We are conscious that this can create confusion — we have a masculine offer, a feminine offer, an accessible offer and an offer at the very top, all at the same time,” he continues. “But that’s the way Cartier is. We know it’s difficult to apprehend for most people, but that’s the way we are and the way we have always been.”
“我们进入的市场比其他任何品牌都多，我们拥有许多不同类型的客户。”赖内罗表示。“（缩减产品线）或将损害我们的形象。我们明白，这么做可能会产生混淆——我们同时推出了男款、女款、入门款和最顶级款式的产品。”他接着说，“不过，这正是卡地亚的特点。我们知道多数人对此很难理解，不过这正是我们的特点，是我们过去的一贯特点。”广州时尚翻译公司。
Mr Rainero maintains that introducing new models every year stimulates a market accustomed to buying more than one luxury watch. “It’s very rare to see someone buying a watch for their entire life,” he says.
赖内罗坚称，每年推出新款式，对习惯于买入不止一块豪华手表的市场起到了刺激作用。他说：“某人一辈子只买一块手表的情况非常罕见。”
While some would view a collection that includes the quartz-powered Tank Solo at £1,750 and the wildly complicated Rotonde de Cartier Grande Complication at £535,000 as unbalanced, Cartier sees it as a strength.
卡地亚的产品线既包括了标价1750英镑的石英表Tank Solo，也包括了标价53.5万英镑、极度复杂的Rotonde de Cartier Grande Complication。尽管部分人或许会认为这样的产品线太不平衡，卡地亚却将其视为一种实力。
Despite being the world’s largest luxury watch and jewellery brand when ranked by combined sales — and a master of regeneration — the Parisian house is no stranger to the downturn. Cartier, like Rolex, has felt the impact of Chinese premier Xi Jinping’s clampdown on gifting while China’s economic slowdown has hurt, too.
尽管按手表和珠宝总销售额计，卡地亚是世界最大的奢侈手表和珠宝品牌，同时也是一个焕发新生的高手，这家总部位于巴黎的公司对销售额下降并不陌生。像劳力士(Rolex)一样，卡地亚也感受到了中国国家主席习近平对送礼的打击的影响，同时中国的经济放缓也造成了冲击。广州时尚翻译公司。
In its half-year report published last November, Cartier’s parent company Richemont said there had been lower demand for its watches and that Asia-Pacific “posted a significant decline, primarily due to weakness in Hong Kong and Macau”, territories whose previous growth was underpinned by travelling Chinese. Group sales in the region were down 17 per cent year-on-year at constant exchange rates.
卡地亚的母公司历峰(Richemont)在去年11月发布的半年报告中表示，对其手表的需求下降了，亚太地区“显著下滑，主要是因为香港和澳门市场的疲弱”，此前这两地的增长依靠中国游客支撑。按照固定汇率计算，集团在该地区的销售额同比下滑17%。
To lend weight to its new product strategy, last year Cartier introduced a glossy term to its marketing lexicon: “montres de forme”. Was it adopted so that when Cartier announced a new model, it was not simply a new watch but a new “form”?
为了给自己的新产品策略增加更多份量，卡地亚去年在其营销词汇中添加了一个闪亮的新词：“montres de forme”（译注：直译为“形之表”）。之所以选用这个词，是因为当卡地亚宣布一款新产品的时候，不仅仅是指一款新手表，也是指一款新的“外形”吗？
“Exactly,” says Mr Rainero. “We have two fields of expression in our watches — pure shapes and expressive shapes. Expressive means you should very clearly identify the inspiration behind it, like the Crash [said to be inspired by a watch crushed in a car accident], or the Roadster of the early 2000s that took its inspiration from the car industry.”
“正是如此。”赖内罗说，“我们的手表有两种表达领域——纯粹的外形和表现力的外形。表现力意味着你应该能够非常清楚地看出产品背后的灵感，比如Crash系列（据说灵感来自于一块在车祸中被压坏的手表），或者2000年代初期的Roadster系列，其灵感来自于汽车业。”广州时尚翻译公司。
The Drive de Cartier, by contrast, is merely “for the sake of a shape”, he says. “In the case of the Drive, you cannot associate it to something else.”
相比之下，Drive de Cartier纯粹是“为了造型之美。”他说，“就Drive（译注：意为驱动力）而言，你不能把它和其他东西联系起来。”
What is interesting about the Drive is that it is aimed solely at men. By comparison, last year’s invention, the Clé de Cartier, was unisex. With its fluid lines and curvaceous silhouette, it was too feminine for many men: Reuters reported at the end of 2015 that 90 per cent of sales had been to women.
有关Drive de Cartier，有趣的是，这是一款只面向男性的产品。相比之下，去年推出的Clé de Cartier则是男女皆宜。Clé de Cartier系列流畅的线条和曲线优美的轮廓让这款产品对于许多男性而言过于女性化：据路透社(Reuters)报道，截至2015年年底，这款产品90%的购买者都是女性。
Drive is the antidote, a more explicitly masculine design that buys Cartier some traction with a male audience that traditionally spends more on watches than the female equivalent.
Drive是为了扭转这种情况而推出的，这款产品更鲜明的男性化设计让卡地亚获得了一些对男性受众的吸引力。传统上，男性花在手表上的钱要多于女性。广州时尚翻译公司。
Mr Rainero is also at pains to point out that Cartier’s new designs strengthen the codes, or signature features, that give its watches their distinctiveness.
赖内罗也努力指出，卡地亚的新设计加强了编号，或者签名特色，这赋予了卡地亚手表独一无二的特性。
“We were born with a sapphire cabochon,” he says. “That was in the Santos, a gift from Louis Cartier to [Brazilian pioneer aviator] Alberto Santos-Dumont in 1904. It was the first watch ever designed to be worn specifically on the wrist.”
“蓝宝石凸面是我们与生俱来的特质。”他说，“那是1904年的桑托斯(Santos)，由路易•卡地亚(Louis Cartier)赠送给阿尔韦托•桑托斯-杜蒙特（Alberto Santos-Dumont，巴西飞行员先驱）的一件礼物。这是有史以来首款专门设计戴在手腕上的表。”
In time came the sword-shaped hands, the rail track that can sit either inside or outside the numerals, the Roman numeral dials and the use of “IIII” at four o’clock, a tradition Mr Rainero says was picked up from 17th-century clocks. It is these tropes that make every new montre de forme a Cartier, he says, no matter the shape or the target audience.
随着时间推移，出现了剑形指针、在表盘数字内圈或者外圈的铁轨刻度，罗马数字表盘，以及用“IIII”来代表4点钟的做法，据赖内罗说，这种传统来自于17世纪的时钟。他说，不管外形或者目标受众如何，正是这些对过去的传统加以变换的做法让每一款新的“montre de forme”成为卡地亚。广州时尚翻译公司。
Mr Rainero has been managing style at Cartier for almost two decades. Today, his responsibilities include “image” and “heritage”, two central pillars of a brand that has been making watches for more than a century and jewellery since 1847.
赖内罗管理卡地亚的风格已经近20年。现在，他的职责包括“形象”和“传承”，这是自1847年以来，制表和打造珠宝超过一个世纪的品牌的两大核心支柱。
“If you’re responsible for style at Cartier, it presupposes that you have a certain knowledge of the heritage,” he says. “You cannot pretend to say this is the Cartier style without knowing about the tradition and the spirit behind the brand. It’s not only the facts, it’s the philosophy behind it.”
“如果你负责卡地亚的风格，前提是你要对传承有相当程度的了解。”他说，“如果不了解传承和品牌背后的精神，你就不能假装说这是卡地亚风格。这不仅与事实有关，还关乎背后的哲学。”
It is an allegiance to that philosophy that Cartier is banking on to help it ride out the current storm.
卡地亚正是依靠奉行这种哲学来度过眼前的风暴。
