Move over, Rolex (3)

In Sea-Gull's official store on tmall.com, an online business-to-consumer shopping platform, watches ranging from 2,000 yuan to 3,500 yuan have the strongest sales. The brand also has a luxury product line, but earlier media reports said that only two of its most expensive watches, priced at 1.68 million yuan each, have been sold since 2010.

Lü said in an interview with business news portal hexun.com in December that Sea-Gull's potential to penetrate the luxury market lies in its long history, luxury product line and self-developed expertise in the manufacturing of tourbillon watches, which can challenge Swiss watchmakers' dominance in terms of craftsmanship and quality.

Invented by the French-Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet more than two centuries ago, the tourbillon is a mechanism that can counter the effects of gravity in order to improve timekeeping accuracy.

Lü noted that the group did not have an explicit brand strategy and spent little in advertising.

He said that to fulfill its luxury ambition, Sea-Gull has learned from foreign luxury brands and will invest more in marketing, branding and advertising of its watch business, such as opening more flagship stores in key cities, redecorating its existing stores and training shop assistants to be more professional.