The Lancaster watch brand is current, although in this country (UK) it is not well-known, and I have had problems inattempting to compile a complete history with any sort of detail. The history of the brand is not a long one, merely about 25 years, but within that period one would have thought that Lancaster might have managed to firmly establish itself in the global or European watch market, instead of which it has aligned itself over the years with a more specifically Italian designation in terms of its watches and its marketing strategy. As things stand today, Lancaster watches, as part of the Lancaster luxury goods concern, is tied to GPA Srl, the Italian "Giovine Paolo Alfredo" distribution company whose other brands are Strumento Marino, Giovine, and Be Pride (all of them watch brands). And Paolo Alfredo Giovine himself is the CEO of Lancaster Italy. Prior to being a GPA brand, Lancaster was distributed by Alvea Watches and was a subsidiary of Alvea, who also produced and distributed watches branded Giovine, Krizia, and Gai Matteolo. Given that the Lancaster Italy, GPA Srl, and Alvea names are all associated with Bari, in Italy, it seems that Alvea morphed into GPA, perhaps when Paolo Giovine became CEO of Lancaster and GPA.
Lancaster was established in 1992 by a group of four Swiss "Maisons d'Horlogorie" all of which were important in the "private label" manufacture of watches. The first products of Lancaster were mechanical watches, with various complications added over and above the simple classical watch design and designated as Swiss made. The watches first produced were considered to be exclusive low-volume products, and were sold in Italy. However, within a few years of the founding of Lancaster, Alvea, who now took charge of the brand, decided to upscale production and distribution, and widen the product range. Still focusing on the Italian market, Alvea launched an advertising campaign and within a year, Lancaster had secured more than 1000 retail outlets in Italy.
In 1997 Lancaster celebrated production of its first 100,000 watches, and took part in that year's Basel International Fair. Indeed, 1997 marked the start of the attempt to position Lancaster watches as a global player in the watch market, and distribution contracts were negotiated for Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, France, Columbia, Spain and Greece. Attention was paid particularly to sport watches, and the price/quality ratio of the products. In 2000, the extent of competition in the world watch industry was realised by the company and Lancaster therefore followed other brands in creating fashion watches to increase their sales and brand position. A new range in this vein was the "Intrigo" aluminium watches with different coloured dials and straps.
After 2000, the continued success of the Lancaster watches led to their parent company to consider further activities and promotion of the brand. Fortunately, we have a useful source of information about Lancaster as it stood in 2005 by virtue of a Moodie Report from 30 June of that year, written by Mary Jane Pittilla and entitled, "Alvea shows off the best of Italian design." In this report we find Lancaster to be the most important Alvea brand, clearly promoting the fact that the Lancaster watches are both designed and made in Italy. The report describes the launch of two new ranges - the Kappero and the Ceramik - with the company exhibiting at Baselworld in that year. The Kappero consisted of a range of women's watches with steel cases and silk straps, some of them being enhanced with diamonds. The price range was to be 260-680 euros, and the watches were given Swiss movements.
The Ceramik range of watches were intended to be luxury chronographs, with a Swiss ETA movement, and diamond-encrusted bezels, and this range featured modern ceramic technology for the case and bracelet and basic quality touches such as a sapphire crystal and screw-down crown with different dial finishes in mother of pearl or black. The intended price for the Ceramic was 1,950 euros. The report comments of a couple of other Alvea watch rands, and also notes that the main markets for Alvea were Italy, the Middle east and South Korea.
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