Luxury Swiss watchmaker Hublot will open its series of standalone stores all over the GCC as part of its regional expansion strategy.

The first store will be launched at Wafi City mall, Dubai  in October. This will be followed by opening of more outlets in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar, a company spokesman said.

According to Hublot officials, five new outlets will come up in the next two years.

The  standalone stores will have about 80 pieces of Hublot's Big Bang collection series on sale. The prices range from Dh36,000 for a steel-encased model to a staggering Dh3.67 million ($1 million) for a watch bathed in 493 diamonds.

Hublot  CEO Jean-Claude Biver  said the region promised great potential for the company.

“Earlier we were selling some 12 watches annually, but now our sales has gone up to more than 10 watches a day in the GCC. This represents 27 per cent of our global turnover," he explained.

According to Biver, the company's Dh700 million turnover was being hit by production speed at its plant in Switzerland.

He said the company had orders worth Dh1 billion and several others in pipeline.- TradeArabia News Service