With Wall Street Sliding how does this effect High End Luxury Items?

Wall Street is churning out stock horror stories quicker than one can imagine. The Dow is going Down as much as 450 points by the 4pm closing bell. Today Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, the biggest U.S. Securities firms, fell the most ever in New York trading following a government rescue of American International Group Inc. failed to ease the credit crisis. The cost to protect a default by the banks rose to a record. Goldman Sachs fell 26% and Morgan Stanley plummeted 44% leading financial stocks to the lowest level in five years. Ouch! Washington Mutual is putting itself up for auction (No! Not a good sign), Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc bankruptcy filings. Fannie Mae down from $90 a share last year to 0.43 cents... on and on.

Now while Wall Street is falling to its knees in despair or prayer and the economy is slumping, what is happening to the sale of High end luxury products like watches?
According to Bertram Kalisher, executive director of the American Watch Guild:
Regardless of the economy, the world demand for handmade watches remain strong. There is no inventory. The new wealthy - individuals coming to the US from Russia, the Middle East and China - are ramping up demand while supply cannot keep up because certain luxury goods, like expensive watches cannot be mass produced and there is a world shortage of watchmakers.
The American Watch Guild is an association of watch retailers, manufacturers and designers. The American Watch Guild promotes high end products of brands like Cartier, Breguet and Patek Phillipe prices ranging from $10,000 to $400,000.

Luxury Markets are noticing the same sales figures as 2007. US Luxury Companies are attracting rich Europeans who are comparing their Euro to the Dollar, which has fallen about 40% since January 2002 against the Euro. Europeans are spending money in the US market.

In addition, High End Luxury Watches are a symbol of wealth. More and more millioners and billioners are being created all over the world, and a High End Luxury Watch is a status symbol. The Luxury Watch business is global and not confined to a specific area like a luxury swimming pool contractors or luxury apartment rentals. The perfect Watch can be mailed to any worldly destination.

Although the Economy is slumping, Luxury Watches are not feeling the pinch as much as you might think.

Posted by Van Halem