Mido set to kick off its 90th-anniversary party

Vipavan Mahadumrongkul, general manager of C Thong Panich, the sole distributor here, said last week that Mido had selected the Kingdom to launch its historical watch exhibition with Mido watches coming from several watch museums around the world.

Mido has been established here for 60 years. Originally there were only two famous brands, Mido and Rado, so Mido has been well known to local consumers for a long time. And that is why Thailand is the leading market for Mido in Asia, she said.

"Mido will gradually organise the celebration exhibition in

other countries," she said.

Mido will introduce two wristwatches for the celebration, the All Dial Chronometer and the Baroncelli Chronometer Jubilee, with only 900 pieces combined produced worldwide.

Half of this limited edition will be brought to Thailand, where the commemorative watches are expected to sell out this year.

Vipavan said the watch market this year was still growing but only at a "steady" rate due to the political atmosphere and the economic situation.

In the first five months, her company's sales grew by 5 per cent, only half of the company's goal of 10 per cent.

The company plans a flurry of marketing activities for the rest of the year in order to achieve this target.

C Thong Panich has allocated Bt80 million for marketing, similar to last year.