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Swiss Watchmakers Target Shoppers Online

The Tag Heuerr watch maker factory is pictured in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Photo: Reuters
The Tag Heuerr watch maker factory is pictured in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Photo: Reuters
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Swiss Watchmakers Target Shoppers Online

The Tag Heuerr watch maker factory is pictured in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Photo: Reuters
The Tag Heuerr watch maker factory is pictured in La Chaux-de-Fonds. Photo: Reuters

In order to lure younger shoppers, brands large and small are joining an online push sweeping the luxury goods world, where web sales are already major growth drivers for fashion labels.

Swiss watchmakers were finally convinced that customers would pay thousands to buy intricate timepieces on the web, after a boom in online luxury goods sales.

In an interview at the Baselworld watch trade fair, Jean-Claude Biver, head of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-LVMH’s watch business, said: “We didn’t realize the speed at which millennials would take to buying cars or watches online.”

LVMH’s Tag Heuer, a label long associated with motor racing, is looking to fully build out its own shoppable sites over the next 18 months, Biver added.

Tag already operates online stores in five countries including the United States and Britain, and has a partnership in China with JD.com, the company said. According to Reuters, LVMH sister brands Hublot and Zenith are yet to follow suit.

Many watchmakers have flirted with web sales, though often through one-off collaborations with multi-brand web retailers.

Watchmakers have reasons to take control of their online image, as websites run by unofficial resellers proliferate.

Jerome Biard, chief executive of Corum, owned by China’s Citychamp, said: “We want to reassure people, while taking into account that today clients also might like to buy their watch at home.”

The Swiss brand’s first e-commerce site will be fully operational in about two months, Biard added.

Consultancy Bain & Co projects says that web sales are expected to make up a quarter of all global luxury goods sales by 2025, up from around 9 percent last year.

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Cute carnivores: Bloodthirsty California Squirrels Go Nuts for Vole Meat

This handout photo obtained from the University of California on December 18, 2024, shows ground squirrels eating voles in Davis, California. Sonja Wild / University of California, Davis/AFP
This handout photo obtained from the University of California on December 18, 2024, shows ground squirrels eating voles in Davis, California. Sonja Wild / University of California, Davis/AFP
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Cute carnivores: Bloodthirsty California Squirrels Go Nuts for Vole Meat

This handout photo obtained from the University of California on December 18, 2024, shows ground squirrels eating voles in Davis, California. Sonja Wild / University of California, Davis/AFP
This handout photo obtained from the University of California on December 18, 2024, shows ground squirrels eating voles in Davis, California. Sonja Wild / University of California, Davis/AFP

Squirrels might look like adorable, nut-hoarding furballs, but some are ruthless predators that hunt, tear apart, and devour voles.
That's the startling finding of a new study published Wednesday in the Journal of Ethology -- the first to document widespread carnivorous behavior in these seemingly innocent creatures.
"There is always something new to learn and wild animals continue to surprise us," lead author Jennifer E. Smith, an associate professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire told AFP.
"In a changing world with many technological advances, there is no replacement for direct observation of natural history, including watching the squirrels and birds that often visit our backyards."
The observations were made this summer, during the 12th year of a long-term study conducted at Briones Regional Park in Contra Costa County, California.
Between June and July, researchers recorded 74 interactions involving California ground squirrels and voles, with 42 percent of them involving active hunting of their fellow rodents.
Co-author Sonja Wild, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis, admitted she was initially skeptical of the reports brought to her by undergraduate students who first witnessed the behavior.
"I could barely believe my eyes," said Wild. But "once we started looking, we saw it everywhere."
It was previously known that as many as 30 species of squirrels opportunistically consume meat, ranging from small fish to birds. However, it was unclear whether this behavior stemmed from scavenging or active predation.
The new study is the first to confirm that hunting is, in fact, a common behavior.
Researchers observed squirrels crouching low to the ground before ambushing their prey, though more often, they chased voles, pounced, and delivered a neck bite followed by vigorous shaking.
The study also found that the squirrels' carnivorous behavior peaked during the first two weeks of July, coinciding with a surge in vole populations reported by citizen scientists on the iNaturalist app.
Other animals, such as raccoons, coyotes, and spotted hyenas, have been known to adapt their hunting strategies in response to human-induced changes in their environments.
"In a changing world, it can be daunting to consider all of the challenges that human presence, habitat loss, and climate change impose on animals," said Smith.
"Our study offers an exciting silver lining, demonstrating the incredible flexibility that some animals possess."
Several questions still remain unanswered.
Researchers hope to investigate how widespread hunting behavior is among squirrel species, whether it is passed down from parents to pups, and how it affects their broader ecosystems.