Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

Eyeing China's booming luxury commodity market, a Swiss watchmaker is introducing a top-tier timepiece to Shanghai, the Youth Daily reported.
Rodolphe M. Schulthess, vice president of Montres Breguet SA, was in the city yesterday, announcing the introduction of a replica of the Breguet No.5 pocket watch in October.
The watch will carry a high-flying price tag of 15 million yuan (US$1.8 million).
Breguet is the top brand of Switzerland-based watchmaker Swatch Group.
The No.5 watch was first produced in 1794 by the brand's founder A.-L. Breguet.
It has produced five of the timepieces so far.  The five have taken 130 watchmaking experts nearly two years to produce, all by hand.
Four of them have been sold to European royal families and national leaders.  The one marketed in China is the last timepiece, according to Schulthess.
Breguet will start taking reservations for the timepiece in October when it arrives here, Schulthess said.  The deposit will be 7 million yuan.
It is the booming luxury watch market that has attracted Breguet to China, Schulthess said, referring to market research by his company.
"We find it not rare for Chinese consumers to wear a watch priced at over hundreds of thousands of yuan," he said, "but most of the consumers go abroad for these luxury timepieces."
"That's the reason why Breguet has entered China," he added.
His company has opened boutiques in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Dalian, Shenyang, Harbin, Zhengzhou and Changsha.
Breguet's timepieces are produced in the Vallee de Jeux, an area of western Switzerland reputed for top-quality watch manufacturing. This is where Breguet makes its timepieces, exclusively mechanical, drawing on a vast store of horological expertise and cutting-edge technology.