The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 1990–2020
Gimiko held 60% of Vietnam's watch market in the 1990s — then quietly dissolved in 2020
Vietnam's first domestic watch brand held 60% of its home market in the 1990s, then lost to imported brands and closed its tax code in April 2020.
Gimiko (Công ty TNHH Sản xuất Thương mại Gimiko) · 2020-04
What happened
Gimiko was Vietnam's first domestic watch brand, launched in 1990 and registered as a legal entity on 1 June 1999. Its founder, Lê Trung Hiếu (born 1938), built it into the country's leading watchmaker: at its peak in the 1990s the brand is said to have held roughly 60% of Vietnam's domestic watch market.
Then the market moved. Chinese and Japanese brands flooded in with cheaper, better-known products, and Vietnamese consumers shifted their preference to imported names. Gimiko's brand strength faded through the 2000s and 2010s as the company failed to keep pace.
In April 2020 the company stopped operations and closed its tax code — an effective dissolution. Its products were withdrawn from the market, ending the run of a brand that had defined Vietnamese watchmaking for three decades.
Why it happened
- Chinese and Japanese brands flooded the domestic market, outspending and out-selling the homegrown name on its own turf.
- Consumer preference shifted to imported watch brands, and Gimiko could not reposition itself to hold them.
- The brand's strength had peaked in the 1990s and faded through two decades of competition, leaving no cushion when the market turned.
The lesson
A home-market champion is not a moat. Gimiko owned 60% of Vietnam's watch market in the 1990s, but it had no answer to imported brands — a brand that cannot follow its customers is done.
Aftermath
Gimiko stopped operations and closed its tax code in April 2020, withdrawing its products from the market.
Sources
- CafeF — Gimiko ngừng kinh doanh và đóng mã số thuế (September 2023)
- CafeBiz — Gimiko ngừng kinh doanh và đóng mã số thuế (September 2023)
spotted an error? The club wants to know.
More like this
Matoa, Indonesia's first wooden watch brand, closed after Chinese imports crushed it
WatchFund, Singapore's luxury watch investment scheme, collapsed — founder bankrupt
Tuấn Hưng Watch sold Chinese-made watches as German — then it was fined and dissolved
Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →
Comments · 0
Sign in to join the comments.