The Swiss luxury watch brand Bertolucci has been purchased by Dickson Concepts (International), a Hong Kong retailer and distributor of luxury products in Southeast Asia, say Swiss media reports. Dickson has been a distributor of Bertolucci in Asia. It will do about $335 million in sales this year, say published reports.

Details of the deal weren’t immediately available.

It is the second time in three years that the watch brand has been sold. It was bought from its owner in early 2001 by a private European investment consortium, which was unable to meet its pledge of expanding Bertolucci’s global presence and doubling its annual production (still 10,000 watches per year). The company does about $13 million (15 million Swiss francs) annually.

The United States has been one of Bertolucci’s biggest markets, with retail sales between $1,250 and $100,000. Its collections include Vir (flagship collection), Serena (winner of the Public Grand Prix in 1998) and Uomo, a men’s watch.

The history of Bertolucci goes back to 1911 and its predecessor, the Mimo Watch company, bought in 1946 by Marcel Michelotti. His daughter married Remo Bertolucci, in 1968. In the 1970s, Bertolucci took over the company and in 1987 unveiled his first full Bertolucci collection. The company moved to Neuenburg on Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 1998.

JCK