While there was not doubt that Aston Martin is a brand aimed strictly at Lambda personalities, the recent product release by Aston Martin proves it anyways.

Coming optional with the purchase of a new Aston Martin Rapide is a $33,000 watch. And with this watch and your new Aston Martin Rapide, you can lock or unlock their car doors by simply touching the sapphire-crystal face.

Only a handful of individuals can afford to buy even the Aston Martin. Even fewer could afford the optional $33,000 watch. The timing of this is interesting, because while the global recession is receding, it is not completely over, yet.

Watches are a much-loved item amongst Lambda personalities, because they bestow status and are durable. They’re seen as investments and heirlooms.

During the worst pont in the recession, The Wall Street Journal published a column “How to sell a $35,000 watch in a recession”, which offers a look into the new methods that luxe retailers are using to keep sales moving.

After years of double-digit sales growth, sales of Swiss watches have fallen off drastically. Watchmakers like IWC—a 140-year-old company whose watches are considered collectors’ items and generally cost between $3,000 and $300,000—are having to re-learn the old-fashioned art of salesmanship.

The ‘old-fashioned’ art of salesmanship that is used is selling the experience as tantamount to the product itself. In luxe, people buy because it looks good, feels good and it makes them appear important.

He used PowerPoint to impart what he calls the “macaroon technique,” referring to the sandwich-like French macaron pastry. This can be applied to most any product (including, presumably, a Xerox machine) and goes something like this: “Madam, this timepiece (or diamond or handbag) comes from our finest workshop and it has a value of $10,000. If you buy it, your children are sure to enjoy it for generations to come.”

This tactic by Aston Martin to package the watch with the car is an extension of the salesmenship methodology talked about in the Wall Street Journal article: Show a Lambda personality how well their new, ultra-exclusive watch works with their new, ultra-exclusive car.

The expression also suggests the person will have a long family line, which causes them to envision their children and grandchildren as Lambda personalities, enjoying and cherishing this watch that their father, also a Lambda personality, purchased years ago and passed onto them.

A  true Lambda Personality won’t be able to resist it, and Aston Martin knows this.

TIME Style & Design has just come out with an in-depth report on affluent consumer tastes from around the world. The print edition (unfortunately not available online) delves into the appetites of European shoppers—the Spaniards, Italians, French, British, and Germans—who now are considered some of the wealthiest consumers in the world thanks to a strong euro.

Did you know that Italians own more brands than any of their counterparts and outspend them on watches and jewellery? Or that Spain has the highest percentage of “uber lux” consumers, those with high incomes and luxury-market activity?

It is fascinating to juxtapose the tastes and psychologies of EU neighbours, but TIME adds some more food for thought in its online exploration of luxury in the top emerging economies of China, India, and Russia. What does luxury mean to these three countries who for the first time in decades are finding the economic freedom to afford such indulgences?

For China, who accounts for 12% of global luxury sales, luxury is in demand. Designer watches (66% of affluent consumers bought a watch of an average $2,253 in the last 6 months) are high status symbols, as well as skin-care products. The Chinese consumer will spend up to $280 on a skin-care product, which is almost 3 times as popular as make-up.

In India, the luxury market could grow as much as 25% in the next 3 years. Menswear brands top the most well-known luxury list, which is no surprise as many women still wear saris. Interestingly, local brands, such as Park Avenue, Allen Solly, and Reid & Taylor, also rank high, but considering previous high import taxes, it’s no surprise foreign brands aren’t more prominent yet.

And for Russians, with a heightened sense of brand awareness, flaunting one’s economic status is what luxury is all about. While Russians crave luxury fragrances, it’s jewellery that really whets the appetite: Bulgari, Cartier and Tiffany & Co. top the list of most widely owned brands.

It appears as if there are ripe markets to break into and hungry consumers to feed—something luxury retails are well-ready to capitalize on.

Oceanaut, the California-based watch manufacturer, has launched its luxury range for 2008.

Luxury is always in the eye of the beholder, and something need not be expensive to be luxurious, but these classic chronographs and unique divers are certainly made with fine parts: precision gears from Switzerland, hand stitched leather straps from Italy, French alligator straps, precious metals from the United States, Swiss manufacturing and conflict-free diamonds from Africa are all combined to create the watches.

Selling from select Nordstrom stores in the US, the range features models with Latin-based names such as Cortez Limited Edition, Carrero, Baltica, Baccara, Acquatico and Conquistador; they retail for up to $14,500.

That the watches have fallen in with the celeb set hasn’t hurt Oceanaut’s profile. The company supplied celebrity newlyweds Eva Longoria and Tony Parker with matching Oceanaut Pacha Cobra diamond watches, and have a celebrity following that includes Kevin Connolly, Teri Hatcher, Courtney Cox and Venus and Serena Williams.

This week Tiffany and the Swatch Group announced a new partnership lasting at least 20 years that will expand Tiffany’s small watch business into “one of the most important watchmakers in the world in the next five to 10 years,” according to Nicolas G. Hayek, Sr., Swatch Group chairman and co-founder.

Tiffany will continue its current lines and expand them in a new company, Tiffany Watches, which will be entirely owned by Swatch. Both companies will share their expertise to collaborate on design, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and service. Tiffany will have a seat on the company’s five-member board of directors, product design and marketing committees, and will get a share of the new company’s profits.

Many consumers associate Tiffany with fine diamonds and Swatch with cheap watches (even though Swatch does own several luxury timepiece brands, including Breguet, Blancpain, Glasshütte Original, and Omega). Tiffany will have to be careful so as not to pull a ‘DaimlerChrysler’–tarnishing the brand image of both companies (bringing the Tiffany brand ‘down’ to Swatch) and losing a great deal of money in the process (when expected synergies don’t actually happen). It sounds like Tiffany and Swatch are on the right track though, as they’ve already said distribution will be “selective” through the Swatch Group global network, Tiffany stores, and areas where rivals like Bulgari watches are sold.

Sales of jewelry and watches in the United Kingdom have seen strong growth since 2000, with the market reaching $8.1 billion in 2005. Much of this market growth, which averaged 8% per year, is due to higher levels of consumer disposable income. While this growth is expected to slow down to an average of 5% annually between 2005 and€“ 2010, there are many factors which will continue to support strong market demand.

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