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Omega HAS been pulling out of a lot of stores in larger markets and opening MANUFACTURER-OWNED boutiques. It happened here in Seattle, and at last count there's now 23-ish Omega boutiques in the US. They're all owned by SwatchGroup. They don't discount, but they have almost the full line and can bring watches in quickly from anywhere in the country in a few days.
As far as shop-in-shops, I don't recall hearing a whole lot about those. I know they wanted more space in multi-brand stores, but I've not heard of any specific examples of shop-in-shops.
It's a trend as manufacturers are stepping in and trying to discourage retailers from discounting product. From their perspective it hurts the brand image, we all know that.
It's certainly true that Omega prices have increased dramatically in the past few years. The PO that was $3900 in 2010 is (upgraded, but still) $6200 now. Creeping up into Sub territory. But Omega wants to increase it's market share, and in the US and Europe it's been consistently behind Rolex (mostly vying with Cartier here in the US).
In China, they've got franchise boutiques all over, and they're #1. But for how long? Other brands (Rolex, Cartier, IWC) are all making big gains in China and East Asia, gobbling up Omega's market share.
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