IN PREMIUM WATCH SEGMENT, TRIED & TESTED IS STILL TICKING
While business slowed down, Rolex, Panerai and Rado continued to clock sales
As retail opens up and people slowly return to old habits, after a long stretch of online consumerism, certain segments of luxury spending that simply don’t lend themselves to the virtual experience have evolved differently. Luxury watches are an example of that.
Swiss luxury watch manufacturer Rolex, which was recently voted as UK’S number one consumer brand by Superbrands UK, shut its factories down for a few months early last year. The pause had an opposite effect across luxury watch stores in India, with stainless steel sports models such as the Daytona, Submariner, Explorer, Oyster Perpetual and GMT selling out entirely — and in most cases even establishing a premium.
Even now, across most Rolex dealerships in India, buyers won’t find steel models in supply.
While Rolex dealers may have seen steady sales in the last three months, that’s not been the case for many big-brand watch labels.
Rajiv Popley, director at the
Mumbai-based Popley Group that retails TAG Heuer and Rado, says, “With few product launches, no campaign and no support for retailers, businesses were left gasping as imported brands pulled back for the most part.”
Popley says that while there were some product overhauls and a few new launches, there were no bigbang introductions, and in addition,
the cancellation of global trade fairs such as Baselworld (held every spring in Basel, Switzerland) and SIHH (held annually in Geneva) slowed the momentum further.
While there haven’t been many big launches, there have been some firsts.
Breitling, whose sporty line of aviation watches earned it some fame, made even more popular by its vintage heritage and an endorsement by Hollywood star John Travolta, launched its first automatic Chronomat watches for women last year. And Rolex rolled out its coloured dial Oyster Perpetual, which was a throwback to the Stella dial Datejust of yesteryear.
In a signal that market conditions were tough for brands hoping to grow, India’s largest watchmaker Titan earlier announced that it would be scaling down investments in Favreleuba, the storied Swiss brand it had acquired in a bid to play in the luxury watch segment. Favreleuba, which was renowned for tool watches that were used for mountain climbing and other rugged sports, had not been generating the volumes expected and was instead being sold at large discounts across the country.
Popley says that his product range, which includes sub-~2 lakh watches, have been generating healthy volumes, thanks to the corporate market. These include the Rado Captain Cook and Hyperchrome models along with the TAG Heuer Aquaracer.
So, why are steel watches doing so well for brands like Rolex and others? Viraal Rajan, director of Time Avenue, a Mumbai-based boutique, says that it’s the classics that people are opting for with a strong view on value for money as well as residual value in the long term. “No one wants to buy watches that will lose value in a year,” he says. Rajan adds that Panerai from the Richemont Group, which he also retails, has stayed strong with numbers that are back on par with the pre-covid sales. What about watches that start at ~20 lakh? One jeweller who sells Swiss watches says that most of the brands that fall in that category can’t be sold unless they are discounted. “Walk into their boutique and the discount starts even before you ask for one,” he adds.
Gangaram Junjur, founder of Wristmenwatches.com, which retails in vintage watches, says that while 2020 was a generally bad market for the trade, the fetish for a Rolex and an Omega continues to drive purchase.
“For the smaller budgets, it’s Rado. And Panerai, too, is picking up. Older, complicated Longines models also sell, but not their new versions,” he says. “The thing is no one wants to experiment much right now. They want to stick to the tried and tested.”
Even now, across most Rolex dealerships in India, buyers won’t find steel models in supply