Indians snap up Swiss luxury watches in H1

Imports touched 98.5 million Swiss francs (nearly ₹933 crore) in the January to June period from 81.2 million francs a year earlier, showed data from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. Imports surged 67% from 59.1 million francs in the six months of 2021.

Notably, a significant portion of the 2023 imports of 20 million Swiss francs, was seen in June alone, indicating a robust demand for luxury timepieces.

Luxury stores in India’s malls also witnessed a surge in the watch category. For instance, stores such as Emporio and The Chanakya, located in luxury malls built by property developer DLF in New Delhi witnessed growth rates of 80-100% in the luxury watch category. The trend of increasing luxury watch sales was not limited to a gender, with both men and women spending equally on this category, said Pushpa Bector, senior executive director and head of DLF’s retail division. Many international watch brands are seeing major growth in India as they are considered highly collectable and giftable items, she added.

Despite production limitations and capacity challenges, India remains a key market for luxury watchmakers. For instance, H. Moser & Cie., which retails in India for ₹14 lakh-2.7 crore, with a sweet spot at ₹23.66 lakh, through Ethos, has seen significant growth across price points in the last 6-12 months. Collectables and gem-set watches are particularly performing well in the Indian market.

“I don’t know if we were more conservative about the customer here earlier, or whether the customer felt more comfortable buying from outside India, but we have observed a significant shift in India’s buying patterns, with consumers now showing a preference for independent and authentic brands over more established ones. As a smaller brand like ours, we no longer need to invest as heavily to establish recognition in the market. Interestingly, we are outperforming some bigger established brands globally, and we are optimistic about replicating this success in the Indian market," Nicholas Hofmann, director, international sales, for the company, said.

Similarly, Ashok Goel, founder of Delhi-based Luxury Time Pvt. Ltd, a distributor of brands such as Hublot, Tag Heuer, Zenith and Bomberg, said there is a serious surge in demand for high-end watches of Hublot and Tag Heuer by Indian collectors.

However, sales of entry-level products has been harder. This, he said, could be the reason why there may be muted growth in the sector towards the end of the year, capping growth at 5-8% compared to last fiscal.

“Last year saw some stupendous growth in the sector. But even now, we are certain that the luxury segment for the watch category, priced upwards of ₹8 lakh, will continue to grow. The watches are wait-listed and have no problem in sales. But this perhaps represents about 0.1% of the entire buying universe in India," said Goel.

He said it is likely that the watch category for up to ₹1.5 lakh could take a further beating, and therefore the company has decided to trim the entry-level Tag Heuer watch portfolio by 60% and add more high-value collections. The trend is despite the rupee’s devaluation by 12-14% in the last year against the Swiss currency.

But the federation said that in the month of June, watches made from precious metals made the highest contribution by absolute value, followed by bimetallic watches. Across the world, the total volumes were over 150,000 units which were mainly supported by the other materials category, which increased by 50.8%, selling a total of 485,000 watches. Growth was seen in all price segments, by both value and number of items. The first half of the year ended with a strong result, at 13.3 billion francs, up 11.8% globally.