Brief history of the sublime

Luxury watches aim for a higher plane of brand consciousness, even as retail trends display new dynamics.

Spending anything close to a lakh on a wristwatch was unthinkable just some years ago. After all, a Titan watch made quite an impressive personality statement for no more than Rs 5,000.

But then, along came the Swiss brands at the turn of the Millennium, and with them a new sensibility of timewear that's reaching higher still.

Omega, Tag Heuer, Rado and many others are here in India, selling at prices anywhere from Rs 25,000 to a few lakh, and establishing relationships with customers that are intimate beyond easy description or analysis.

Still, the broad trends at the retail level are interesting in themselves. Arun Malhotra, who runs the luxury watch boutique Beyond Luxury, feels that the luxury watches segment has just started to mature, and will see a lot of activity in the next couple of years.

"The increase in purchasing power of people has given the segment a much needed push."

No wonder the luxury and premium market in India has been growing so rapidly. It is estimated at Rs 450 crore already, growing at an annual clip of 20 per cent.

The retail trends? More than 70 per cent of India's luxury watch buyers are male, but about 50 per cent of the watches sold are women's watches.

"Men have that guilt feeling of buying expensive watches," says Yashovardhan Saboo, managing director, Ethos Swiss Watch Studio, "so they couple them with another one for their partners as well."

Apart from heightened brand consciousness, the very look of the designs is undergoing some change. Dials, straps and colours have all undergone an upheaval, with the tawdry wrist-flashers of old on their way out, replaced by watches that hold a charm much more subtle.

An estimated third of luxury watches sold for men now have silver and white dials, and female preferences seem to be converging with this colour scheme. Black, though, is a colour women tend to avoid "" even with black apparel.

In fact, jewellery designs continue to be the mainstay of watches for women (about 90 per cent in the luxury segment, with diamond studs a favourite), though design sensibilities have been changing rapidly here too.

Chunky watches continue to hold appeal for men. Says Saboo, "Leather straps and big round dials add macho value to the watch, which most men look for."

The market would get even more interesting if duties were to be cut, say Saboo and Malhotra. A sticking point for them is the 65-per cent surcharge levied on luxury watches in India.

Watches being such small objects, and with overseas travel so common, this merely serves to divert sales away from Indian retailers. "A lot of Indian people tend to buy watches from countries like Singapore and Dubai," says Saboo, "as they get them at lower prices."

The good news is that luxury watches are on people's minds like never before. Retailers may worry about sales diversion. But luxury brand marketers may well be content stoking aspirations and signalling brand values for years before achieving any significant sales conversion.