It's back to business, say India's luxury watch retailers, as the heightened action at Baselworld 2014 showed
Last month, at least 150,000 people, including global watchmakers, buyers and the media, converged at a mega annual springtime watch and jewellery event in Basel, Switzerland, to showcase the latest trends of luxury accessories. At least 1,500 exhibitors, from over 40 countries, revealed their wares at Baselworld 2014. Over the last decade, this world fair has attracted increasing attention led by growing demand from the economies of China, India, Russia and Latin America, even as demand had waned in the West amid the global slowdown.
Forbes India spoke to some of India’s largest luxury watch retailers, who were at Baselworld to trend-spot and identify brands creating the most buzz. “There was less exuberance but an emphasis on good substance. The whole mood was getting back to serious growth,” says Yashovardhan Saboo, owner at Ethos Swiss Watch Studios.
Ethos started operations in 2003—with brands such as Omega and Tag Heuer—when India first allowed watches to be imported officially. A retail chain, part of the listed Kamla Dials & Devices Ltd, Ethos is likely to report a near-30 percent jump in billing orders in the fiscal ending March, Saboo says.
In recent years, people in India have become far more discerning about the brands and type of watches they want, Saboo points out. “Earlier, people were a bit apprehensive about colours like pink, gold and blue. Also, women were earlier not so enthused by large watch crowns. Now they are experimenting more,” Saboo says.
The activity at Baselworld was reassuring, says Biren Vaidya, MD of the Rose Group. “It was nice to see the brands being so engaged in these recessionary times,” Vaidya, popularly called ‘Bee-Vee’, says.
Hublot also released the Big Bang Unico Chrono—the official Fifa World Cup watch—with the seconds and minutes hands featured in Brazil’s yellow-and-green national colours. This watch has the 45-minute mark highlighted in red to signify the end of one half of a soccer match.
Another top Indian retailer, Viraal Rajan, who heads family-owned watch boutique Time Avenue in Mumbai—a popular destination for Bollywood stars—is optimistic about the growth of India’s luxury watch market. “The classics are more popular than ever,” Rajan says, identifying Audemars Piguet, A. Lange & Sohne and Richard Mille as brands that are becoming popular with India’s richest.
(This story appears in the 02 May, 2014 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)