Luxury watch companies say time’s ripe to step up India play

India is becoming the next big destination for luxury watches with every major watchmaker looking to expand its presence in the country.   

Be it Rado, Fossil or Rolex, they have all recorded a healthy growth over the last one year despite general recession, and now want to extend their footprint by opening more outlets.

The Rs 1,200 crore luxury watch segment in India was one of the few sectors that did not face the wrath of the recession and industry players are expecting it to clock double-digit growth even this year.

Olivier Cosandier, vice-president of Swiss-based luxury watchmaker Rado, is excited by the pace of growth in India last year, when it was not such a good year in most markets. He said sales of Rado watches grew at 12% in 2009. He is now projecting a 15% in the current year.

“India is one of top 10 countries which are getting more exposed to the luxury watch brands,” he said.

The Swiss watchmaker currently has 11 boutiques in India including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Cochin, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. The company plans to add five more this year.
“Right now, we are selling eight lines of watches in India and will get two more during this year,” Cosandier said.

Fossil, which started operation in 2008, doubled its sales in 2009,
albeit on a lower base. And Vasant Nangia, country manager, Fossil India, continues to remain gung-ho about the growth in the current year, too. 

“All indicators point to a robust growth,” he said.  

The firm’s portfolio of brands includes Fossil, DKNY, Diesel, Emporio Armani, Burberry, Adidas, Michele, Zodiac and Relic. Like Rado, Fossil is also planning to get in more imported brands this year.
Watch studio Ethos, which earns around 25% of the turnover from luxury watches, is also betting big on high-end watches.
P Rajendran, head of operations, Ethos (India), said demand for premium watches is rising with more consumers opting for them.
“Around 600 clients bought watches in the price range from Rs 1-2 lakh in 2009. This was much higher than 2008. We expect to clock a higher growth this year,” he said.
Varuni Mohan, brand consultant with Salvatore Ferragamo in India, said they were seeing a huge demand for jewel encrusted watches.
Luxury watches in India start at Rs 30,000-40,000 and go up to few lakhs.  An AT Kearney report brought out in 2009 states that premium watches grew at a much faster pace of 55% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) compared to the 19% CAGR in jewellery market over the last four years.
This segment of the watches is dominated by imported brands that constitute 77.1% while local brands account for 22.9%.