7 Watch Execs On The State Of The Watch Industry In 2021

In the spring of 2020, watchmakers, like most people, were extremely anxious about the future. Was there a point to selling luxury timepieces during a pandemic? Many wondered, privately, if the industry would survive the global health crisis.

A year on, it’s clear that most luxury watch brands have done more than merely endure the pandemic. Swiss watch exports and sales are down, but not across the board; some brands are, in fact, having their best years ever. (Here’s looking at you, Mr. Meylan.)
 

We spoke to seven leading watch executives on the eve of last week’s virtual Watches & Wonders 2021 fair about a number of timely topics, from the highlights of their 2021 collections to how COVID-19 has shaped marketing strategies.

“I’m very optimistic,” said Catherine Rénier, CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre. “There is an energy we can sense from this Watches & Wonders. That energy shows that nothing has slowed down in terms of our willingness to create and to innovate.”

“Believe it or not, we are above 2019 in both watches and jewelry, which is mind-blowing having in mind that Bulgari was particularly exposed to travel retail. Bulgari had a vision before I joined that airports could become luxurious shopping centers. As a consequence, we have a higher share of our business in travel retail. Obviously, for us, the stoppage of travel retail has been a huge challenge compared to some other brands.
 

“However, thanks to the incredible work done by our team, especially in the U.S., which has been just mind-blowing — very high double-digit growth, combining one-on-one [appointments] with clients with a lot of activities to drive traffic to e-commerce — we are having strong growth. And in Q1, that has offset travel retail.
 

“We have at last refocused all our energies, our patience, on local clients. And the strength of a brand is the ability to be deeply rooted with local clientele because travel retail is always volatile. It could be COVID; it could be exchange rates; it could be political tensions. COVID has been the opportunity to remix totally our split, which makes us quite optimistic. Because when travel retail restarts later this year, we will benefit from what we do locally. Then it becomes the cherry on the cake.”

“At Watches & Wonders, we introduced the most complicated watch we’ve ever launched: the Manero Minute Repeater Symphony, which has three peripheral movement elements: the rotor, the regulator, and a tourbillon.
 

“I wanted to wait until we had the right platform. The piece is around $400,000; some [gem-set] versions will be half a million. We worked on it for five years; the movement has more than 600 components. It’s a really new product: new straps, new hands, new case, new buckle, a completely new watch. It was one of the novelties I was holding back [from 2020] because this needs a global audience, and Watches & Wonders was the exact right platform.”

“I don’t want to be too optimistic — I always have my feet on the ground — but this year, and the new decade, is for independents. ‘A big vacuum cannot vacuum in the corner.’ And for a small independent like us, we can easily take this audience that wants something different and special. If you do the right product, not crazy — De Bethune is only making 200 watches a year — the world is big. To find 200 customers, it’s challenging but not that challenging.”
 

“The first quarter of 2021 was by far the best quarter we ever had. Today we are ahead of April last year. This momentum behind independent brands and the craze around difficult-to-get products — it’s addictive. Once they get their [Royal Oak] Jumbo, their 5711, what’s next? They go to a handful of brands like ours.
 

“We’re feeling this massive wave, coming from the U.S. Today, the main parameter, especially in the U.S. market, is ‘What’s the resale price?’ We now have the Streamliner trading at 22-25% above retail. The Swiss Alp Watch is selling above retail. I think the independent brands are next. Because of our small quantities, increase in demand, people have identified independents as the next big thing. ‘Will this company still be there?’ used to be the main concern. But if they believe we will [be there], then we break the glass ceiling.”