‘There is no dearth of great products and brands in the luxury watch category’

The company closed at a net loss 8.11 crores for the year ended March 2021, but now it is coming back to normalcy. The company’s Global President and CEO, Tobias Rees-Schmidt was recently in India to review the company’s performance and look at its long-term growth strategies. Schmidt said that India will see strong growth in the fashion watch category. Edited excerpts from an interview:

How has the last year and a half been for watches globally?

For every country, there is a unique story to tell of how the pandemic has impacted and impacted consumer demand and the retail sector. The outbreak of the pandemic was an unprecedented event. The complete lockdown in many markets apparently had a profound effect on business. In the markets where the lockdown is now disappearing, we can really see that consumers are excited and there is a lot of interest in the categories we operate in. We are very happy with how things are coming back (to normal) and very optimistic about the future.

Is this true for India as well?

Absolutely. Sales and consumer demand in India has also exceeded our expectations. For 2022, when we talk to our retail partners about how they see the future, we are quite optimistic. We are confident that Timex Group will be able to achieve the same in our brand portfolio and outperform the market in the coming 12 to 18 months. In India, the impact of the pandemic on the country itself was severe. India, like many other markets, is coming back in a really strong way.

How does India compare with China in terms of watch market size?

The population of India is 1.4 billion and we have been in this country for a very long time. When we look at our priorities, we have to look at the opportunity by the size of the market. We see that Indian consumers have not only high awareness but also high appreciation for our brand. This makes India a very high priority for us, and perhaps, a higher priority than China. We’re also seeing very strong improvements around the world, particularly in the US, which has been extremely strong for us. But when we look two to three years ahead, there is probably not a single market where we expect India to grow similarly.

Are you facing a shortage of good quality luxury watches like Rolex?

Obviously, Rolex is an entirely different segment. This is not where they were playing. I know the demand for Rolex exceeds the supply. It’s great for them. In general, there are a lot of great brands out there. I don’t think there is any fundamental flaw. But right now the supply chain is disrupted in all categories. So, there are supply issues, but I don’t think there is any shortage of great products, great brands in the watch category.

How are fashion watches performing across brands globally?

The fashion watch segment will enjoy growth globally. There are some markets where the category is clearly stable. In markets like China and India, we will see high single-digit growth in this region, perhaps even double digits. Exclusive to India, this is a market where we expect very strong growth in this category across all retail segments.

How big is your portfolio of luxury watches in India? Is fashion a big component of your business here?

At present, the luxury segment of our portfolio is still very small. When we talk about luxury, we are specifically talking about Swiss-made watches like Versace, Salvatore Ferragamo, Missoni etc (Timex makes these in Switzerland). The luxury part is still relatively small, but we’re starting to see some really strong traction, especially with the Versace brand. And, we’re expanding distribution there. But at this point in time, it’s still a small part of the business. The majority of our business is still under the Timex brand and other Timex-related brands such as Helix, which is trailing a younger clientele. We are starting to see some good traction on the fashion side. We are now covering a much broader section from basic watches 2,000 or less and are also selling automatics at much higher price points.