Something Special
“There will always be a market for the luxury watches, but like the jewellery market people are demanding more fashion items and this means that the watches market is more and more becoming fashion-focused.”
So says Pilgrim travel retail director Marianne Salomon, and indeed a brief survey of the category’s history over the past few years reveals that fashion has undoubtedly emerged as a key driver of new product development. Most prominently, this has been characterised by the rise of suppliers like Pilgrim and Bijoux Terner, whose core business lies in other categories like jewellery. Recognising the desire on the part of many customers to match their timepiece to the occasion, they have responded with a broad cross-section of generally very affordable watches.
“People want watches for different occasions and outfits,” says Salomon, who notes that for
Pilgrim fashion goes hand-in-hand with durability. “There is a strong link between the watches and
jewellery category, and for a company like Pilgrim it was a natural progression for us to move into the watches category.”
For Pilgrim – which has really only entered the watches category in the last year – the crossover is made explicit by the tendency for its timepieces to be presented alongside its jewellery, or at least with retailers who are also stocking the jewellery products. This may be subject to change in the future, however: “As our brand grows and becomes known for its watches collection as well as the jewellery then of course there will be a place for Pilgrim watches to sit alone within the main watches category in travel retail.”
In the meantime, product development will continue apace, with a current selection of some 40 different styles for men and women, including some unisex models, set to grow soon with six charm watches and new seasonal collections.
Although also primarily a jewellery supplier, Equss has been developing a watches line from its earliest days. Recently, however, the latter concern has taken a decisive step up in activity levels, headlined by the launch of new collections at the TFWA Asia Pacific show. Exclusive to travel retail until the beginning of this year, the brand is now operating in a number of domestic markets (including Dubai and Bolivia), with a clutch of department store outlets on the horizon.
Using such words as ‘uniqueness’, ‘elegance’ and ‘reliability’ about Equss’ timepieces, managing
director Alex Chaves clearly has a precise notion of where the company’s products fit into the evolving watches marketplace. “Equss’ customers are young and daringly-minded individuals who [...] are aware of the fashion trends and care about little details on what they wear,” he says. “They recognise the high quality of the products they buy and appreciate their value for the price they pay.”
It is also evident that accessibility of price (within the range US$99-240) underlines the supplier’s approach. “I believe that the strategy of some brands is to create exclusive designs of a limited edition with very high quality and precious materials for which customers are willing to pay the premium,” he observes. “However, I think that even brand-minded people are becoming more spending conscious and are looking around for some options that allow them to be elegant and wear nice timepieces of very good quality at very affordable prices.”
The enhanced focus on watches is set to result in a number of major new products this year, among them Aster, a three-time zone watch in stainless steel with mother of pearl dials and Austrian stones. And Chaves notes: “We are certainly coordinating with airport operators to create promotional campaigns in order to increase sales levels and to have a good brand exposure throughout different regions.” As Pilgrim and Equss continue to develop watch offers that augment and/or complement their jewellery interests, so Bijoux Terner – instigator of the celebrated 12 euro retail policy – remains set on a simple philosophy that applies to all of its product ranges. “All our items must be high fashion, high value, and displayed in an open-sell ‘grabbable’ environment,” explains Bijoux Terner’s vice-president, Rosa Terner.
Defined as the company’s second core line after jewellery, watches have played a major part in establishing a profile for Bijoux Terner’s value retail concept. Colour-coordinated with the rest of its lines “to motivate multiple purchases between the categories”, the watches are at the lower-price end of the market. Terner insists, however, that this emphasis on value does not equate to a reduction in quality: “€12 is a very cheap price – but there is nothing cheap about our watches.”
In keeping with a category where constant change really is the order of the day, the selection available in-store is always evolving. “Because we are all about fashion we focus on being on top of every trend,” says Terner.
Montblanc – another supplier to combine interests in other categories (chiefly writing instruments) with the production of watches – pursues an approach in this category based around appealing to three distinct target groups. These are, notes general manager travel retail, Frank Passmann, “conservative achiever, who does not like to experiment and whose social status is very important; elite of tomorrow who follow current trends and fashion and get easily excited about new products; and the BoBos who always look for the unique, the unusual, the surprising and consider themselves as opinion leaders.”
With a price profile from €1,000 to €5,000, Montblanc’s timepieces undoubtedly belong to the higher end of the market; a notion rather reinforced by the supplier’s recent entrance into fine watch-making with the strictly limited editions of Collection Villeret 1858. Accordingly, Passmann suggests that the scope for luxury offers is only increasing with the passage of time.
“Airport retailing is becoming more and more interesting for luxury brands,” he says. “Our category is still the smallest in comparison to core travel retail categories, but we show the biggest growth. There are no comparable street locations with the same frequencies as airports and matching customer profiles.”
While their approaches differ, it is clear that all four of our featured suppliers are entirely aware of the increasingly fast-moving nature of the watches category, and are determined to respond accordingly with continually evolving product selections. More than ever, there really is a watch to suit every taste, occasion and budget; the challenge in the years ahead may be to ensure that customers do not feel overwhelmed by the abundance of choice every time they enter a TR store. n
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