Donald E. McNamara 
It took a pandemic – with stores closed around the world and sales plummeting – but some high-end watch brands are finally entering the digital age.
From augmented reality filters that let you ‘try on’ a watch at home, to chatbots that connect customers with virtual sales assistants, the ever-expanding use of technology is striking for an industry whose three brands are the most effective. top sellers – Audemars Piguet, Rolex and Patek Philippe – does not support e-commerce. And where online experiences are still seen as contrary to the very essence of luxury.
Yes, other industries entered the arena years ago. But the speed at which watch sellers are now migrating online – and reaching out directly to the public – reflects a sudden urgent need to keep pace with consumers accustomed to digital engagement, or because they’ve barely experienced a world without it, or because the coronavirus epidemic demanded it.
“It’s crazy how fast it goes,” said Marco Gabella, co-founder of watch site Watchonista. “Brands have long feared digital technology, and now that fear is evaporating. “
To appreciate how business leaders in the industry have literally interpreted the concept of going straight, just jump on Instagram or join one of the commerce’s now ubiquitous Zoom presentations.
“Three weeks ago, I had no idea what an Instagram Live was,” said Maximilian Büsser, founder and creative director of independent Geneva brand MB&F. In mid-May, he used the platform to present “55 minutes,” a series of interviews with other watch executives and designers. “Now we have these formats where we are so much closer and so much more human. “
Mr. Büsser’s first guest was Patrick Pruniaux, Managing Director of two luxury watch brands owned by Kering, Ulysse Nardin and Girard-Perregaux. Mr. Pruniaux is a former Apple executive, who joined the tech giant in 2014 to work on the first generation of its connected watch. He’s embraced video conferencing to stay in touch with employees and customers during the pandemic: In May, he held one-on-one discussions with Zoom and Microsoft Teams with VIP customers to spark their interest in Freak X Blue Bucherer, a limited edition watch that Ulysse Nardin and Swiss retailer Bucherer are releasing this month.
“I don’t see them as sales sessions,” said Mr. Pruniaux. “A lot of times we just describe the product, but the video conferencing and the fact that we can involve people who were there originally to the product adds more value.”
While sales are the ultimate goal, most of the latest technology is designed to spark curiosity that would lead potential customers to engage with a brand online.
On May 15, for example, the Watches of Switzerland Group, the Leicester, England-based owner of numerous multi-brand and single-brand stores in the United States and Great Britain, co-hosted a Zoom press conference with the Japanese watchmaker Grand Seiko to present a new timepiece, the Toge special edition.
It was planned to unveil the model in early April in a joint pop-up store in Manhattan, but the crisis forced the partners to change course.
“When we first started talking about this project over a year ago, I envisioned a big party at our New York store and maybe Japanese whiskey,” said David Hurley, executive vice president of Watches of Switzerland group, during the Zoom event.
Instead, Grand Seiko worked with Facebook’s Spark AR Studio software to develop an augmented reality filter – what Watches of Switzerland has called the first of its kind for the industry – that allows people to project the watch onto their wrists, to size a hologram of the watch. or down, rotate it and, most importantly, take a photo to share on social media.
“At first, I didn’t associate this technology with our brand, especially because our collectors always talk about the quality of our dials and our finishes,” said Brice Le Troadec, President of Grand Seiko Corp. of America. “But we tried to find creative solutions outside of what is normally done in our industry.”
IWC Schaffhausen, one of eight specialist watchmakers belonging to the Swiss giant Compagnie Financière Richemont, can identify himself.
At the end of April, the brand used augmented reality to showcase its Portugieser 2020 collection, which debuted at the online edition of the Watches & Wonders trade fair. A month later, she rolled out a Facebook chatbot pilot program, giving online customers direct access to a virtual advisor.
Also in May, IWC opened its first virtual store, a 360-degree digital reproduction of its flagship store in Singapore’s ION Orchard Mall, and hosted two events for select customers, accompanied by make-it-yourself cocktails, including a Negroni and a Sakura Martini, delivered by post.
“We have also provided a matching Spotify playlist to create the same vibe for everyone,” IWC Managing Director Christoph Grainger-Herr wrote in an email. “Customers could walk around the virtual store, view watches and interact with each other as well as with an IWC salesperson.”
The only thing customers couldn’t do was buy watches.
For most watch brands and retailers, learning about basic digital strategies that have the potential to boost sales has become a top priority.
“Create a choice for how you buy or how you physically get the product – most of it will be pretty sticky,” said Steve Noble, senior partner at Minneapolis-based McKinsey & Company. “Some customers will seek face-to-face interaction, another group will seek interaction but not physically, while others will want a completely contactless process. “
Acknowledging the new reality, a number of former ecommerce refractories are moving into direct-to-consumer online selling this month, including Hublot and Ulysse Nardin, which started last week, and Zenith, slated for the 30th. June.
“We know that the vast majority of the watch buying experience begins online,” Mr. Pruniaux said. “Ecommerce continues the experience, and whether people buy online from our partners or our site, we want the experience to be good.”
Watchmakers also want the experience to be consistent, but prices can vary widely depending on where customers are located (prices vary from country to country) and whether they are buying directly from the brand or from a multi-brand retailer, as wholesale partners are not required to sell watches. at full retail price.
“It’s all about the discounts,” said Ali Mudara, founder of Projekt8, a luxury watch store in Bahrain. “Customers come to the store and negotiate a price. Why buy online if they find it cheaper in stores? “
The heterogeneous approach of the Swiss watch industry to pricing is not the only obstacle to creating a transparent omnichannel offering for potential buyers. Many of the world’s top watch retailers, including Wempe, based in Hamburg, Germany, and The Hour Glass, headquartered in Singapore, simply aren’t equipped to sell online.
And as suppliers to the three big brands (remember Audemars Piguet, Rolex and Patek Philippe?), They have no incentive to do so.
“We’re not going to sell on the internet tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean we won’t watch it,” said François-Henry Bennahmias, Managing Director of Audemars Piguet. “We’re dealing with the shortage anyway. So it would be a bit counterproductive to offer watches online that we can’t deliver. “
If only all watch brands had such problems. With Swiss watch sales down by double digits in all major markets, the prospect of unsold inventory means companies are scrambling to revamp their distribution models. While offering direct digital sales is one way to achieve this, the move has far-reaching implications for an industry built on wholesale relationships.
“The multi-brand retailer is going to be at greater risk than it already is,” said Andrew Block, founder of Second Time Partners, a New Jersey-based digital agency for luxury brands. “All the brands that go live will save the best of the best for themselves. “
To prepare for a future in which they could find themselves in direct competition with their suppliers, many watch retailers have become tech converts, preaching the gospel of Zoom events and online chat functionality.
Oliver Smith owns a watch and jewelry store of the same name in Scottsdale, Arizona, and a Panerai store in Aspen, Colorado. Zoom.”
On May 15, Mr. Smith used the platform for an online auction of 35 used watches. “We sold all of the watches except one, maybe two, including an A. Lange & Söhne Datograph for $ 42,000 and a Patek Aquanaut for $ 30,000,” he said.
Around the same time, Mr. Smith added a chat feature to his website and appointed a salesperson to answer queries online. “We sold $ 65,000 worth of watches in the first week, which we never would have sold before,” he said.
Greg Simonian, president of luxury watch retailer Westime in Los Angeles, recruited his wife, Nicole Simonian, to help him and Breitling USA president Thierry Prissert present the Swiss brand’s latest collection to a around thirty clients during a 5 to 7 Zoom.
To make the May 7 event more festive, Mr. Simonian, apparently following the same playbook as IWC, arranged for the delivery of cocktail mix kits from a local distiller to attendees. Then, via Zoom, “we asked a mixologist to show them how to make the parfait the old fashioned way,” said Simonian.
“I think people found it funny,” he said. “For us to have the product, to show it and explain the feeling – I think that means something. “
And this is, in summary, why watchmakers, in the great tradition of all luxury manufacturers, continue to be reluctant to sell online: they cling to the idea that a luxury purchase is more attractive when a potential buyer can touch and feel the product.
So where does that leave watch brands and retailers struggling to effectively present a product prized for its tangible qualities in today’s environment, where touch is either prohibited or limited by social distancing?
“Virtual reality, Zoom, whatever it is – the focus will be on responding technology with a whole new world of opportunities that will make what we have now seem like just the beginning,” said Peter Noel Murray, a consumer psychology expert who is based in New York City. “The in-store experience may never be able to be replicated, but what choice do we have? “
