What made you come to India?

What made you decide to come to India?
The brand decided in 2000 that we needed a more global presence, not just in Europe and the US. We initiated the first cycle by launching in Hong Kong, Singapore and the Middle East and then we decided to launch the second cycle with India. India is our strategic market, because there are some basic elements that make India a very good fit for our brand. As is obvious, India is going through an economic boom. There is also a very strong culture in this country for watches and jewellery. Most importantly India as a country has the capacity to envisage a product through its history and thus understand the ideology behind the brand; the know-how, the craftsmanship etc. If you don’t have such a culture you can’t really appreciate and understand the brand. India has all these three elements that we consider essential. Finally, in the last few years more and more Indians have been travelling to Switzerland to purchase their watches, not just middle and low-end watches but also luxury watches. Hence we thought now was the time to establish our presence in India.

What are your expectations from the Indian market?
India is like Russia and China. They do differ internally but in all three we see a strong potential for the future. We see a huge capacity for investment in luxury items. India has something more to offer particularly in terms of creativity. India is not just a business opportunity for us. It is also an inspiration for our creativity. It has an additional touch as a country that is very interesting. It is my job to have a concept and a vision to lead my creative team and from what I see here, I will definitely bring my creative team, especially to Mumbai, to see the light, the colours, the people etc. A young Indian designer has also contacted me and her ideas were very creative. India definitely has very strong potential.

In the months that you have been here, what is the growth percentage you have seen?
As a first step we want to achieve a significant presence. We can quickly achieve one percent, which is not bad. The target is to match and surpass the percentage we have in China. Over time, we see India contributing between 3 to 5 percent of our global turnover. Of course there is a lot of basic groundwork to be done in terms of brand building, visibility, media etc. We believe it’s just a question of time.

What have been your key selling collections in India?
The Reverso was actually invented for a British polo player stationed in India in 1931. So I can say that our legendary icon watch was created and inspired by India! We also have our Master line that is our complicated line. It’s very classic and ‘50s. Now we’ve also introduced Ideale, which is purely a woman’s watch. It has all the elements a woman would want - it’s delicate, feminine, efficient etc.

What do you predict are the new emerging trends in the watch industry?
For the next two years we will see very complicated, ‘heavy’, big watches and also a parallel reaction with simple, sleek watches. In the next five years I see the simpler, ‘purer’ watches taking over. I see a minimalist; ‘less is more’ trend that will take over eventually...

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