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BRITAIN’S MOST INFLUENTIAL WATCH TITLEOCTOBER 2021 / ISSUE 130

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COMMENT

10 WATCHPRO / OCTOBER 2021 / watchpro.com

It’s good to talk

E arlier this year I expressed my view that Swiss watchmakers

would benefit from being more transparent with consumers

and the media. In that column I argued that the industry is more

precarious than it might appear. Even excluding the impact of

covid, there has been virtually no growth since 2015, with Swiss watch

exports plateauing at around CHF 21 billion per year.

Most businesses and industries that hit a plateau of that duration normally begin to decline as

disruputors scent opportunity against sleepy encumbents and come up with something fresh from a

product, service or business model point of view; often all three.

The luxury mechanical watch business, with centuries of history, might not be as exposed to the

creative destruction we see in the tech and media world, but it is not totally immune as Apple and

Samsung are demonstrating.

Something needs to change, I argued, and being more transparent and less thin skinned is worth a shot

in an era of social media and a general feeling that consumers expect to be heard, not dictated to.

I know Rolex executives read WATCHPRO (we track who opens our daily news alert e-mails), but I

don’t delude myself they listen. However, Rolex might have reached the same conclusion I did ahead of

issuing a statement this week on the subject of extreme shortages for its most popular watches.

That statement was vanilla and shed little light on what, if anything, Rolex is doing to address the

shortages, but it still gladdened me to hear from the company.

To paraphrase (see full story on page 8): the watchmaker is not to blame for shortages because it cannot

significantly increase production without compromising quality, and extreme waiting lists are not its

fault either because it is authorised dealers who manage allocation of watches for their customers (a

point that is both true, and obfuscating at the same time).

Ironically, Rolex’s new found openness comes at the same time that some of its authorised dealers are

clamming up. A major Rolex partner, which opened a beautiful new store earlier this year, took the

decision not to give the news any publicity at all.

The market for Rolex is so overheated, and the retailer is under so much bombardment from unhappy

loyal customers as well as flippers and chancers wanting the hottest wataches, that it did not want to

add any fuel of publicity to the fire.

When team members are suffering from anxiety attacks and stress from this relentless pressure, it is

understandable that an employer wants to release the strain.

For brands, if they have a plan to ease the current crisis, it would be best if they share it.

COVER PROMOTION COURTESY OF GUCCI

Gucci is celebrating its centenary with an exceptional suite of contemporary watch designs by Creative Director Alessandro Michele headed by the GUCCI 25H, which houses the brand’s first in house movement.

Rob Corder CO-FOUNDER & EDITOR, WATCHPRO

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Authenticity Guarantee is independent from, and not associated with, any brands sold on eBay.

Every detail makes us tick.Watches over £2,000 are now independently authenticatedto guarantee the one you buy is the real deal.

12

FRONT / NEWS REVIEW

WATCHPRO / OCTOBER 2021 / watchpro.com

THIS MONTH IN THE WATCH INDUSTRY...

ROLEX SAYS IT WILL NOT COMPROMISE QUALITY TO EASE SUPPLY

NEWS REVIEW

THE BIG INTERVIEW - SEDDIQI

EBAY AUCTION SPECIAL REPORT

JAMES BOND WATCHES

12

22

27

44

In the five years WATCHPRO has been reporting on interminable waiting lists and soaring

prices on the secondary market, Rolex has never broken its silence on what it thinks about the issues and whether it has a plan to tackle it.

That changed last month when the world’s biggest luxury watchmaker issued a statement in response to a Yahoo! Finance report on the shortages.

Before you get too excited, Rolex added little to the debate, bore little responsibility for the problem and offered no solutions.

“The scarcity of our products is not a strategy on our part,” Rolex insists.

“Our current production cannot meet the existing

extreme care, to meet the brand’s unique and high-quality standards of quality, performance and aesthetics. Understandably, this naturally restricts our production capacities – which we continue to increase as much as possible and always according to our quality criteria,” the brand continues.

“This level of excellence requires time, and as we have always done, we will continue to take the necessary time to ensure that all our watches not only comply with our standards of excellence, but also meet the expectations of our customers in terms of quality, reliability and robustness. Rolex does not compromise on what it takes to produce exceptional watches,” it concludes.

demand in an exhaustive way, at least not without reducing the quality of our watches – something we refuse to do as the quality of our products must never be compromised,” the statement adds.

Rolex goes on to address the issue of waiting lists. These not really not waiting lists at all where one person is added at the bottom and moves up as other customers get their watches. Rather, Rolex watches are bestowed upon customers that have bought the most other stuff from an authorised dealer; preferably stuff that has been hard to shift like ladies watches or high margin jewellery.

Rolex does not use the term waiting lists, but refers to allocation of watches, in this

context it means allocation from retailer to customer rather than allocation from the brand to its authorised dealers.

“Rolex watches are available exclusively from official retailers who independently manage the allocation of watches to customers,” the company notes.

INCREASING PRODUCTION

The remainder of the Rolex statement is really just a promotional message about the quality of its manufacturing, but it does at least say it is increasing production as much as possible.

“All Rolex watches are developed and produced in-house at our four sites in Switzerland. They are assembled by hand, with

14

FRONT / NEWS REVIEW


Omega brings back ChronoscopeIt is hard to fathom why chronoscopes have fallen out of fashion today when mastery of mechanical measurement is so highly prized and analogue timekeeping is welcomed as an antidote to ubiquitous smartwatches and phones.

Omega, which has a richer history than most in chronoscope timepieces, is bringing the technology back in a collection of Speedmasters capable of tracking multiple time, speed and distance parameters.

Acceleration is shown on the tachymeter scale found on standard Speedmasters. A chronoscope shows how far and fast you have travelled between two specific points. A telemeter measures distance based on speed of sound, such as far a person is from a lightning strike when the sound of thunder arrives. And a pulsometer helps measure a person’s heartbeat.

The explanation is as complicated as the timepiece,

which has a new manual-winding Omega Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 9908 in charge of the processes.

The dial side of the 43mm watch takes inspiration from Omega chronographs from the 1940s, which used the same snail design of scales winding

towards the centre of the face.There are six models in a core

collection launching today. Two have silvery dials and blued hands; two reverse the colours with blue dials and rhodium-plated hands; and two adopt the panda style of silvery dials and black sub dials.

They are all offered on a choice of leather straps or stainless steel bracelets.

There is also a seventh reference in Omega’s bronze gold featuring an oxidised bronze dial with silvery sub dials.

The core collection lands in October priced from £7,140.

Rapper learns perils of going greyAmerican Durk Derrick Banks, known professionally as rapper Lil Durk, is urging his fans to shop with authorised dealers soon after compatriot Lil Baby (pictured) appeared to have been stung by a secondary market dealer with a fake Patek Philippe he bought for $400,000.

“Stop buying all this jewelry without knowing what you are doing. A lot of the shit fake and some is over priced. Get 1 jeweler and stick to em I’m telling you y’all ass gone be pissed when the truth come out,” Mr Durk urges in an Instagram post to his 11.1 million followers.

Rappers have been courted

by prestige watch brands because of their penchant for bragging in tracks and to their millions of social media followers about how they spend their

money on hard luxury goods.That is drawing attention from

bloggers with more expertise in horology than rapping, who suggest that Lil Baby

has been wearing a knock-off Patek Philippe rather than the $400,000 original.

Lil Baby does not confirm that he has been pictured wearing a fake, but does turn the controversy into an opportunity to move himself up on the interminable waiting lists for Patek Philippe’s hottest timepieces.

“@patekphilippe see this why I need to be on the list!!” he urges in an apparent reference to the controversy highlighted by Lil Durk.

“After market dealers going to make me do some I shouldn’t,” he adds with a purple devil emoji.

16

FRONT / NEWS REVIEW


GUCCI CHOOSES CENTENARY YEAR TO RELEASE FIRST IN HOUSE MOVEMENTGucci is celebrating 100 years since the luxury fashion House was established by Guccio Gucci in 1921 and the fact that it has been creating stylish Swiss-made timepieces for almost half a century. In this centenary year, Gucci

is proud to announce its entry into high watchmaking with an exceptional suite of contemporary watch designs by Creative Director Alessandro Michele. Each illuminates the creativity, craftsmanship and technical skill that has

underpinned its creations since the luxury fashion house was established.

Star of the new collection is the GUCCI 25H, which houses the brand’s first in house movement.

Alongside the GUCCI 25H, the brand has also unveiled high end editions of its G-Timeless, Grip and High Jewellery watches that blend classic Gucci house codes.

The GG727.25 watch calibre used in the GUCCI 25H has been developed and produced by the state-of-the art Kering movement manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

It is a self-winding movement that is just 3.7mm high, allowing the 38mm GUCCI 25H to stand just 7.2mm proud of the wrist and making it attractive to both men and women.

Gucci is tapping into the current trend for luxurious but urban sporty timepieces with the GUCCI 25H.

There are steel and pavé-set models and two tourbillon pieces in platinum and yellow gold. All four references use proprietary movements based on the GG727.25 caliber, which has a micro-rotor generating up to 60 hours of power reserve.

There are two variations, the GG727.25A automatic displaying hours and minutes

and the Calibre GG727.25T, which incorporates a tourbillon regulator presented at 6 o’clock on the GUCCI 25H dial.

2021 novelties, which were unveiled earlier this year and are now reaching retail, include additions to the G-Timeless, Grip and High Jewellery collections.

G-Timeless presents five new declinations: the two G-Timeless Dancing Bees, with or without tourbillon, have bees on the dial that move with the watch. There is a G-Timeless Automatic with bee motif, jewelled hard-stone dials and precious skin straps; a G-Timeless with moon phases and a G-Timeless Pavé with white-diamonds.

The Grip collection has eight novelties including 18ct gold pieces with hard stone dials, another in 18ct yellow gold with a brushed gold dial engraved with the Gucci logo, a new top of the line piece, also in 18ct gold but decorated with 44 baguette-cut diamonds, and Grip Sapphire, which is made entirely from transparent sapphire in blue, green or pink.

Gucci High Jewellery pieces housing quartz movements present the Maison’s iconic signatures of Dionysus, Lion Head and Gucci Play in precious metals and gems that demonstrate the company’s art, craft, precision, and style.

ADVENTURE NEVEREST GMT 41MM

Manufacture Calibre - NN20/270 Hour Power ReserveChronometer Certified

Jumping Hour GMT

Vegan-certified Rubber NATO Strap

18

FRONT / NEWS REVIEW


2021 WATCHPRO AWARDS FINALISTSRETAILER CATEGORIES

Today we fire the starting pistol for this year’s WATCHPRO Awards. We chose not to hold the event last year because we could not abide the thought of diminishing the ceremony down to a poorly produced Zoom session. That means this year’s finalists have been nominated and selected based on outstanding performance over two years since the summer of 2019, without doubt the most challenging business environment any of us have lived through. This makes this year’s WATCHPRO Awards doubly special, and the finalists we reveal today have demonstrated not just their usual acumen, they have adapted in a way that has kept their teams motivated and inspired while delivering exceptional service to their customers.

Today we unveil the WATCHPRO Awards finalists in our retail categories. Tomorrow we will share the list of finalists for watch brands.

The 2021 WATCHPRO Awards Ceremony takes place on November 11 in central London.

Independent Watch Retailer of the YearIndependents must operate fewer than 10 stores and specialise in watches priced at more than £3000.• Berry’s• Boodles• David M Robinson• Laings• Lunn’s• Pragnell • Prestons• Weir & Sons

Multiple Luxury Watch Retailer of the YearSponsored by

We define luxury watches as those that sell for more than £3000. Multiples must have 10 or more physical stores worldwide.• Bucherer

• Mappin & Webb• Watches of Switzerland• Wempe

Upmarket Watch Retailer of the YearThis category is open to all retailers that trade predominately in watches priced at up to £3000.• Beaverbrooks• Chisholm Hunter• Ernest Jones• Goldsmiths

Ecommerce Retailer of the YearSponsored by

This category is open to all retailers that trade almost exclusively online.• CHRONEXT• First Class Watches• Jura Watches/CW Sellors• Luxe Watches• Mr Porter• Watchfinder• Watchshop• Xupes

Pre-owned Watch Retailer of the YearFor specialists in second hand watches with or without stores.• Blowers• CHRONEXT• WatchBox• Watchfinder• Watchmaster• Xupes

Best New Store of the YearSponsored by

Stores all need to have opened since autumn of 2019. The

category is open to stores operated by watch brands and retailers.• AP House on Bond Street• Breitling on Regent Street• Bremont, The Wing• Bucherer, Covent Garden• Luxe Watches, Epping• Rolex in Leeds (by Prestons)• Rolex in Glasgow (by Watches of Switzerland Group)• Rox in Liverpool• Watches of Switzerland Broadgate (City of London)

Best Store Refurbishment of the YearStores all need to have been refurbished since autumn of 2019. The category is open to stores operated by watch brands and retailers.• David M Robinson, Manchester• Hamilton & Inches in Edinburgh• Laings in Glasgow• Prestons in Wilmslow• Wakefields in Horsham• Watches of Switzerland in Knightsbridge, London

Retail Leaders of the YearSponsored by

This category honours an individual or team that has made an outstanding contribution to their retail business in the past two years.• Anna Blackburn and Mark Adlestone OBE, Beaverbrooks• Brian Duffy and Craig Bolton, Watches of Switzerland Group• Charlie Pragnell, Pragnell• Joe and Wendy Walsh, Laings• Nicholas and Michael Wainwright, Boodles• Simon Walton, Berry’s

Triumphant scenes from the 2019 WATCHPRO Awards.

20

FRONT / NEWS REVIEW


British Watch Business of the YearSponsored by

Watch brands competing in this category need to be headquartered in the UK but are permitted to manufacture overseas.• Bremont• Christopher Ward• Duckworth Prestex• Farer• Fears• Garrard• Schofield• Robert Loomes• Roger W Smith

Executive Leadership Team of the YearThe following executive leadership teams have demonstrated outstanding service and support to their retail partners in the past year.• Breitling• Cartier• Citizen• Omega• Seiko/Grand Seiko• Patek Philippe• TAG Heuer• Rolex• Zeon

Lifestyle Watch Brand of the YearThe finalists for lifestyle watch brand of the year category are judged on the best products, sales, service, and marketing.• Braun• Garmin• G-SHOCK• Longines• Mondaine• Tissot• Seiko

• Victorinox

Independent Watch Brand of the YearIn an era of blockbuster groups, these innovative and nimble businesses keep the spirit of independent watchmaking alive and prospering.• Christopher Ward• DOXA• Junghans• Maurice Lacroix• Michel Herbelin• NOMOS• Oris

Luxury Watch Brand of the YearThe finalists for luxury watch brand of the year category are judged on the best products, sales, service, and marketing.• Breitling• Cartier• Grand Seiko• GUCCI• IWC• Omega• Patek Philippe • Rolex• Vacheron Constantin

Volume Watch Brand of the YearSponsored by

The finalists for volume watch brand of the year category are judged on the best products, sales, service, and marketing.• Boss• Casio/G-SHOCK• Citizen• Michael Kors• Olivia Burton• Seiko• Sekonda• Vivienne Westwood

2021 WATCHPRO AWARDS FINALISTSBRAND CATEGORIES

Triumphant scenes from the 2019 WATCHPRO Awards.

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DUBAI IS A GLOBAL CITY THAT HAS BEEN CUT OFF FROM MUCH OF THE WORLD OVER THE PAST 18 MONTHS. THAT HAS CHANGED SINCE THE SUMMER, AND IS NOW LOOKING FORWARD TO WELCOMING MILLIONS OF VISITORS TO BOTH THE EXPO

2020 WORLD FAIR AND, THANKS TO AHMED SEDDIQI & SONS, TO DUBAI WATCH WEEK AS A PHYSICAL EXHIBITION AND FORUM. ROB CORDER VISITED DUBAI IN AUGUST AND FOUND A CITY REAWAKENED AND READY TO BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER

AGAIN. AS MOHAMMED AND HIND SEDDIQI EXPLAIN, THE EMIRATE IS BACK IN BUSINESS AND READY TO WELCOME VISITORS TO DUBAI WATCH WEEK FROM NOVEMBER 24 TO 28.

WatchPro: How much have things changed in the past two years? The last Dubai Watch

Week was at the end of 2019, which feels like a lifetime ago, and the Horology Forum was a fantastically open and honest environment where retailers, collectors and the press discussed the issues of the day as openly as they might normally only do in private. Some of the most heated debates were about waiting lists, but things have become even more challenging since then. Demand appears to be even stronger at the same time as

WELCOME TO DUBAI

Top :

Dubai Watch Week

takes place in the

Dubai Financial

Centre, the city’s

equivalent or Wall

Street or London’s

Square Mile.

production being constrained by lock downs.Mohammed Seddiqi: It is getting more and more difficult. When Dubai was in lock down for two months, we started a concept called eBoutique. We got all the permissions we needed from the Ministry of Health, Dubai Police and Government to have team members delivering watches that they had sold over WhatsApp. We ended up selling watches that had been in stock for over a year and we could not sell when they had been in a window of one of our stores in a luxury mall. But over WhatsApp, just sharing a picture, we found customers who wanted to buy.

We kept hot pieces from the likes of Rolex, Patek Philippe and Richard Mille aside. I am talking about rare pieces from independents; minute repeaters, tourbillons, grand complications. I believe that the pandemic helped us connect more and more with our clients, not on a marketing level, but on an individual level. We listened to them, we got to know them and their tastes.

Since 2019, we have created more than 40 unique pieces for clients that we met during the lock down, most of them from independent brands. And now we are making sure that we have complete documentation and certification for each of the watches on

THE BIG INTERVIEW / AHMED SEDDIQI & SONS


WP: The story of shortages appears to have moved on. Two years’ ago, when we last gathered at Dubai Watch Week, there were profits to be made from what I call unicorn watches, and this had contributed to shortages and extremely long waiting lists, but authorised dealers generally saw it as positive because it drew attention to the underlying value of luxury watches. Now, the same retailers are telling me they are really suffering. They have staff with anxiety disorders because they are bombarded with people — some professional flippers, others loyal but extremely frustrated customers — trying to buy them. They are phoning, e-mailing, WhatsApping, coming into stores. It is getting out of control.MS: 2020 was a year where we saw that there was a reduction in deliveries because of lock downs. 2021, deliveries are more or less back to normal. There is no shortage of supply from the factories. However, demand has jumped 3000-times. It is an issue we are facing as a retailer and as members of a family business we are getting requests at an unbelievable level. The demand through the showrooms is off the scale.

behalf of the customers. I believe we will see them go up in value over the next 20 years and it will be important that collectors can show how watches were created with help from Seddiqi.

Most of the independents today like Moser, MB&F, De Bethune, Urwerk, Greubel Forsey; they could become in the future what Patek Philippe was 100 years’ ago.

WP: Do you think the independents you are talking about want to grow to the size of Patek Philippe today, which makes around 60,000 to 70,000 watches per year?MS: You never know how big they will become, but looking at the watch industry as a whole there have been ups and downs. A lot of watch brands disappeared during the quartz crisis because people did not appreciate mechanical watches. That has changed now. People appreciate traditional watchmaking more and more. It is something that, as Patek Philippe says, is something that can be handed down from generation to generation. The whole watch industry should adopt that line.

WP: It feels to me like the top end of the watch market is behaving more like the fine art market in terms of people appreciating the genius that goes into watches and their potential as an alternative investment.MS: Unfortunately, in recent times, we have seen a lot of flippers and investors drawn into this market. It is out job as retailers to educate people into what they are buying. I was talking to friends and family recently about how today it is possible to make more money buying and selling watches than buying property in Dubai. It is easier, it is faster; you can enjoy them and wear them. Watches can be carried with you anywhere you go. Property is so much more complicated than that.

So yes, watches are a good investment, but we do not support the idea of people purchasing products so that they can keep them in a safe and sell them in a few years. We are encouraging our clients to buy what

they like and not to just look at the price increases on the market. It is not an easy task because everybody looks to what benefits them.

This morning I was speaking to one of my clients in the UAE, who is a very big collector, and he was always looking for the hot brands in the past. He is very well off, and he never bought anything because he wanted to sell them, he just enjoys watches. But this morning he was telling me that his feelings have changed towards the watch industry and he is now focusing more on independent brands because of the finishing, quality and how rare they have become.

Without mentioning specific brands, there are some watches that are made in quantities of 100,000 pieces that are difficult to get and can be flipped for a quick profit.

In the long term, watches will retain their value because a timepiece is a piece of art. The case and bezel are the frame and the dial is the artwork. A collector friend of mine says that if you consider a watch and a painting, the watch is more valuable per square centimetre than the painting.

There is 200 years of knowhow in creating watches. It is just unfortunate that people now consider it as just maybe another investment.

Top :

Mohammed

Seddiqi, commercial

director of Ahmed

Seddiqi & Sons,

and Hind Seddiqi,

the retailer’s chief

marketing officer

as well as head of

Dubai Watch Week.

AHMED SEDDIQI & SONS / THE BIG INTERVIEW

23watchpro.com / OCTOBER 2021 / WATCHPRO

the perceived value of these watches significantly. The marketing they have put in around watches as an investment has played a major role and taken the industry to a completely different level.

WP: Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons has dozens of sumptuous stores in the most spectacular shopping malls in the world, including the world’s biggest Rolex monobrand store. How have recent issues, like the shortages, the lock downs, the lack of tourists to Dubai in the past 18 months and the fact that you can now sell watches over WhatsApp affected your business model?MS: If we sell a watch over WhatsApp, we still have them come to one of our boutiques and having the full experience and maybe buy another watch one day. Brick and mortar will still be vital in the watch industry and wider luxury industry.

WP: You have around 60 stores today. Do you think you will have fewer or more in five years’ time?MS: I think we will slowly increase the number of stores, not at the pace of the past 20 years when we have doubled the number of stores. I do not think it will go to 120 stores in the next 20 years, but I do not think we will close stores.

WP: How do you feel about multibrands compared to monobrand stores?MS: We are still focusing on multibrands to showcase brands that cannot afford their own boutiques. Some cannot afford the rents in Dubai, London or New York.

WP: An interesting phenomenon that data from the UK shows is how much the average transaction value for each watch sold has rocketed over the past 18 months, not on the secondary market, but for brand new watches at authorised dealers. Retail analyst GfK shows ATVs up more than 60% year on year. Part of that is the falling away of the low end of the market as Apple and Samsung

We have to tell customers that if they want to buy X watch from X brand, they have to be a customer of the brand. I cannot give you a Daytona as your first Rolex. You have to have a DateJust, you have to have an Oyster Perpetual, you have to have a gold watch. Looking at the passion for watches and the demographic of the Middle East where families tend to be rather big — you have your wife, your brothers, your sisters — so the opportunity for that family to build up a history with a specific brand is more straightforward than in Europe where a husband and wife might buy one Rolex and then ask for a Daytona next. This makes the demand here even more challenging. It is exploding.

We are trying to inform people as much as we can that the priority for the hot watches is to existing customers of the brand.

WP: What that ultimately does is shrink down the customer base.

Rolex ordinarily makes around one million watches per year and might ordinarily have sold them to 500,000 customer. Now, because customers need to have a history of purchasing from the brand, there might only be 100,000 customers in the world able to buy those million watches, which will ultimately make the problem even worse while making 400,000 people unhappy with Rolex and their authorised dealers.MS: Not really. I always tell my friends that being a watch collector is an addiction. You start with one watch, and tell yourself it is the last one you will buy. Two weeks later you see another piece you have to have and say again that will be the last one. It never stops.

The task is difficult and it is an ongoing problem. People say it is a bubble, but we have been hearing that for a long time now and I don’t see how it ends.

I remember around 2008, we had the GMT Master Pepsi on display and people could negotiate a discount. I was in sales at the time and I was pushing my friend to buy it but they said it was too colourful and the jubilee bracelet was not right for it. Aquanauts were on display. In 2005 we had a boutique in Wafi [a small, prestigious Dubai mall] where you could walk in and buy a Nautilus, an Aquanaut. Today, nothing. In 2004 I was walking in the gold souq and I saw an Explorer II from 1971, the Steve McQueen watch. For me, having a passion for watches I stopped and spoke to the dealer who told me he had been trying to sell it for the past five years and nobody wanted it. I asked him how much he wanted for it and he said five thousand dirhams, around $1,500. It was a brand new watch that he had bought in Saudi Arabia, and I bought it from him [the same watch sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2020 for $25,000]. There was no appreciation for these watches at that time.

What changed this mentality is marketing, looking back at the history of the brand and the fact that they became talked about as investments. Auction houses have helped to build

Top :

Ahmed Seddiqi &

Sons operates the

world’s largest Rolex

boutique in Dubai

Mall.



Top :

Ahmed Seddiqi

& Sons has over

60 monobrand

and multibrand

boutiques across

the UAE.

smartwatches have gobbled up the sub-£500 sector, but is it also because customers are being forced to buy watches at £20,000-plus prices because otherwise they cannot buy the sub-£10,000 steel sports watches they might actually want?MS: That is a worldwide phenomenon. The launch of the olive green Nautilus this year was not just an issue for us, it was a catastrophe because we got only a few pieces and we have so many clients that are regular Patek Philippe customers and we were forced to choose which of them got this watch. For us as a family we decided the priority would go to clients that have been loyal to Patek Philippe over the past 10 years as a token of our appreciation.

After the double-sealed piece was sold by Sotheby’s [for close to $500,000], the demand increased, not among collectors, but by people that have no interest in watches but are good friends of our family and wanted to get one. Who would not want a $450,000 profit from one watch? We should have kept them all for ourselves (laughs). Instead we kept them for people that have been buying the grand complications and the ladies’ watches from Patek Philippe. We do everything we can to make sure they go to people that will keep the watch, wear it and enjoy it rather than keep them in a safe and sell them in a couple of year.

WP: I do not blame people who buy a watch with that much potential profit and sell it. That is human nature. I also appreciate that joy of watch collecting comes from both buying and selling. It is hard on these genuine watch lovers that they are almost lumped in with flippers if they sell a hot watch.MS: We have customers that buy watches and after a few years they come back and say they want to upgrade their collection. They want to sell, not necessarily to make a profit, but because they want a change and they became bored of a few pieces after wearing them and loving them for a few years. We never penalise

them. But somebody buying a watch and selling it as soon as they walk out of the store, or after a few months without wearing it, is wrong. We try to avoid those people.

WP: I am trying to find a way that this situation can be resolved without it hurting the brands or retailers. Is there a way of taking the massive spike in demand and prices for the hottest watches and flattening the curve so that demand spreads out across Omega, Cartier, Zenith, Hublot or whatever brand you like? What about increasing prices so a £5,000 watch becomes a £10,000 watch?MS: I started in the watch industry in the mid-nineties. At that time we sold Daytonas for 16,000 dirhams, which is $4,000, and in the seventies my father tells me they sold for less than half that. Today a Daytona is around

$15,000. Looking at the time line for that reference, you can see that prices have jumped a lot already. I bought a second hand DateJust from the 1960s that had its original receipt for 1,000 dirhams, around $200. Everything is getting more expensive, but people are being paid more as well.

WP: I have heard that Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons is producing a number of unique pieces with brands to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the United Arab Emirates this year. Is that something you can talk about?MS: We are producing close to 40 watches. They are not all one of one, but some are unique. Our aim is to give back to the UAE what the country has given to us as a family. We are producing watches with most of the brands that we carry that have a reference to the 50th anniversary

AHMED SEDDIQI & SONS / THE BIG INTERVIEW


Left :

Dubai Watch Week

is part exhibition

and part forum for

watch enthusiasts.

the exhibition area.We have combined Horology

Forum and Creative Hub together. The feedback we got from 2019 was that journalists want more Q&A time, so we are going to deliver that. We will have fewer speakers given more time.

Horology Forum will address the most interesting topics that our team have tapped into on social media and Clubhouse. It is not commercial. We bring speakers that might have a clash of opinions, which can be a challenge.

WP: I understand the politics and sensitivities of the watch industry and was delighted by how open and honest the Forum was in 2019. Will it be that bold again this year?HS: The advantage of funding it ourselves as a retailer is that we have control. There are no sponsors to worry about. People want raw information; that is how we want to keep it.

Things did become more open during covid because brand CEOs went online doing live interviews. People enjoyed that because there were no PR people standing behind the CEOs keeping them on message. Social media has also showed that you need to have thick skin because anybody can comment on a post and you cannot control peoples’ opinions.

WP: I agree with that, to an extent, with people like Georges Kern at Breitling, François-Henry Bennahmias from AP and Julien Tournare at Zenith being open and honest in online interviews during the pandemic. I don’t suppose we are going to hear from Jean-Frederic Dufour [CEO of Rolex] or Thierry Stern [president of Patek Philippe] at Dubai Watch Week?HS: No. But I think Mr Stern is talking to the press more. Rolex is different. That does not stop Rolex and Patek being discussed in the Forum. The topics are really going to be interesting for all attendess. Absolutely nothing is off limits which is really exciting too. We are even widening the conversation to beyond the watch industry with speakers from the hospitality and technology worlds.

which is allowing the restrictions to now be eased.

WP: What will visitors to Dubai Watch Week see and experience this year?MS: Let me put it this way: it is like getting a Daytona from the 1970s and getting a Daytona in 2021. It is the same design and the same technology, but the 2021 version is much more advanced. The finishing is better, the polishing is better.

HS: Every year when we finish, we get feedback from the visitors, the brands and the journalists who attend. We continue with things that have worked and we adjust other things.

The exhibition has been a big success, so that will stay the same. We have more standalone brands present outside the main exhibition tent. That is something we have been asked for but we have no more room in the main space so we are accommodating standalone brands around it.

Mohammed is also launching a collectors’ lounge, which is new. Collectors can come together and go more in depth about the watches they love and have seen in the exhibition.

But the show is open to everybody, and we intentionally include a weekend so that people who are not experts can come along and learn about watches. We have masterclasses demonstrating crafts and watchmaking to help people explore what interests them.

We are creating more activations so that people can come and win something. That is an incentive for people to visit. We have amazing F&B ranging from street food to fine dining. People really like that mix.

WP: Do you have the same support from the brands? In 2019 you had a standalone Rolex booth, which may have been the last public event the brand has done since that was also the last year for Baselworld.HS: Yes, Rolex is coming back in the same space. I will not give you the full list of participants at this stage, but most are returning and there are new ones. We always have a waiting list for

engraved on the back. Unfortunately, none of them are going to be from Patek Philippe or Rolex, but there will be a number launched by our brands at Dubai Watch Week.

WP: Dubai is a global city that is incredibly attractive to tourists, but worldwide travel is still heavily depressed, and is likely to remain that way for at least the rest of this year. How does that affect the way you plan for Dubai Watch Week at the end of November?Hind Seddiqi: Last year we were able to attract a lot of local residents from the UAE to Dubai Watch Week. We know that this year, particularly as we also have Expo 2020 [a world fair in Dubai that was postponed from last year and runs from October 2021 to March 2022], we are expecting delegations and visitors to come here. We are working with the Expo and Dubai Tourism to attract as many people as possible.

You are here in Dubai and you can see that things are almost back to normal. This week [in August] hotels were told by the ministry that they are allowed to operate at 100% capacity again. The country has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world,



AN & WATCHPRO SPECIAL REPORT

watchpro.com / OCTOBER 2021 / WATCHPRO

WATCHPRO SPECIAL REPORT IN ASSOCIATION WITH CHRONEXT

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

VOLUME 04

AUCTION REPORT&

28

AN & WATCHPRO SPECIAL REPORTAUCTION REPORT — VOLUME 4 — DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION


As a life-long watch lover who has always worked in the digital world, Swiss brands embracing ecommerce has always been an interesting topic to me. When it comes to new watches, it feels like the industry is 10 years behind most other segments of the retail landscape, and five years behind where customers want to be.

I enjoy the experience of browsing and shopping in a prestigious multibrand watch showroom as much as the next watch enthusiast, but virtually every journey towards buying an expensive watch begins online, and very often ends there as well.

The great thing about the online world is that there is unlimited space for watches from every brand and every era. If you have the money, customers can find and buy even the hottest Rolex watches — pre-owned or new — despite the fact that they have only a slim chance of finding them in the cabinets of an authorized dealer.

At eBay we want to provide the greatest choice of watches in the world while ensuring we provide an exceptional shopping experience. Part of that experience is making it simple for customers to search for and find exactly what they want. Just as important is to ensure the watches they buy are precisely as described and verified authentic. This is where our Authenticity Guarantee comes in, which has been building trust and protecting buyers and sellers on eBay since September 2021, and sees every piece priced at over $2,000 checked by professional authenticators before it is delivered to a customer.

The extra confidence this has brought to eBay’s community has driven sales of luxury watches to record levels, with more than 25,000 watches were sold in the first half of 2021 by top brands including Rolex, Omega, Breitling, Patek Philippe and Cartier.

We first introduced the Authenticity Guarantee in the United States, but have subsequently launched it in Japan. The UK and additional markets are on the horizon.

eBay is far from the only advocate for buying and selling luxury watches online, and it is exciting to see investment flooding into this sector. This is driving competition, which is raising standards across the board and flushing out rogue operators.

There has never been a better time to buy and sell precious timepieces online, and eBay is here as a trusted friend to help.

Tirath Kamdar, GM of Luxury, eBay, Inc.

29



ECOMMERCE AND AUTHENTICITY

JUST A FEW YEARS’ AGO, SHOPPING FOR LUXURY PRE-OWNED WATCHES ONLINE WAS A GAMBLE, WITH SHOPPERS KEEPING THEIR FINGERS

CROSSED THAT THE GOODS THEY BOUGHT WOULD ARRIVE AS DESCRIBED. THAT HAS CHANGED, AND NOW SAVVY CONSUMERS KNOW THERE

ARE SITES LIKE EBAY THAT PHYSICALLY INSPECT AND AUTHENTICATE LUXURY GOODS BEFORE THEY REACH A CUSTOMER. AS AUTHENTICATION

BECOMES THE NORM, RETAILERS NOT OFFERING THE SERVICE LOOK LIKELY TO BE LEFT BEHIND.

With shops shut for months at various stages of the pandemic, online sales have soared, particularly for hard luxury goods. A survey this year

by Vogue Business found that 69% of luxury consumers in the US purchased pre-owned luxury over the past year. However, the same survey found that, when it comes to shopping online for pre-owned luxury goods, 96% of shoppers wanted reassurance about the authenticity of what they are looking to buy.

That survey was conducted in partnership with eBay, which launched its Authenticity Guarantee Service in September 2020 for watches retailing for more than $2,000 on its platform.

It is worth remembering the challenge that eBay and its peers have been addressing in recent years, which is that the internet was until recently seen as an unregulated and lawless place where fakes, frauds and Frankenstein watches lurked.

That reputation has been changing rapidly among well-informed consumers. Luxury watch sales on eBay have reached a record-high with more than 25,000 watches sold in the first half of 2021 by top brands including Rolex, Omega, Breitling, Patek Philippe and Cartier.

Following the launch of Authenticity Guarantee, many brands saw upticks in searches, such as IWC, whose searches increased +12% month over month. It appears that consumers have gained confidence from the fact that every expensive watch that is sold with the guarantee arrives precisely as described. Happy customers tell their friends, they shop online again and they are more likely to return to a site they trust if they ever choose to sell a watch.

76% 65%

64% 50%

52% 40%

of all luxury shoppers are buying pre-owned luxury

online from platforms such as Ebay and Depop

of luxury shoppers buy pre-owned luxury

of luxury shoppers purchase pre-owned luxury

atleast once a month

of luxury shoppers say they will shop more for pre-owned luxury as

Covid-19 subsides

of luxury shoppers aslo sell pre-owned luxury

69% 45%

55%56%

31%

30



“With the consumer shift to online shopping, the ecommerce market is stronger than ever. We know trust is important among the watch community, which is why we launched our Authenticity Guarantee service last year in the US, where all watches sold for over $2,000 are meticulously inspected and verified by independent experts,” explains Tirath Kamdar, general manager of luxury at eBay.

eBay knew it was onto a winner when the volume of watches being offered for sale on its platform rose along with the value of sales. “With our Authenticity Guarantee service, we are now evolving our offerings and ensuring eBay watch customers get exactly what they want — incredible selection with an added layer of trust and confidence that their high-valued purchases are one hundred percent authentic,” Mr Kamdar suggests.

Major retailers in the pre-owned and luxury watches sector have worked independently on improving customer service, which has collectively increased trust between online buyers and sellers. Money back guarantees are relatively common with the biggest players such as Watchfinder, Chronext and WatchBox. This is contributing to rapidly rising average transaction values and volumes.

eBay goes even further. Once its authentication inspection is complete, watches receive a unique Authenticity Guarantee certificate with details about the item including brand and model. This card is NFC-enabled, a high-tech digital feature (used by contactless payment cards) that allows owners to look up a watch’s authentication information just with a tap of a smartphone.

eBay always said that the Authenticity Guarantee was only its first step to improve its luxury goods offering across categories like watches, handbags and sneakers. In April, the San Jose-based giant added another layer of security in the form of an escrow payment option available for luxury watch transactions over $10,000. This means buyers and sellers can have their funds held by a specialist external escrow firm until their transaction completes. If anything unexpected happens with the deal, the buyer and seller are both protected.

Watches are not the only category where eBay offers an Authenticity Guarantee. It has expanded to include sneakers worth more than $100 and handbags priced

“eBay’s authenticated categories continue to expand, and we are always looking for ways to offer the best experience to our millions of active shoppers and sellers by enhancing our trusted experience on eBay for even more inventory across luxury categories. We also continue to explore opportunities to include more offerings that will drive the user experience forward,” Mr

TOP 20HARD LUXURY BRANDS

CATEGORY CHF #LOTS # CHF/ LOTS

1 Pakek Philippe Watch 81033408 180 450186

2 Harry Winston Jewllery 25571713 22 1162351

3 Cartier Jewllery 24961221 43 580494

4 Rolex Watch 21147978 88 240318

5 F.P. Journe Watch 9818768 44 223154

6 Bulgari Jewllery 8350992 18 463944

7 Tiffany Jewllery 7701951 10 770195

8 Audemars Piguet Watch 6874207 37 185789

9 Graff Jewllery 6806042 24 283585

10 Van Cleef & Arpels Jewllery 5250800 23 228296

11 JAR Jewllery 5110511 12 25876

12 Mous saieff Jewllery 3979139 2 1989569

13 A. Lange & Sohne Watch 2390649 6 398441

14 Cartier Watch 2163787 9 240421

15 Reza Jewllery 1881250 8 235156

16 Richard Mille Watch 1755364 6 292561

17 Breguet Watch 1500221 7 214317

18 Harry Winston Watch 1207203 3 402401

19 Vacheron Constantin Watch 1145663 7 163666

20 Omega Watch 917742 4 229435

at over $500 from more than 15 luxury brands. The lower price thresholds are not simply because footwear and accessories are cheaper, it is eBay’s way of building confidence in a system that will protect customers who might buy increasingly expensive items as they get older and earn more. Air Jordans can be a gateway drug for Audemars Piguet.

31



Kamdar reveals. “We’re just getting started. Since we began authenticating watches and sneakers and now handbags, we have seen authentication driving trust and confidence for our community, which is evident through increased customer satisfaction scores and sales growth in these categories. Our luxury categories continue to gain momentum with recent quarter over quarter growth,” he adds.

The global market for pre-owned watches is estimated by McKinsey and Co to have been worth $18 billion in 2019, and online sales growth is outpacing person-to-person deals. The sector has become dramatically more competitive in the past five years, and success of the biggest players has encouraged investment to flood in. Much of the new money is being spent on improving customer service in a way that actually improves trust.

Chrono24, for example, revealed a fresh funding round of €100 million over the summer. “We’ve been able to build a platform that not only supports and encourages evolving consumer behavior, but also can provide an invaluable proof of concept to an industry that has traditionally shied away from disruption,” says Chrono24

eBay has added escrow as a payment offer for luxury watches

selling for over $10,000 in the second quarter of this year, pro-

tecting payments until buyers and sellers are completely satis-

fied with their transaction.

At checkout, if a shopper decides to purchase a qualifying

luxury watch using escrow, they will be directed from eBay

to Escrow.com’s website where they will receive step-by-step

instructions for creating an account. Both buyers and sellers

must have an account in order to send and receive payments;

it is a one-time process and all data is privately shared between

Escrow and the buyer or seller.

The buyer funds an account via wire transfer or ACH electro-

nic check, which is managed by Escrow.com as an intermedia-

ry. Funds are released by the third party to the seller once the

item is received by the buyer in the condition described in the

listing and terms of the transaction agreement are met to the

satisfaction of both parties. They are protected against fraudu-

lent customers through verification checks and payment being

held by a third party in case of a return allowing sellers five

days to inspect the merchandise and release funds to custo-

mers if the merchandise matches the original condition.

With eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee, customers receive their

watch from the authenticator and then have up to seven days to

inspect and examine the watch before accepting the item. Once

accepted, or if the seven-day inspection period has passed,

returns will not be available. In the event of a return, the watch

is shipped back to the third party for verification and funds are

then released to the customer if the merchandise matches the

original condition.

“We are changing the way people buy and sell luxury items

on eBay,” says Tirath Kamdar, general manager of Luxury at

eBay. “When it comes to high value watches and other signifi-

cant purchases, consumers expect additional assurances. eBay

is committed to providing the best experience, from start to

finish, and our new offerings will continue to go on and deliver

on that promise.”

“As a long-time leader in the luxury watch space with more

than 1.2 million daily live listings, eBay offers an unmatched se-

lection of timepieces — from rare, vintage watches to new styles

from coveted brands like Rolex, Omega, Tag Heuer and more,”

says Charis Márquez, vice president of fashion at eBay. “We’ve

seen a tremendous uptick in interest for luxury watches this

past year, with more than 22 million site searches for Cartier,

and more than 15 million for Tag Heuer. Escrow joins Authenti-

city Guarantee as eBay’s response to that growing appetite,” she

goes on to add.

EBAY OFFERS ESCROW PAYMENT PROTECTION

32



Co-CEO, Tim Stracke.Traditional auctioneers face a

different challenge to the digital natives. The likes of Christie’s Bonhams, Phillips and Sotheby’s are built on trust accrued over centuries, but building on that reputation with digital sales was not a priority until recently. The pandemic has changed that for good. The total value of online sales by the top six auctioneers was just CHF 7.8 million or 4.6% out of a total of CHF 162 million for the first six months of 2019. By the first half of 2021, online sales had risen to CHF 54 million from a total of CHF 241 million, a healthy 22.4%.

It is remarkable that the total value of luxury watch sales at auction by the top six houses rose by 49% from the first half of 2019 — pre-pandemic — to the same period in 2021 when the world was still heavily affected by lock downs, travel bans and other restrictions as the virus continued to wreak havoc.

Over that period, the value of sales at physical auctions rose by 21% from CHF 154 million to CHF 187 million but the value of online sales for the same auctioneers increased by 486% from CHF 7.8 million to CHF 53.8 million. It is likely that a whole new cohort of customers participated in auctions online during the pandemic and then either continued to do so as restrictions eased or “graduated” to taking part in the sale rooms.

Above :

Live auctions are

back, but online

auction sales are

still double the

value of the first

six months of

2020. Source: The

Mercury Project’s

Hammertrack

Report.

The market was massively depressed in the first half of 2020, selling watches worth just CHF 71 million, four times less than this year, and with online auctions accounting for 38% of the total.

Christie’s launched high frequency online auctions at the height of the pandemic last year, which might not have had a huge impact in 2020 but set the business on a course to sell watches worth CHF 84.5 million in the first half of this year when physical and online sales complemented each other.

Shifting towards online is one headline trend in the watch auction world, another is the emergence of independent watchmakers commanding ever-increasing prices. Remarkably, F. P. Journe watches generated sales of almost CHF 10 million from 44 lots in the first half of the year from the top six auction houses. To give that context, Rolex watch sales were worth CHF 21 million over the same period from 88 lots.

Was Rolex underperforming or F. P. Journe on fire? A bit of both is perhaps to best answer..

Certainly Patek Philippe remained the king of watchmakers for auctioneers, racking up sales worth over CHF 81 million from 180 watches going under the hammer.

Looking to the second half of this year, and with the autumn sales approaching, it is independents that

are making much of the noise again.Among the most eagerly awaited

sales will be four Philippe Dufour watches, an example of each of the four timepieces that he has made in his own name, at The Geneva Watch Auction: XIV held by Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo.

A complete set of four has never been sold at a single auction before. “This set of four Philippe Dufour timepieces has been an epiphanous moment for us. Offering his four creations — the Grande & Petite Sonnerie pocket watch, Grande & Petite Sonnerie wristwatch, Duality and Simplicity — is truly humbling. Dufour is a living icon and his creations are as coveted as oeuvres by the greatest artists of our time,” say Aurel Bacs, senior consultant Bacs & Russo and Alexandre Ghotbi, head of watches, Continental Europe and Middle East at Phillips.

Combined, the four watches have estimates totaling over $5 million, which does not seem so unlikely after A Collected Man set a new world record for a Philippe Dufour watch with the sale of a Grande et Petite Sonnerie watch for $7.63 million (£5 million) within hours of announcing it was on sale.

The same Phillips sale sees another unique set, this time of five F. P. Journe watches, on the block. The watches, each of which is ‘number one’ in its series, comprise a Tourbillon Remontoir (estimate CHF 300,000 – 600,000); a Chronometer a Resonance (CHF 200,000 – 400,000); and Octa models Reserve de Marche (CHF 50,000 – 100,000); Chronograph (CHF 100,000 – 200,000) and Calendrier (CHF 80,000 – 160,000).

The ‘subscription’ aspect refers to the fact that Journe financed the launch of his eponymous dial name in 1999 by taking part-payments for the first watches before they were made — a system used by the 19th century maker Abraham-Louis Breguet. The Tourbillon Remontoir on offer is, therefore, the very first watch to have been sold under the F.P. Journe dial name.

Independents aren’t the only

SALES BY TYPE OF EVENT- WATCHES

154’404’211 CHF

Online

Live

44’143’358 CHF

187’351’294 CHF

H119 H120 H121

+21%

+486%

7’847’194 CHF 27’082’917 CHF 53’818’912 CHF

33



OLD SCHOOL MEETS NEW SCHOOLeBay is continuing to raise awareness of its luxury

watch offering with a social series of conversations

broadcast online called Old School Meets New

School. The concept is that high fashion and luxury

goods like prestige watches are timeless, and are

loved by young and old alike.

In the first episode, 100-year-old designer, and

fashion icon Iris Apfel meets Atlanta-based rapper

(and avid watch collector) Lil Yachty.

“I love mixing high and low,” Ms Apfel tells Mr

Yachty when he asks about how to wear watches

and jewelry. “I will put on a very expensive watch

with a bunch of tacky little bracelets,” she adds.

She then asks whether the rapper wears more

than one wristwatch at a time? “It is not my personal

thing,” he replies. “I like the more classy thing of one

watch. That is a very trendy thing in rap,” he adds.

The video can be found at eBay’s new Instagram

page dedicated to watches @ebaywatches.

watchmakers warming up, Cartier is also getting noticed.

A rise in auction prices has long been seen as inevitable to those in the know, such as noted Cartier dealer Harry Fane who highlighted just why the watches are so collectable when WATCHPRO columnist Simon de Burton interviewed him for the Financial Times last year. “The watches made by Cartier London in the late ’60s and early ’70s have become very sought-after, causing values to leap,” Mr Fane says. “But the quantities made were tiny — probably about 12 examples of the original Crash in the 1960s and between nine and 12 when the model was briefly re-issued in the ’80s”.

And it’s the models made in minuscule numbers that are hitting the big time at auction. Over the summer, an unprecedented two examples of the Pebble crossed the block at separate auctions within weeks of each other, causing a bidding frenzy among collectors on both occasions. The first, sold at Phillips Geneva in May, fetched a quadruple estimate £321,000 / $445,000, shortly after which Bonhams London sold an especially scarce version with so-called ‘turtle’ strap lugs for £225,250 / $312,000.

eBay is also seeing a number of luxury watch brands increase in popularity on its platform. “This past year, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in interest for luxury items, especially for watches. For example, over 25,000 watches were sold from the top brands alone, like brands like Rolex, Omega, Breitling, Patek Philippe and Cartier, in the first 6 months of 2021,” reveals Mr Kamdar. “Additionally, following the launch of eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee service for watches in September 2020, many luxury watch brands saw upticks in searches, such as IWC, whose searches increased +12% in October compared to September. We saw more than 22 million site searches for Cartier and more than 15 million for Tag Heuer in the past year as well,” he adds.

One reason demand is rising for a

wider range of brands is that supply is tight for the most popular models from the likes of Rolex and Audemars Piguet, even on the secondary market. If the current Daytona or Royal Oak is tough to find at anything other than an eye-watering price, why not consider something just as well-made from Omega, TAG Heuer or Breitling?

Luxury watches sales reached record levels on eBay from January to June this year, and demand was spread over a wide range of brands. Tudor and TAG Heuer have been gaining popularity amidst the pandemic and onwards, while prices have continued to soa for watches from Rolex, Audemars Piguet, and Patek Philippe.

Offering the largest choice of prestige watches is eBay’s ongoing mission, and it works with sellers of all sizes from large operations like Watchbox, Govberg Jewelers, Beckertime, Shopworn, Hessfineauctions, Chrono_Store, and smaller sellers like Luxurybazaar and Purewatches. “These are some of the top sellers who we have had the pleasure of partnering with to grow their unique business on eBay and we have seen substantial growth in these managed seller accounts,” Mr Kamdar says.

eBay has more watches on sale at any one time than any other platform, and has the advantage that more 100,000 new, pre-owned and vintage watches marked with the Authenticity Guarantee badge. “What sets eBay apart from its competitors is our unique selection of inventory from top luxury brands from new to pre-owned and vintage items. Our customers know they can find exactly what they’re looking for on our platform and again, we are still seeing quarter over quarter growth in the luxury category, and this, I expect, will only continue to grow as time goes on,” Mr Kamdar suggests. “As one of the largest luxury marketplaces in the world, eBay has one of the best pre-owned inventory of top brands including Rolex, which are not easily found on other marketplaces,” he adds.

A CHRONEXT / WATCHPRO SPECIAL REPORT

PEERS HARDY SMARTWATCHES / BUSINESS BRIEFING

PEERS HARDY, BEST KNOWN FOR BRINGING BLOCKBUSTER FASHION BRANDS LIKE ICE-WATCH AND DANIEL WELLINGTON TO THE UK, IS LOOKING FOR ANOTHER TREND TO BLOW UP, THIS TIME FOR AFFORDABLE AND TREND-LED SMARTWATCHES.

Peers Hardy started introducing its first families of activity trackers and smartwatches for adults in the fourth quarter of

2020, a move that proved so successful it helped the company maintain sales close to the £22 million turnover of 2019 despite the challenges of the pandemic and the pressures on the fashion watch market that have been escalating ever since Apple launched its first Watch in 2015. Remarkably, profits increased by around £1 million.

The big launch in time for Christmas last year was for Reflex Active, a full family of connected timepieces that became an instant best seller for the early adopters such as Argos and Shop Direct.

They join a range of activity trackers for kids launched almost two years ago under the Tikkers brand, which also “went crazy” when they hit stores like Argos priced at around £20.

Reflex Active and Tikkers are a sign of things to come at Peers Hardy, which believes there is a major gap in the market

for high quality but stylish and fashionable fitness bands and smartwatches that almost everybody can afford.

The business model is familiar to Peers Hardy because it has pulled it off before with watches produced under license for a number of high street fashion brands with the most notable being Radley London with which they have a long-standing, well working relationship.

It has created its own brands, with responsibility for design, manufacturing, distribution and marketing for the likes of

AFFORDABLE AND FASHIONABLE

SMARTWATCHES FOR EVERY TASTE


BUSINESS BRIEFING / PEERS HARDY SMARTWATCHES

Henry London. It also has a global network of agents and distributors, having handled the likes of ICE-Watch, Daniel Wellington and Cluse over the past decade.

The trick is to capitalise on the hottest current trends while planning for the next big thing. Peers Hardy has successfully profited from rising and waning brands and styles for a number of decades.

Although sales of fashion watches have more than halved since the Michael Kors bubble in 2014 when the UK notched up retail sales worth almost £570 million in quartz timepieces, Peers Hardy has reinvented itself several times over to stay relevant, and is using all of its experience and expertise to embark on a fresh venture in smartwatches.

A lot has to go right to hit the sweet spot of a growing market. First you have to identify a trend; not too difficult in the case of smartwatches because every other passenger on a railway carriage appears to be wearing one. Then you have to find your own niche. In the case of Peers Hardy this is twofold: first, it wants to be incredibly competitive on price so that the millions of people for whom spending up to £100 on themselves is a major treat; secondly, it is applying its experience in fast

fashion, creating collections that look as irresistible as a candy store online or in a high street window.

With the concept created, it is time to execute, and Peers Hardy set its designers to work conjuring up smartwatches with a fashion edge. They have stuck to winning themes such as rose gold coloured cases with or without crystals and colourful straps in a range of materials decorated and embellished to make them appeal to the same crowd that might buy a Radley analogue watch.

“We are offering a wide choice of fashion watches in which we have actually incorporated smart movements rather than quartz. While our tech is absolutely fantastic and just what people want at this time, we are fashion first and function second. Most watches from the large Tech companies, while very clever, have no personality” describes Paul Harry, sales and marketing director at Peers Hardy.

The real competitive advantage comes with manufacturing, where Peers Hardy has long-standing relationships with the right factories across in Asia. “This is a massive barrier to entry for competitors,” says Peers Hardy managing director Nick Baker. “You have to really know the Far East suppliers.”

And finally there is distribution and marketing. Peers Hardy was turning over £35 million when it last had a smash hit on its hands with Daniel Wellington. When that agreement ended, the business launched its own brand, Henry London, to plug the gap. It was launched at Baselworld in 2015 (remember when that was a thing?) and was on sale in 70 countries almost overnight as agents, distributors and retailers around the world picked it up.

Two years later, that launch contributed to Peers Hardy making it into the Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 league table of Britain’s fastest-growing mid-market private companies. The company was 53rd on the list.

Peers Hardy also learned the power of social media, first with Daniel Wellington and then with Cluse, a similar Scandi minimalist brand it took on after parting ways with DW. I went to see the Cluse guys when I signed the agreement and they have about 40 people of all nationalities just working on social media. They have a Chinese girl talking to Chinese bloggers, the same in America, Spain, South America. Meanwhile their digital marketers are studying the next thing. For example, lookalike campaigns. They know who has bought their watches, and they create what they call a lookalike profile that they then apply to any country around the world targeting those lookalike people who have the same hobbies, the same lifestyle. By matching one existing customer’s profile to thousands of people with similar profiles around the world, they can be pretty sure their watches will appeal and sell to them. It is amazing, and Cluse is the expert at the moment,” Mr Harry described in 2017.

The UK remains the most important market for Peers Hardy, accounting for 70% of sales, and is key to the new push into smartwatches. Here you will find its analogue watches at the biggest online and offline retailers — Argos, Watchshop, H. Samuel, F. Hinds and Amazon — and the company is gearing up with fresh point of

Above:

Peers Hardy

managing director

Nick Baker and

marketing director

Paul Harry.


PEERS HARDY SMARTWATCHES / BUSINESS BRIEFING

sale and digital assets to launch the new smartwatches. “Sales are predominately online, so we have a huge digital marketing campaign ready for Christmas. We are also changing all of our displays in stores. Everything needs to have a screen these days,” Mr Harry says.

Over the years, Peers Hardy has typically had around half a dozen watch brands in its portfolio at any one time, and the thrust into smartwatches will see a similar number so that the company has an offer for every taste: men, women, young, older, fashion-led or health-conscious.

TIKKERSTikkers is a brand for teens or

younger. It first launched as a brand in 1999 with a mission to help kids tell the time by getting them to wear and use bright, colourful and sparkly watches. Shifting into activity trackers in 2019, the mission has expanded to encouraging children to keep fit. Underpinning the popularity of the trackers is their on-trend styling and digestible £25 price point.

Connected to a companion smartphone app, they monitor step counts, activity goals, sleep

and hydration. They also handle message notifications, call alerts and alarms and are sold with a one year guarantee included in the deal.

REFLEX ACTIVEThere are six collections in the

more adult Reflex Active range. Series 1 are simple activity trackers, similar in look and functionality to the Tikkers pieces but with more grown up silicon rubber straps and one inch long screens. They sell for £25.

Series 2 does the same job, but the screen is rectangular rather than rounded and the case is metal, which makes if look more like a proper watch and less like an activity tracker. There is more functionality with features including calorie counter, weather updates, find phone and distance tracker displayed on the touch screen. They come on a range of straps, some with printed patterns, others encrusted with crystals. This ticks the price up to just under £50.

Series 3 looks to solve the lifeless black screen problem that puts off some potential smartwatch customers. Some of the 38mm circular watches have decorated dials, made popular in recent times by the likes of Olivia Burton and Sara

Miller, with flowers, bees, butterflies and hearts, others are pimped with crystals on the dials or bezels. The smartwatch stuff is on a screen cut into the centre of the dials with all the usual tracking and messaging synched to a smartphone app. They all sell for around £50, whether they have rubber straps or steel mesh bracelets; with or without gold coloured plating.

Series 4 styles are more aligned with the offering from the existing fashion watch houses but at a fraction of the price. Full function with touch screen and with solid link bracelets and leather look straps for men and women.

Series 5 are full-function smartwatches in 42mm round cases. They have an additional sensor for heart rate monitoring which, added to other fitness-related measures such as step count, sleep monitoring calorie counter and sports modes places them in the hot market for health and wellness wristwear. The size and style makes them effectively gender-neutral, but women may be more drawn to pieces with rubber straps decorated with flowers while men might prefer pieces with steel mesh bracelets. Prices again are around £50.

The newest series 6 has all the same functionality, but in a rounded rectangular shaped case that bears a passing resemblance to an Apple

Above:

Tikkers is a line of

activity trackers for

kids.

Amelia Austin

smartwatches are

attractive to the

typical fashion

watch customer.


BUSINESS BRIEFING / PEERS HARDY SMARTWATCHES

including bamboo, bees, butterflies, birds and flowers. Amelia Austin is supported with a very active social media campaign. Retail prices are around £65.

RADLEYPeers Hardy has chosen to use

Radley styling for the only licensed family of smartwatches so that they have instant appeal to fans of the brand. The watches come in four forms: the rounded rectangular style of the Reflex Active Series 6, the circular style of the Series 5, the ornate Series 3 and the activity trackers of Series 1. They share the same functionality as well, but adopt the instantly recognisable Radley Scottish terrier dog motif both on straps and with some of the apps on screen too.

HARRY LIMEThe newest family is Harry Lime,

and it is also the most feature-rich. The brand takes its name from the rhyming slang for time, which can trace its origin back to the main protagonist in Carol Reed’s classic 1949 thriller The Third Man. It is being promoted a smartwatch with infinite possibilities, and a collection that should appeal as much to gadget fans and those that favour the looks of a classic analogue timepiece.

They are presented as gender-neutral, with social media posts showing them worn by women riding fashionable mopeds, on the beach (they are water resistant) or stretched

into yoga poses while men seen at the office or out clothes shopping.

Despite retailing for only £75, the Harry Lime watches come with a rich suite of apps including heart rate monitor, step counter, GPS connection, calorie tracking, multi-sport activity tracking, alarms, alerts and messaging. They will run for four days between charges and come with a 2 year guarantee — a statement about their build quality.

They have a great sporty look with chronograph-style 240 x 240 pixels full colour digital watch faces housed in 44mm acrylic cases in several colours with matching silicon straps.

Taken together, the Peers Hardy smartwatch brands offer options for every taste at attractive prices. The trick in this country and through world-wide distribution is to differentiate them from the morass of poor quality unbranded product that is flooding Amazon and Alibaba.

“We are positioning and marketing the brands so that they deliver good margins for retailers and a quality experience for customers who want to make a statement about their style and lifestyle,” remarks Mr Harry. “This is a great opportunity for independent jewellers to get back into watches that people will really want to buy and keep coming back for,” he adds.

With the experience and capabilities of Peers Hardy behind them, the five families have every chance of making affordable fashion smartwatches the next big thing.

Watch but without a crown so all the functions are operated via the 1.3 inch touchscreen. The series has the same health and fitness focused apps as the Series 4 and 5 and will keep working for a remarkable four days between charging with typical use and over two weeks in standby mode. These top of the line models sell for £55.

AMELIA AUSTINAmelia Austin are aimed at the

fashion watch customer, and are even on sale alongside clothes and accessories in Next.

They use the same technique as the Reflex Active Series 3 to solve the black screen issue by presenting the smartwatch functions in a rectangular window at the centre of a 38mm circular watch. They have slim, feminine mesh bracelets or soft leather straps in a range of colours designed to complement the dials, which feature scenes from nature

Above:

Radley is the only

licensed brand in

the Peers Hardy line

up of smartwatches.

Harry Lime is a

brand new family

of smartwatches

launched in time

for the Christmas

gifting season.


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BOOMING BLOWERSWITH LOCATIONS AT OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE COUNTRY, KINGSTON UPON HULL-BASED BLOWERS JEWELLERS ALSO HAS SHOWROOM SPACE IN

LONDON’S MAYFAIR. OPERATING BETWEEN THE TWO SITES IS SEAMLESS AND IS EXECUTED TO A TEE AND AS THE SECONDARY MARKET IN THE UK

CONTINUES TO GROW, BLOWERS JEWELLERS HAS BEGUN TO BOOM AS WATCHPRO’S ALEX DOUGLAS FINDS OUT.

Brought up and raised in the city of Hull, I may have some skin in the game here but what

Blowers has done and continues to do is special.

Founded in 1970 and located on Savile Street right in the centre of town, Blowers has been a mainstay in Hull’s luxury offering for over half a decade now and if it continues with the excellent work done so far, it looks set to continue and actually increase its footprint both in Hull and

in the capital.Ian Blowers started the business

in the 70s and quickly went from strength to strength, as did his son’s Squash career. As the business grew and turned into a success, Mark, now managing director, managed to offer his more youthful look at business and lend a hand to his father as and when he could get some time off Squash matches or practice.

Despite this early success for both parties, it was quickly halted after a terrible incident of armed robbery

at the premises in Hull. While Mark was up in Scotland playing in a Squash competition, his Father and the business fell victim to an attack which left Ian severely shaken up and it was this which saw Mark enter the business on a full-time basis.

In conversation with Mark, he explained: “I was already, at some point, considering hanging up my squash racket and working with him full-time but this definitely sped up the process. I was on my way to the North of Scotland to play in a Squash

THIS PAGE:

Mark Blowers,

managind director

and son of founder,

Ian Blowers.

BLOWERS / FEATURE


tournament when I got a message through, and it was before the days of smartphones so it was much less instantaneous.

“They’d said there was a problem at the jewellers in Hull but then a little later we realised it was more serious than the first message had maybe let on so had to quickly get back and help, knowing it was a bad robbery.”

He continued: “This guy was serious. He was wanted for several murders and he had guns. By the looks of things too it had been apparent he had wanted to tie him up. My old man’s tough so he did managed to get over it well but it was pretty clear I should get properly involved and help.”

This was in the mid to late 90s when in terms of e-commerce and the internet was only just really starting to take off. Mark explained that it was over the next year or so he really managed to see potential for success with the business and making use of online, digital and turning that into sales.

Being what would be described as a traditional northern business of the time, Mark says his father was a little

apprehensive when adopting new technologies but it wasn’t long until he learnt the benefits.

Mark said: “When we first set things up using the online side of things, I had next to no skills in computing or that kind of thing. It was a case of taking advice from other people who had done something similar and learn from them the best we could.

“Through all of that my Dad was actually quite sarcastic about the whole thing. He didn’t really think anybody would actually end up buying a watch after a process online. It was a good six months or so developing that but we did fairly quickly get a sale from a client in London.”

He went on: “It was literally a question of ‘Can you send me an email?’ It took 40 minutes for us to unplug the telephone, plug in the modem and send that email. That turned into our first online sale.”

From that point on the business has gone from strength to strength, so much so that having a place in Mayfair is as important for business as the main store in Hull.

Over the last 18 months Blowers

has also remained buoyant and has come out of the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic in a strong enough position to look ahead to the future and ensure it is perfectly positioned in the market to continue to grow.

The business always has and is continued to be built on its reputation which I know from my youth in Hull is second to none. The watches sold by Blowers are hand selected and prepared to its own exacting standards set by its approved service network.

Mark explained: “All watches advertised by Blowers are physically in stock and can be viewed at our Kingston-Upon-Hull Head Office or our exclusive Mayfair Showroom (by appointment) in the heart of Central London.”

Adding: “We only sell watches that we are happy to receive back in part exchange, we provide an expert opinion and relaxed approach to our guests, we respect our client’s wishes of total discretion or the pomp and ceremony that special purchase deserves.”

It celebrated its 50 years in 2020 which was unfortunately dampened by the COVID-19 outbreak but nevertheless, Mark Blowers is keen to ensure the next 50 are as successful as the last, something he sees as very doable given the nature of the business.

He concluded: “I think given the fact we are a relatively small and nimble business we can adapt and change to be on the path we want and need to be on given the current state of the market.

“A huge increase in the volume of stock that’s been offered at the minute on the secondary market will inevitably mean that the prices will come down a little but we’ve got no concerns about the strength of the pre-owned market for those who operate in the way we do.

“We’ve operated in such a fair and friendly way in everything that we do, if there are any major changes in the industry I am sure we will be more than capable of adapting and changing to the market.”

FEATURE / BLOWERS


THIS PAGE:

Blowers has seen

business go from

strenght to strenght.

WatchPro_Seiko_Presage_SPB167J1_October2021.indd 1WatchPro_Seiko_Presage_SPB167J1_October2021.indd 1 08/06/2021 15:1808/06/2021 15:18

WATCH COLUMNS / SIMON DE BURTON

HAVING BEEN POSTPONED TWICE SINCE ITS ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE OF APRIL 2020, THE 25TH JAMES BOND MOVIE, NO TIME TO DIE, WAS FINALLY RELEASED AT THE END OF SEPTEMBER. SIMON DE BURTON REVISITS THE WATCHES THAT HAVE BECOME AS MUCH A PART OF BOND’S

ESSENTIAL OPERATIONAL EQUIPMENT AS AN ASTON MARTIN AND A DRY MARTINI.

There was a bulky gold wristwatch on a well-used brown crocodile strap. It was a Girard-

Perregaux model designed for people who like gadgets and it had a sweep second-hand and two little windows in the face to tell the day of the month, and the month, and the phase of the moon. The story it now told was 2.30 on June 10 with the moon three-quarters full.”

So wrote Ian Fleming in the opening to his 1957 James Bond novel From Russia With Love, regarded by many as the greatest of all the 007 adventures.

The Girard-Perregaux was the property of one Donovan Grant, code-name ‘Granit,’ the son of a German weightlifter and a southern Irish waitress who joined the communists in Cold War Russia and worked his way up through the ranks to become the ruthless chief executioner of SMERSH, the Soviet assassination agency.

Like Bond, Fleming had been a naval commander and, like Bond, he appreciated the finer things in life, among which he counted prestigious motor cars — such as the bespoke Bentley he gave Bond for ‘every day use’ and the Aston Martin DBIII which the agent selected from the ‘pool’ at

HQ for a thrilling chase across France in the novel Goldfinger. Then there were the Turkish blend cigarettes, the Dunhill lighters, the Savile Row suits and, of course, the quality wristwatches.

The detailed description of the Girard-Perregaux is designed to tell us as much about the owner as it is about the watch: as Fleming earlier states, it was a typical membership badge of ‘the rich man’s club,’ but there is an intimation that Donovan Grant wore it simply because it looked flash.

By the time From Russia With Love hit the big screen in 1963 Grant’s ostentatious yet innocuous

& OMEGA

JAMES BOND’S OMEGA ERA WATCHES

2002 DIE ANOTHER DAY/BOND AT 40.

This version of the Seamaster Profes-

sional 300M featured a blue dial em-

bossed with the 007 gun logo and had

the legend ‘40 years of James Bond’

engraved on the back. The bracelet

design was also unique to the model.

10,007 were made.

2006 SEAMASTER JAMES BOND LIMITED EDITION.

Fitted with Omega’s now famous Co-

Axial movement, this watch had a blue

dial based on the spiral of a gun barrel,

a 007 logo on the seconds hand and

007 engraved on the case back. Again,

10,007 were made.

2006 SEAMASTER CASINO ROYALE PLANET OCEAN

Fitted with Omega’s now famous Co-

Axial movement, this watch had a blue

dial based on the spiral of a gun barrel,

a 007 logo on the seconds hand and

007 engraved on the case back. Again,

10,007 were made.

In this spread:

A succession of

watches for James

Bond from OMEGA.


SIMON DE BURTON / WATCH COLUMNS

watch had been transformed into a lethal weapon - a timepiece which concealed a garrotting wire intended for use on Bond. In the event, of course, 007 turned the tables and used it on his attacker with fatal results. (That watch briefly reappears, incidentally, in the 1969 film of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, being handled by George Lazenby).

Yet Fleming, always prepared to extend the bounds of probability but never one to indulge in the fantastical, was far more conservative in his use of gadgets in his books than were the props departments in the films, which is why the most unusual thing Bond’s Rolex Submariner ever did in the novels was to kill an enemy guard when 007 wrapped it around his fist to use as a knuckle duster in chapter 16 of ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,’ smashing the crystal in the process.

But when Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 with its ejector seat, rocket launchers and revolving number plates became almost as much a star of the 1964 Goldfinger movie as Sean Connery (who was equipped with a standard Rolex submariner reference 6538)

2008 QUANTUM OF SOLACE

This chunky, 45.5 mm watch was fit-

ted with a special rubber strap and

the name Casino Royale on the case

back. The edition was limited to 5,007

numbered examples. Bond also wore a

Seamaster 300M Chronometer in the

film - and a limited edition of that was

made available, too. A mere 10,007 of

them.

2008 THE JAMES BOND COLLEC-TOR’S PIECE

This black-dialled commemorative

watch featured a red 007 logo on the

end of the seconds hand and was sup-

plied in a black leather, silk lined box

which hinted at a Bond-like tuxedo.

10,007 produced.

2012 SKYFALL

This 42mm version of the Seamaster

Planet Ocean used the Calibre 8507

Co-Axial movement, visible through a

transparent case back. The winding ro-

tor carried the name of the film while

the 007 gun logo could be seen on the

dial at the seven o’clock position. 5,007

available.


WATCH COLUMNS / SIMON DE BURTON

the producers of the 007 films quickly realised that gadgets were a big hit with the audience — or the male contingent, at least — and males loved to see cool watches just as much as cool cars.

The result was that ‘Q’ branch was put to work modifying one watch after another as trick timepieces became as integral to the films as outlandish vehicles and superhuman villains. In Thunderball (1965) Q provides Bond with a Breitling Top Time (sold by Christie’s in 2013 for £103,000) which doubles as a geiger counter and, in Live and Let Die (1973), Roger Moore’s 007 starts out bang up to date by sporting a Pulsar, one of the world’s first commercially-available quartz digital watches.

Q soon re-equips him with a Rolex, however, this time neatly modified with a ‘hyper-intensified magnetic field’ for bullet deflecting and a bezel that doubles as a buzz saw (last sold by Phillips in 2015 for $363,000). Four years later in The Spy Who Loved Me, Moore wears a Seiko with a built in teleprinter, while Moonraker (1979)

2012 BOND AT 50

Omega naturally had to mark 50 years

of Bond films and this watch is based

on the Seamaster 300M worn by

Brosnan when the brand first began

supplying Bond in Goldeneye. Made

in two sizes - 41mm and 36 mm - the

watch featured a red number 50 on the

bezel and the dial was diagonally em-

bossed with 007 logos. The case back

gets the classic barrel rifling design

and the watches werw available in edi-

tions of 11,007 and 3,007 respectively.

2015 SPECTRE

By now, Bond was routinely seen

sporting two different Omegas de-

pending on the scene - but for SPEC-

TRE, his watch wardrobe was upped

to three models, two of which were

recreated as special editions. The Sea-

master Aqua Terra 150m, the second

limited edition was a Seamaster 300

and the third SPECTRE Omega was a

vintage chronograph with a Calibre

321 movement. It appeared only in the

closing scene.

2017 THE COMMANDER’S WATCH

Despite there being no new cinema

release, Omega still made a limited

edition watch. Called ‘The Com-

mander’s Watch’, it commemorated

Bond’s Naval rank as well as the 20th,

40th and 50th ‘anniversaries’ of three

movies. from the franchise. Based on

a Seamaster Diver 300M, it featured

a red and blue bezel and a white dial

and cost £3,720. There was also a gold-

cased version - but only seven of those

were produced.


SIMON DE BURTON / WATCH COLUMNS

laser beam.Omega has held the plum job of

official 007 timekeeper ever since and, after Daniel Craig made his Bond debut in Casino Royale back in 2006, the two different Seamaster watches he wore in the film - the Seamaster Planet Ocean from the opening sequences and the Seamaster 300M dive chronometer he receives after becoming ‘licensed to kill’ - became the stars of an Omega-themed auction in Geneva where they

fetched CHF 250,250 and CHF 70,800 respectively.

But Bond fans without such impressive sums to spend on their wrist wear shouldn’t despair because, since 2002’s Die Another Day, Omega has produced a range of limited editions to mark each new Bond release. The word ‘limited’ is, of course, relative - and, in most cases, there are so many of these that you should only need to bide your time to be able to pick-up a bargain.

sees the same model return as the hiding place for a small quantity of a powerful explosive that 007 detonates via one of the pushpieces on the watch case.

Seiko watches reigned supreme throughout the 1980s doubling up, among other devices, as a radio receiver (For Your Eyes Only, 1981) and a miniature television and homing device (Octopussy, 1983). But it was all change in 1995 when Pierce Brosnan took on the role of 007 in the epic Goldeneye.

By now, the value of placing product in Bond films was truly appreciated, and the world’s favourite secret agent was given a BMW car and an all-new watch - an Omega Seamaster, complete with laser beam cutter and explosive detonator. In Tomorrow Never Dies, Brosnan’s Seamaster features a bezel-activated detonator, while the watch he wears in The World Is Not Enough boasts an LED torch and a built-in grappling hook. Die Another Day, meanwhile, introduced a Seamaster equipped with an upgraded detonator and a

2019 50 YEARS OHMSS

This Seamaster Diver 300M marked

50 years since the release of On Her

Majesty’s Secret Service - in which

George Lazenby made his sole ap-

pearance as 007. This ‘Commander’s’

watch was ‘limited’ to 7,007 examples

with black ceramic dials. The side car-

ried a gold plate engraved with the edi-

tion number, and the hour marker at

10 o’clock hid a ‘50’ visible in the dark.

It costs £5,220, while £36,140 got you

both a steel version and a gold one.

2019 50 YEARS OHMSS

No sooner had Bond’s watch for No Time

To Die been revealed than Covid struck,

causing the launch of the film to be post-

poned. But the model he wears in the

film has remained on sale - it’s a titanium

cased Seamaster Diver 300m with a ‘vin-

tage’ dial and a choice of a titanium mesh

bracelet or a ‘NATO’ style nylon strap. The

case back is engraved with faux military

issue numbers and Government property

broad arrow. Unlimited and retailing from

£6,950, the watch was joined by a special

Swatch SKIN Irony created by NTTD cos-

tume designer Suttirat Anne Larlab. Made

with gadget man Q in mind, the £174 watch

has a plaid leather strap, a transparent dial

showing the movement and the letter ‘Q’

at six o’clock.


TASTE-TESTING AT ONLY WATCHADVANCING TREATMENT FOR DUCHENNE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY IS BY FAR THE MOST VALUABLE CONTRIBUTION THE BIENNIAL ONLY WATCH AUCTION

MAKES TO THE WORLD, A CAUSE THAT THE WATCH INDUSTRY HAS EMBRACED AS WARMLY AS LUC PETTAVINO, WHO FOUNDED THE FUNDRAISER. THE RESULTS OF THE AUCTION ALSO GIVE A GUIDE TO WHAT WATCH COLLECTORS VALUE MOST THESE DAYS IN TERMS OF BRANDS, MATERIALS,

STYLES, PROVENANCE AND STORYTELLING; FASCINATING INSIGHT THAT CONTRIBUTES TO CURRENT AND FUTURE TIMEPIECE DEVELOPMENT, SUGGESTS ROBIN SWITHINBANK.

Not quite two years ago, I was in Geneva for the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, the awards

do industry insiders like to refer to as the Oscars of watchmaking. That year, the Special Jury Prize went to Luc Pettavino, founder of the Only Watch charity auction that has so far raised more than 70 million euros (£60 million at

applauded – long and loud. You would have had to have a heart of stone not to have been moved. It was comfortably the most emotional moment I’ve experienced in the watch industry in almost two decades covering it.

Mr Pettavino’s award was richly deserved. In the 16 years since the first Only Watch auction, the event has proved itself an extraordinary

today’s rates) for research into Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and actually one of the nicest men in the business.

As Mr Pettavino, whose extraordinary gift has been to persuade so many of the world’s finest watch companies to donate one-off watches to his cause, took to the stage to receive his award, the audience stood as one and

Top :

TAG Heuer has

made a unique take

on its Monaco Dark

Lord.

WATCH COLUMNS / ROBIN SWITHINBANK


force for good that far supersedes the sometimes frivolous business of making and selling expensive watches (and certainly that of writing about them).

Just two days after Pettavino’s standing ovation, the eighth edition of the event raised a staggering CHF 38.5 million (£30.4 million), thanks largely to a one-off steel Patek Philippe that hammered at CHF 31 million (£24.4 million), making it the most expensive watch ever sold. The next edition, scheduled to take place in Geneva next month under the High Patronage of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, will see a further 53 lots sold, with 99% of the proceeds going to research into the cruel, debilitating disease Mr Pettavino’s son suffered from. Only Watch is the watch industry at it’s very best.

It’s also the industry at its most revealing. Such is the interest in the

auction and its piece-unique watches that it’s become the industry’s most reliable barometer of brand desirability. In a level playing field, where brands are showcased alphabetically, it’s left to collectors, the apex predators of the watch-buying world, to vote with their wallets and decide which watches and which brands carry the most cachet. The event may be biennial, but it’s become the most important event in the watch calendar.

Aside from Patek’s, no example makes the point better than Tudor’s Black Bay Bronze One, entered into the seventh edition in 2017. It had a left-hand crown, an aluminium bezel and the brand’s then new-ish in-house 70-hour automatic. The estimate for the One watch was set at CHF 4,500 to 5,500, only a little more than the £3,110 retail price commanded by today’s almost identical collection piece. It went for CHF 350,000 big ones (£275,000), which was more than 60 times the high estimate.

The sale price wasn’t an indication of the quality of the watch, which

was solid but not in the same league as Andersen Genève’s exquisite Tempus Terrae world timer that collected CHF 55,000 that year, nor Breguet’s astonishing in-line perpetual calendar that realised CHF

110,000. Instead, it was a klaxon sounding Tudor’s ballooning brand power, less than

a decade after its relaunch. Only Watch

confirmed Tudor was hot, and then turned up the

thermostat.The same can be true the

other way round – and how painful it must be. The same

year as Tudor’s golden moment, a striking white gold Harry

Winston Ocean with off-centred hour and minute hands and a big date went for CHF 40,000, just over the low estimate. Perhaps uncomfortable with being overshadowed by an

industrially produced bronze watch, Harry Winston withdrew. It has not taken part again since, the highs of Max Büsser’s Opus series a distant memory. More’s the pity.

Even Patek Philippe, with its lofty, seemingly impregnable position at the top of the auction charts and waiting lists year after year, will know that Only Watch has amplified its story. The Monday morning after the 2019 event and that record-setting sale, it posted a story on its website proudly announcing ‘The Most Expensive Watch In The World’, caps its own. This year’s Complicated Desk Clock, a contemporary expression of a piece made for the early 20th century American automobile manufacturer and Patek collector James Ward Packard, is Patek flexing on all cylinders. It will be fascinating to see what it commands.

As it will with the other 54 lots in the 2021 collection. Talking of flexing, Francis Ford Coppola’s involvement in F.P. Journe’s ingenious FFC Blue automaton elevates Only Watch’s status further still, and Journe’s with it. The watch’s origin story begins with a gloriously starry recollection of a dinner at Coppola’s house in the Napa Valley.

Others appear to be using the event to experiment, or, one suspects, to tease the market with newly revived forms. TAG Heuer’s mythical 1970s black Monaco, or the Dark Lord, resurfaces in all-carbon, while Girard-Perregaux’s decision to partner with Bamford Watch Department and produce a carbon-

Top :

Girard Perregaux

Casquette in

collaboration with

George Bamford.

Estimate CHF

10,000 – 20,000.

Left :

Tudor Black Bay

GMT One with

aged steel case and

bracelet. Estimate

CHF 4,000 – 8,000.

ROBIN SWITHINBANK / WATCH COLUMNS


Two years ago the Only Watch charity auction set a new all-

time world record price with a Patek Philippe timepiece

when a Grandmaster Chime reference 6300A-010, created

for the first time in steel, sold for $31 million ($33.6m).

The biennial spectacle returns on November 9, with

54 unique timepieces created by the world’s greatest

watchmakers, submitted for sale.

The auction is run by Christie’s, and 99% of the

money raised will go to scientific and medical re-

search into Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

It has raised over $83 million since 2005.

Only Watch was founded and is organised by Luc

Pettavino, whose teenage son died of Duchenne muscu-

lar dystrophy.

He is now president of the Association Monégasque Con-

tre les Myopathies, which studies the condition.

The 54 timepieces donated to Only Watch come from across

the Swiss watch landscape, including hallowed independ-

ents such as F. P. Journe, Voutilainen and De Bethune; all four

LVMH watch brands; privateers Richard Mille, Patek Philippe

and Audemars Piguet; Swatch Group’s Breguet and Blancpain;

Kering-owned Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin; Richemont’s Montblanc and Rolex

sibling Tudor.

If the 2021 auction is to beat the record of CHF 38.6 million ($41.8m), it looks likely to do so

with several watches selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars, or the occasional piece

in the low millions.

Patek Philippe has submitted a complicated desk clock Ref.

27001M-001 inspired by a piece delivered to James Ward Pack-

ard in 1923 that is preserved in the Patek Philippe Museum. It has

an estimate of CHF 400,000 to CHF 500,000.

Audemars Piguet’s offer is a Royal Oak Jumbo Extra-Thin

that is the last unique ref. 15202 and the last unique piece

powered by Calibre 2121, the thinnest automatic movement

with central rotor and date indication of its time, first in-

troduced on the Royal Oak in 1972.

F. P. Journe is donating a watch conceived over a

dinner in 2012 at movie director Francis Ford Cop-

pola’s house in the Napa Valley where Francois and

Francis appear to have had a surreal conversation

about watch hands over one too many glasses of

pinot noir.

“He asked me if it could be possible to tell time with a

hand in a watch,” Mr Journe recalls.

“I replied that the idea was interesting and required think-

ing about it. But how to display 12 hours with 5 fingers? It was

not an easy matter and this complex challenge inspired and

motivated me. Once I figured it out, Francis immediately sent the

sketches for the fingers positions. After more than 2 years, I could

finally focus on “Fecit”. After 7 years of development, I am proud

to present the FFC prototype,” he describes.

ONLY WATCH PRESENTS 54 PIECES-UNIQUES

cased version of the Casquette, an oddball 1970s piece with an LED display, is surely a pointer. A one-off revival, with all the cost that incurs, or a trailer for what’s to come? The company’s chief executive, Patrick Pruniaux, is no mug.

Such is the power of Only Watch to amplify a brand that some of the smarter newcomers are now leveraging it, rather as British start-ups once piggybacked on the reputation of the bigger payers – apologies, players – at Salon QP.

Baltic watches has only just come up for air, and yet here it is in this year’s sale. Its Pulsometer Chronograph Monopusher 1/1 is listed between Audemars Piguet and Bell & Ross, and not far from Bulgari, Chanel and Hermès. Not a bad place to be for the plucky French start-up. And talking of AP, this year’s auction is expected to be the last stand for the brand’s generation-defining Royal Oak Ref 15202. No surprise to see Only Watch nominated as the curtain-closer for an industry icon that turns 50 next year.

Undeniably, Only Watch is a wonderful thing and at heart still a beautiful, timeless expression of a father’s desire to save his son’s life. Five year’s on from Paul’s death, it always will be. At the same time, for every participating brand it’s become an instant and hugely valuable gauge of exactly what the watch-buying public thinks of what it does.

And that makes it the only watch event of its kind.

Baltic Pulsometer

Chronograph

Monopusher 1/1.

Estimate CHF

12,000 – 18,000.)

WATCH COLUMNS / ROBIN SWITHINBANK


DOXA_SUB300_CARBON_822-70-351-21_205x275mm.indd 1DOXA_SUB300_CARBON_822-70-351-21_205x275mm.indd 1 24.09.21 14:4424.09.21 14:44

__ STS __GROUP

Swiss Time Services Group is made up of two divisions, Swiss Time Services and Swisstec.

Swiss Time Services began in 1993 and looks after current and vintage Omega Watches. It also has level 3 accreditation for Swatch Group Brands Longines, Rado and Tissot.

Swisstec began in 2006 to cater for all other Swiss brands. It is the official UK Service Centre for Ball Watches, Carl F Bucherer, Eberhard, Favre-Lueba, Girard Perregaux, JeanRichard, Maurice Lacroix and Porsche Design. Swisstec is also an accredited service centre for Baume Mercier, Breitling and Cartier.

Together the two divisions have grown to make us one of the UK’s largest independent watch service centres, occupying a secure purpose built space over 650 square metres employing over 35 staff. To find out more about our services and how we can sup-port your business visit our new website from Monday 11th March at www.swisstimeservices.com

The UK’s Favourite Independent Watch Service Centre

Stonebridge House, Main Road, Hawkwell, Essex. SS5 4JH.

www.swisstimeservices.comTel: 0044 1702 543100

www.swisstec.co.ukTel: 0044 1702 543800

NORQAIN CONQUERS FRESH PEAKS

HAVING LAUNCHED AS A FULLY FORMED WATCH

BRAND IN 2019, NORQAIN HAD ALREADY REACHED THE

MOUNTAINEER’S EQUIVALENT OF BASE CAMP ONE WHEN

THE PANDEMIC HIT. TWO YEARS’ LATER THE BUSINESS IS

AIMING TO REACH NEW PEAKS WITH THE LAUNCH OF ITS

NEVEREST WATCHES, AN EXTENSION OF ITS ADVENTURE

LINE OF SPORTS STEEL WATCHES.

NORQAIN thought it had timed its entry perfectly when its first watch collections launched in

2019.The company had been founded a

year earlier in the Swiss watchmaking heartland of Biel and, thanks to the pedigree of the family behind the venture, father and son Mark Küffer (chairman) and Ben Küffer (CEO), the brand was warmly received and secured placement with Westime, Tourneau and Govberg in the United States as well as Watches of Switzerland Group in the UK, Bucherer in Switzerland, Wempe in Germany, Seddiqi in the UAE and 30 partners in Japan.

Marc Küffer brings over 45 years’

experience heading Swiss luxury watchmaking ventures.

For quarter of a century he was on the Board of Directors for the Swiss Watch Industry Association.

Bringing additional financial muscle, watchmaking expertise and enviable contact books to the management team and board are Ted Schneider, a member of the family that owned Breitling for nearly 40 years, and Mark Streit, the Switnerland-born ice hockey legend and Stanley Cup winner.

Deep pockets and cool heads were called for in early 2020 when the pandemic first hit Asia.

Ben Küffer was in Japan at the time promoting NORQAIN to retail partners there.

“Everybody was terrified,” he recalls in a conversation with WATCHPRO. “Nobody could be sure what would happen, but we knew we could forget expansion of our distribution for a while and we would need to get much more active on digital.”

NORQAIN was founded at a time when Mr Küffer could see the explosion in demand for independent watchmakers; the likes of F. P. Journe, Philippe Dufour, Kari Voutillainen and many others. “But there were all at the very high end. We believe an independent like NORQAIN can have the same success at a more reasonable price for a wider audience,” he suggests.

The company set out to create something new for consumers,

THIS PAGE:

NORQAIN launched

its first watch

collections in 2019.

NORQUAIN / VIEW FROM THE TOP


although not that new. NORQAIN’s watches are designed to appeal to the sweet spot of the market right now: sturdy steel sports watches that can be worn on the beach or in the board room.

A deal with the Tudor-backed movement maker Kenissi gave the business an early point of difference and spoke to its depth of experience and contacts in the Swatch industry.

Two of the company’s first watch collections were to use chronometer-certified Kenissi calibres, the NN20/1 three hander and NN20/2 with a GMT hand. Both have 70 hour power reserves.

There is no denying that the pandemic was tough, but NORQAIN made it through and now has around 75 retail doors around the world. Mr Küffer says his team spent the year helping watches sell through at those retailers by supporting their ecommerce efforts with digital marketing, working with bloggers and other influencers.

Retailers were encouraged to stick with the brand by the

energy that a younger, more nimble company can bring. “While the rest of the Swiss watch industry was handling like an oil tanker, we were like a speedboat. We could make decisions quickly and capitalize on opportunities as soon as we saw them,” Mr Küffer he says.

Importantly, the company’s shareholders and suppliers also stood by the fledgling business and using almost exclusively Swiss parts gave the business an advantage over rivals struggling to source from Asia, Mr Küffer suggests.

With the vaccination roll-out taming covid, Mr Küffer is confident that western nations will not lock down again, and this has encouraged NORQAIN to go on and move forward with its most significant launch so far this year, an extension to its core Adventure collection called Neverest, the first to use the NN20/1 Kinessi movement.

The Neverest name is designed with a double meaning. “Never Rest”, speaks to the brand’s positive attitude, momentum, while the obvious similarity to Everest is about conquering new summits

and also links to a charity project NORQAIN supports called Butterfly Help Project in Nepal, which was founded by Norbu Sherpa and Andrea Sherpa-

Zimmermann of Wild Yak Expeditions and supports children

going to school in the country.

Ten percent of the sale price of each

Neverest watch sold will

go to the charity and NORQAIN has

committed to sending 50 children to school

in 2021 and supporting them in the coming years.

“I am deeply touched by the stories of Sherpa families in Nepal, and I speak for the entire NORQAIN team when I say how honored we

are to be involved with the Butterfly Help Project and their admirable cause. With this partnership, we can positively impact the lives of children in need and give them a brighter future by sending them to school to get an education. This is the most important thing we have done as a brand”, Mr Küffer says.

There are three models in the 40mm Neverest collection, all using the Kenissi movement, visible through an exhibition case back, and are water resistant to 200 meters.

An all steel piece named Glacier has a textured white dial and grey bezel. It comes on a stainless steel bracelet for CHF 3,250, a textured rubber strap at CHF 3,050 and a fabric strap (CHF 3,050).

There is a limited edition with a black and grey dial with rose gold markers and a black ceramic bezel inset with gold.

It is also offered on bracelet, rubber or fabric strap with prices ranging from CHF 4,380 to 4,580.

The third piece is in green and black with different strap/bracelet options taking prices to between CHF 2,990 and CHF 3,190.

Every watch also comes with a five year warranty.

NORQAIN is positioning its family of watches into two tiers with pieces using Sellita movements retailing at below CHF 2,000 and those housing Kenissi units selling at CHF 3,000 and upwards.


VIEW FROM THE TOP / NORQUAIN

THIS PAGE:

The brand now has

around 75 retail

outlets across the

globe.

-10 -5 0 5 10 15 20-6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 800 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

-5 0 5 10 15 20 25 300 10 20 30 40 50

-12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 20 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Total GB Watch Market (Sales Value GBP)

43.7%

63.1%

20.7%

September 2020 - August 2021

January 2021 - August 2021

August 2021

Online sales (Sales Value GBP)

Total GB Watch Market (Sales Volume (Units)

London (ISBA region) Sales Value GBP

Price (£> 0 <= 500) Price (£> 500 <= 1000)

-11.0%

0.8%

-1.2%

-5.4%

6.4%

3.1%

7.3%

19.0%

-7.1%

Online sales (Sales Volume (units)

Rest of GB (Sales Value GBP)



August 2021



August 2021



August 2021

45.9%

73.5%

20.0%

38.9%

68.3%

27.4%

26.4%

14.0%

-4.6%

44.2%

31.6%

2.0%



August 2021



August 2021



August 2021



August 2021

Watch sales rise by 22% in AugustTHE AUGUST FIGURE BUILDS ON THE PREVIOUS MONTH'S PERFORMANCE WHEN JULY SALES WERE 34% HIGHER THAN

IN THE PRE-PANDEMIC MONTH IN 2019.

Momentum for the British watch business was maintained into summer with the total value of sales in August rising by

22% according to GfK data. Growth has been tapering since April, when

figures were being compared to a year earlier when the first lock down was in full effect, but remain robust. The August figure builds on the previous month’s performance when July sales were 34% higher than in the pre-pandemic month in 2019.

The volume of watches sold in August was roughly the same as last year, but the average transaction value was up by 22.2%.

Average prices are the big story of the last

year, rising by 62% for the 12 month period from September 2020 to August 2021 as customers bought more expensive watches.

Total sales value for watches priced at £500 to £1,000 dropped by 7.1% in August while it rose by 27% in the 26.9% price range, 30.8% for £5,000 to £10,000 pieces and 18.9% for those costing over £10,000.

GfK data shows the the gains in online sales being held, but not built upon now that stores are fully open. Ecommerce sales were up just 2% year on year.

Growth is being enjoyed across Great Britain. London sales were up 20% in August while the rest of the mainland rose by 27.4%.

This data is supplied by GfK, the UK’s leading ana-lyst of retail performance and consumer confidence. For information please visit www.gfk.com

56

FRONT / RETAIL SALES DATA


0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80-20 -15 -10 -5 0

0 50 100 150 2000 10 20 30 40 50 60

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 800 10 20 30 40 50 60

0 10 20 30 40 50

0 10 20 30 40 500 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

0 20 40 60 80 100

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Price (£> 5000 <= 10000)

Price (£> 1000 <= 3000)

Strap performance (LEATHER)

GENTS (Sales Value GBP)

Strap performance (METAL)

LADIES (Sales Value GBP)

AVERAGE SELLING PRICE (GBP)

UNISEX (Sales Value GBP)

Price (£ > 10000)

Price (£ > 3000 <= 5000)

Strap performance (CERAMIC)

Strap performance (OTHERS)

CHILDRENS (Sales Value GBP)



August 2021

51.1%

75.3%

30.8%

39.0%

59.2%

26.9%

43.7%

63.1%

20.7%

61.4%

61.8%

22.2%

-15.4%

-12.2%

-10.8%

46.3%

57.5%

7.9%

41.3%

57.7%

17.9%

19.3%

44.5%

21.2%

84.9%

150.9%

132.7%

49.8%

67.9%

21.1%

31.7%

71.7%

57.9%

21.9%

44.1%

25.0%

82.2%

92.1%

18.9%

36.7%

63.1%

28.8%



August 2021



August 2021



August 2021



August 2021



August 2021



August 2021



August 2021



August 2021



August 2021



August 2021



August 2021



August 2021

Strap performance (<Grand Total>)



August 2021


Luminox Continues to Do its PartToday, everyone has to do their part to make the world a better, and more sustainable, place to live. For Luminox, this has meant revamping its production processes, as well as partnering with a Swiss company to collect plastic and waste from the ocean and using those materials to create the #TIDE series of watches.

#TIDE Materials#tide ocean materials are made from 100% ocean-bound plastic, developed in partnership with Swiss scientists. On five islands in the Andaman Sea off the coast of Thailand, local fishermen are being trained and paid to gather and sort plastic waste.

The #tide material starts out as this collected plastic waste, which is then broken down by a sophisticated sustainable process to its base particles. These are treated, cleaned, and then shredded so that they can be injected, just like the original plastic it once was. In this way, Luminox reuses this material, reduces the impact on the planet, and helps to clean up the ocean, while also helping these indigenous people learn a new skill and make a regular income.

CO2 NEUTRALSustainability has been on Luminox’s radar for a while, and its parent company, Mondaine Watch Ltd., is one of the world’s first carbon-neutral watch companies. Since 2020, all Mondaine brands, including Luminox, operate with net-zero carbon emissions. The Mondaine Group uses solar power and eco-friendly materials in its production processes and is renowned for its innovation, including in the environmental field. In addition, a proportion of the company’s revenue is donated to social and environmental non-profit organizations, such as Fairventures Worldwide.

With the #tide series of watches you can feel good about helping Luminox make a difference. People talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve – with the #tide material series from Luminox, you can wear your environmental commitment on your wrist.

XS.0321.ECO XS.8902.ECO XS.8903.ECO

PET BOTTLE

PET FLAKES

PET GRANULES

LT_LX-BMC-WatchTPro_Mgz-Advertorial-Sustainability_DblPg-205x275mm_V1a.indd All PagesLT_LX-BMC-WatchTPro_Mgz-Advertorial-Sustainability_DblPg-205x275mm_V1a.indd All Pages 16.09.21 09:5216.09.21 09:52

WATCH FACES / SALON PRIVE


SALON PRIVE

SALON PRIVESalon Privé, held in the grounds of Winston Churchill’s ancestral

home Blenheim Palace, had its own pop-up watch show that hosted

brands including Christopher Ward, Duckworth Prestex, IWC, Panerai,

Vacheron Constantin, Piaget, Roger Dubuis and Montblanc within

the UK’s most exclusive motor show and summer social fixture for

supercars and the rarest classic cars.

P E R F O R M A N C E & D I S T I N C T I O N

Discover the Newport collection inspired by the yachting spirit, crafted with precision in France at our workshops in Charquemont.

AT E L I E R D ’ H O R L O G E R I E F R A N Ç A I S E

Michel Herbelin UK Ltd | 07885 539956 | [email protected]

#TimeIsFlying

TONDA PF MICRO-ROTOR

2021 NOVELTIESWATCHPRO PICKS OUT ITS FAVOURITE HIGH END COMPLICATIONS AND HIGH VOLUME

FASHION PIECES REVEALED THIS MONTH

NOVELTIES / 2021


MAURICE LACROIXAIKON AUTOMATIC CHRONOGRAPH SPRINT

Maurice Lacroix is accepting pre-orders now for its Aikon Automatic Chronograph Sprint,

the latest addition to a growing and increasingly successful Aikon family of affordable

luxury steel sports watches. AIKON Automatic Chronograph Sprint has a different look

and feel to the core collection with their recognizable Clous de Paris dials, and should

appeal to millennials embracing the luxury athleisure look.

It still has the distinctive six arms straddling the bezel, the M-logo on its strap and the

Aikon’s urban styling, but the Chronograph Sprint has a matte black DLC coating on its

44mm steel case with the six arms given a gunmetal finish. The dial is also different with a

dark grey embossed square pattern.

The facetted hour and minute hands are lined with Super-LumiNova, aiding legibility

in dim light. They converse with the indexes, once again, presented in gunmetal grey.

Black counters are positioned at 6 and 12 o’clock and use opaline and snailed details and

there is a splash of colour with the small seconds indication at 9 o’clock and the central

chronograph hand presented in a light shade of blue, the same colour as its rubber strap.

It is made in a limited edition of 500 priced at CHF 3,350

AUDEMARS PIGUETCODE 11.59 AND ROYAL OAK

Audemars Piguet is reshaping its business by bringing in influences from other industries including high

fashion and 5-star hotels. The company has timed a fresh drop of watches to coincide with a new fashion

season, which kicked off with New York Fashion Week. New models include an open worked tourbillon in the

CODE 11.59 family, two titanium Royal Oaks, one a minute repeater and the other a perpetual calendar, and two

new frosted gold (pink or white told) Royal Oak chronographs.

AP has made a hand-finished open worked Calibre 2948 movement for its latest CODE 11.59..

Audemars Piguet’s chiming, hand wound, Calibre 2953 is housed in a 42mm titanium case for the latest

Supersonnerie. The duller sheen of titanium is complemented with a smoky grey guilloché dial. It has a closed

case back with a representation of the sound that the minute repeater makes when it chimes.

AP has provided a sapphire case back for two new Royal Oak Frosted Gold Chronographs, exposing the

hand-wound Calibre 4401. There are 18ct white or pink gold models with integrated bracelets. The 41mm

watches come with black or blue Grande Tapisserie dials.

A new combination of a brushed titanium case and integrated bracelet has been brought together with a

blue Grande Tapisserie dial with contrasting grey sub dials for the latest Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar. The

41mm watch houses the self-winding Calibre 5134 driving week, day, date, astronomical moon, month, leap

year, hours and minutes, and which can be admired through a crystal case back. It is launching this month

exclusively in the United States before reaching other countries in October.

The British Horological Institute has been training the next generation of watchmakers since 1858

Distance Learning Courses from £599

Clock and Watch Short Courses from £99

Join for great benefits including: Receive The Horological Journal every month

Access to the online Members’ Forum

Discover our range of courses, membership and events, for everyone from novice to professional

Visit our stand at WatchPro Salon 12–13 November

INTERESTED IN WATCHES AND HOW THEY WORK?

00589 WacthPro Advert - V4 FAW.indd 100589 WacthPro Advert - V4 FAW.indd 1 17/09/2021 15:4917/09/2021 15:49

NOVELTIES / 2021


TIMEX TIMEX X JUDITH LEIBER

Judith Leiber is moving into watches with the help of Timex,

which is manufacturing and distributing collections of

timepieces. The first pieces from the partnership are two

limited-edition watches, the T80 Digital and Q Analog, both

designed to sell out fast with production runs of just 200 of

each. Each watch has over 900 colorful Swarovski crystals on

the watch cases, dials and bracelets in combinations that fans

of the distinctive designer will instantly recognise.

Under the terms of the license agreement, Timex Group

will be responsible for the production and worldwide

distribution of Judith Leiber and Judith Leiber

Couture-branded watches beginning

in Spring 2022 at Judith Leiber

boutiques, select authorized

retailers and online.

The first limited-edition

styles to launch from this

partnership are currently

available only in Canada

and USA where a 38mm

Timex x Judith Leiber

with a round analogue

watch face and rainbow

coloured crystal bezel is

retailing for $1,200 while

a rose gold coloured

digital watch in the

Timex T80 shape is priced

at $1,000.

FREDERIQUE CONSTANT HIGHLIFE WORLDTIMER MANUFACTURE

Frederique Constant is more than a little

excited about its new Highlife Worldtimer

Manufacture, which it describes as “a future icon”

thanks to the combination of its dial engraved with

a representation of a globe and its FC-718 movement

under the hood.

It feels like yesterday, rather than 30 years’ ago,

that Frederique Constant burst onto the scene with

a promise to take mechanical Swiss watches to the

masses. Having been acquired by Citizen Watch Company,

the watchmaker has the financial muscle and global

network to continue that quest.

The FC-718 caliber has been manufactured since 2013

and used in a range of world timers since. The Highlife

Worldtimer Manufacture is a 41mm steel watch that shows

off the movement’s decorative finish through a crystal

case back. The watch has a blue sunray guilloché dial with

world cities picked out in white around the circumference.

It is designed to be worn three ways with interchangeable

straps and a bracelet.

MEISTERSINGERPLANET EARTH PERIGRAPH

Meistersinger is giving an outer space-eye-view of our

rock in its latest watch, the Planet Earth, created to

support the World Wide Fund for Nature, one of the

world’s leading nature conservation organizations. For

every watch of the 500 made and sold, Meistersinger

and its business partners will waive an equal share of

€200, which will be donated to WWF as direct support.

Meistersinger aims is to send a message that people

need be more considerate in their use of our planet’s

resources and the watch makes its own contribution

to sustainable living in the form of a vegan watch

strap made of apple fiber and environmentally

friendly recycled and recyclable packaging. The

company says the strap and packaging will be

rolled out across its watch collections.

Meistersinger Planet Earth is based on the

Perigraph watch with its circular open date

disk and hours/minutes track surrounding

the earth in the jet-black of space an

astronaut would see looking back at their

home planet. The watch uses Sellita’s SW400 in

a 43mm case on display through a glass case back

decorated with the WWF logo. It goes on sale at the

end of October priced at £1,990.

BELL & ROSS BR-05 GMT

Two of the hardest hit areas of life during the pandemic have been

overseas travel and city centres. That was not ideal for Bell & Ross

launching a brand new dual time zone of its urban-styled BR-05 GMT

but, thankfully, conditions have improved dramatically on both fronts

in time for today’s unveiling.

There are two versions in this first collection. Both have black sunray

dials bearing the new red arrow second time zone hand, but one is

worn on a rubber strap and the other on an integrated steel bracelet.

The 41mm rounded square, satin and brushed steel cases house

Bell & Ross’s BR-CAL.325 automatic movement, based on a Sellita

SW-330. Recommended retail prices is £4,100 on the rubber strap and

£4,500 on the bracelet.

T I M E O U TW A T C H & C L O C K R E P A I R C E N T R E

Time Out Watch Repairs, PO Box 851, Harrogate HG1 9YW

Tel: 07759 960102

Email: [email protected]

TRADE WATCH REPAIR SPECIALISTS

Service for over 15yrs

which is built upon trust, quality of service and expertise in watch

and clock repairs”

FREE ESTIMATESare given on all trade repairs we receive.

10% o� your 1st repair invoice

Anti-magnetic.5-day power reserve.10-year warranty. The new Aquis Date is powered by Oris Calibre 400.A new movement.

The new standard

britain’s most influential watch title

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