Watches of Switzerland enjoys boost from rich households’ savings
10 August 2021, 11:14
The UK’s biggest Rolex seller has seen sales soar as shoppers bought luxury watches with savings made during the pandemic.
Wealthy households unable to spend the cash they saved during the pandemic on expensive meals and overseas holidays have been snapping up posh watches instead, according to the boss of the UK’s biggest Rolex seller.
Watches of Switzerland chief Brian Duffy executive told the PA news agency that customers have opted to treat themselves, helping sales at the business to soar.
He said: “In the UK and US there is accumulated disposable income and we are an attractive category in that sense.
“We call our categories ‘rational indulgences’. Buying a beautiful luxury watch you can feel confident that it’s going to preserve value, it’s going to last forever, it’s a family heirloom.
“So, therefore, in these circumstances, when people have money to spend, our category is high up in their priority list. So, definitely we’ve benefited from that.”
Mr Duffy pointed out that the pandemic did affect the company – hitting it for £100 million – but said it had suffered less of an impact than other high street businesses.
The number of customers fell, he added, but the value of each sale was higher.
“There is a willingness for people to trade up and indulge a bit more, maybe buying gold when they were thinking of buying a mix of gold and steel,” he said.
The company has launched a concierge service, which is helping to drive the growth and improvements in marketing and social media, he added.
As a result, sales hit £297.5 million in the 13 weeks to August 1 – up 96.2% on the same period last year when stores were shut for parts of the coronavirus lockdown.
Luxury watch sales were up 97.1% to £259.3 million, with luxury jewellery up 98.9% to £20.1 million.
The jump in sales on a two-year basis was 46%, despite the tourist market remaining weak due to Covid-19 – Mr Duffy said foreign visitors previously made up 30% of sales.
He said: “A big part of our business is where we can’t get enough product to meet demand – Rolex in particular. So, the fact that we weren’t selling products in the airports and to tourists meant more clients domestically and we were able to take advantage of that.
“It sounds very clever to have pivoted the business to the domestic market but, to be honest, the demand was there.”
Online sales continued to increase – up 15.9% – despite stores reopening, and the company expects it to be a major growth area.
