Why America is the place to be for luxury watch brands [Video]

When it comes to luxury Swiss watches, America is still number one.

The latest figures from the industry group the Swiss Watch Federation showed that while industry sales fell 12.6% in September, US imports actually increased 2.4%, with US market share rising to 17.2%. The federation added the US was “consolidating its position as the leading market for Swiss watchmaking.”

And that popularity was more than apparent at last weekend’s WatchTime NY event, the largest East Coast watch show. Now in its ninth year, the three-day event brought in over 2,500 watch collectors and enthusiasts to the intimate Gotham Hall space, which was packed with 36 international watch brands.

Prestige brands like Blancpain (SWGAY), Chopard, Piaget (CFRUY), and Breguet shared the main floor alongside smaller enthusiast watch houses like H. Moser, Urwerk, Armin Strom, MB&F, Norqain and others.

Though a majority of the brands were of the Swiss or European variety, most, if not all, had one thing to say: The United States was critically important to their brands.

The WatchTime NY show floor (credit: WatchTime) (WatchTime)

Ulysse Nardin, maker of Swiss timepieces like the Freak, Freak X, and Freak ONE, which won the Grand Prix of Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) award for most “iconic” watch, sees the US market as foundational, especially for watches costing upwards of $20,000.

“The American market is super important for us. I think it’s our most important market,” US CEO François-Xavier Hotier told Yahoo Finance. “It has to do with the way people look at things. You know, they appreciate what we do, to be bold, to do it your own way. That’s something that made America what it is.”

Francois-Xavier Hotier, Ulysse Nardin Americas President at WatchTime NY (credit: Pras Subramanian) (Pras Subramanian)

The Freak is no ordinary watch. Essentially, the movement itself is the actual minute hand, and it revolves around the dial to tell time (see image below). It’s a revolutionary-looking mechanism and one that appeals to executives at America’s biggest high-tech firms, Hotier said.

Ulysse Nardin and Hotier also believe their highest-end watches are more immune to factors like uncertain economic conditions or higher interest rates because Nardin’s typical buyer is able to afford such discretionary purchases.

“If I look at the performance in North America, we largely overperform the trend of the industry,” he said. “I believe that some brands who suffer today are also brands with a bigger production, a bigger distribution at a lower price point, and very driven by marketing.”

The Ulysse Nardin Freak One Navy Blue (credit: WatchTime) (WatchTime)

Urwerk is another avant-garde watchmaker that sells in even more limited quantities at eye-watering prices. Think production of less than a couple hundred watches a year, with prices ranging from $50,000 all the way up to $250,000 and above.

In addition to debuting the stunning vertical SpaceTime Blade free-standing clock, co-founder Martin Frei was on hand wearing the all-new UR-150 Scorpion timepiece.

The Scorpion uses a “retrograde” style movement, in which the minute hand (the scorpion tail here) measures from zero to 60 minutes on one part of the dial, then “flies back” to zero every time an hour elapses. The hours are read “digitally” by a revolving number window in the middle of the dial. The Scorpion is priced at $103,000.

For Urwerk and Frei, a legend in the watchmaking world, debuting the new watch in the US makes total sense.

The Urwerk Scorpion US-150 (credit: Urwerk) (Urwerk)

“The American market is super important for us,” Frei told Yahoo Finance. “I think it’s our most important market. It has to do with the way people look at things … to be bold, to do it your own way, that’s something that made America what it is.”

It helps that most of Urwerk’s clients are here too. And that the Swiss-born Frei lived in New York City for many years and loves visiting, so displaying at WatchTime isn’t a hard sell.

Another person in town for the event was actor and noted watch collector Fred Savage.

Savage, like most other watch collectors, has been burned before by purchasing watches through auction or other “gray” market or used channels and not getting what he thought he bought.

His new company, Timepiece Grading Specialists (TGS), attempts to solve the authentication problem.

“I’m starting a new business as a watch collector who’s been burned a time or two, buying a watch on the secondary market, which is almost like a rite of passage for anyone who collects watches,” Savage said to Yahoo Finance. “So people send us their watches. We look at them, we photograph them, we open them up, we make sure everything about it’s correct, and if it’s not, we let them know, and then we grade the condition.”

Fred Savage at WatchTime NY (credit: Pras Subramanian) (Pras Subramanian)

Savage hopes that a “TGS” score, as he calls it, becomes the industry standard for grading watches that have been authenticated and all internal parts verified, similar to grading systems used for precious gemstones, baseball cards, and other valuables and collectibles.

And while Savage made the rounds, no doubt talking about TGS, the main reason he’s here in NYC at WatchTime is to connect with the watch community.

“The great thing about the watch community is there’s a lot of people who I feel very close to, who I know literally only by their Instagram handles, and so I can come and meet them, and see them,” Savage said. “And this [event] is … great. This is one of the things in the US that’s a real magnet.”

Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.

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Publish date : 2024-10-26 04:00:00

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