A new research conducted by estate agency Savills and quoted by Jewellery Focus claims that London’s growing tourist numbers and “affluent profile” could make it the “primary target” for luxury watch retailers to open their own mono-brand stores.
According to the research, which examined the presence of 45 luxury watch brands with their own stores in 11 gateway cities, London’s growth potential exceeds other global markets. Currently, Singapore is the top global market with 37 brands present. Paris is in second place with 33 brands, followed by Hong Kong with 30. While London and New York ranked the joined lowest with 22 luxury watch mono-brand stores each, some 11 brands have opened their first mono-brand stores in the city since 2010, and six more brands are expected to open stores this year.
Additionally, the latest sales figures in the West show a 13% increase in June 2016 compared with the same month last year, despite overall sales being down by 5.9%.
The report adds two more factors in favor of London’s improved “Watch status” in the future: cheaper visas for Chinese nationals, who then have greater spending power while visiting the British capital, and an exchange rate that is currently favorable to international visitors.
Marie Hickey, commercial research director at Savills, said: “The growth in luxury watch boutiques over the last 10 years has focused on Asia Pacific markets due to strengthening demand and cheaper property costs. By contrast, the high cost of opening a mono-brand store in London and New York has seen many brands take space in department stores or specialist watch stores instead, explaining why the number of boutiques in these cities is so much lower.
However, the preference for Chinese tourists to acquire luxury purchases overseas could result in some luxury watch brands refocusing their attention on more established markets and driving significant growth, albeit off a low base, in the case of both London and New York”.
