How luxury watchmakers are courting millennials with customisation and ethical practices
- New brand Baume offers 2,160 ‘aesthetic options’ and does not use animal products or precious stones
- The moves could change the face of luxury watchmaking
There was a time when you chose your first dress watch and there was one model that called out your name. You would wear it with quiet pride, knowing its caseback had been engraved with your monogram. Never mind if 500 other people had the same watch; this was personal.
It was in this storied way that the Rolex “Paul Newman” Daytona (ref 6239, vintage ’68) became the most expensive wristwatch ever when it was auctioned last October for US$17.8 million, despite the Daytona model being manufactured in quantity. “Drive Carefully Me” reads the engraving on its caseback; a timeless endearment from Newman’s wife Joanne Woodward, whose gift it was.
In today’s world of the millennial consumer, however, narrative subtleties like custom engravings are woefully inadequate for the mixed identities, beliefs and causes that they unabashedly brandish. They are also less well-off than baby boomers and Gen X were at the same stage of life, even after accounting for property bubbles and inflation, so less able to splash out on the top watch brands.
Meanwhile, luxury spending among high-net-worth Gen Xers and above has flatlined, at least in the developed world. That leaves luxury watch brands faced with a lower-value incipient market and a shrinking existing one.
It’s a tricky business to attract new followers and not alienate your current well-heeled client base, especially for brands that have set high standards. But with millennials the most significant consumer demographic right now – they comprised 85 per cent of luxury retail growth in 2017, according to a report by Bain and Co – the question is not if luxury watchmakers must court millennials, but how.
