Geneva-based Swiss watchmaker Frederique Constant is working towards making India amongst its top 20 markets in the world in the next five years, confirms William Besse, International Sales Manager, Frederique Constant. The brand; only present through MBOs in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Kochi; is seeking Indian partners in strategic areas of the existing cities and tier 2 cities such as Jaipur, Pune, and Kolkata. Currently, the brand is available in Ethos (principle partner with maximum number of stores and accounting for 60 percent of business), Jimson, Helvetica, The Golden Time in Ahmedabad, Swiss Watch House in Kochin, and Group in Mumbai. Switzerland, China, Hong Kong, Russia, US, France, Japan, S.Korea, Germany, Australia, Spain, and UK are some of the top markets of the brand worldwide. Besse admits that 40 percent of the brand’s turnover is being invested in India for marketing.
For improving its presentation and window displays in the stores, it plans new POSM per core collection. Frederique Constant has also introduced two models with Devanagari script for India, one in stainless steel case and black leather strap priced at Rs 76,000, and the other with yellow gold case and brown leather strap for Rs 82,000. “The collection is a nice combination of Indian heritage and the know-how of Swiss made watchmaking. The third model, Indian Dial, with a metal bracelet is yet to be launched most probably in Basel Fair next month and will be priced higher,” says Besse.
In terms of reinforcing the distribution strategy in the country, he mentions that the brand will strengthen its relationship with its key partners to have a solid base with them and continue growing. “We have a partner which has around 10 point of sales, per region we can have one point of sale with one partner,” he adds. Besse also points out that the brand will focus on increasing its communication with its target audience i.e. corporate community, and also hold events for launching the 2014 novelties.
Talking about the experience in the Indian market so far, he said: “We started business in India at the end of 2011, not alone but with partners to understand the market. Starting 2014, I have been the incharge of the Indian market. When I came to India in 2011, we had 11 point of sales, in 2012 we had 15 points of sales, in 2013 we had an objective of having 20 point of sales and today we have 25 point of sales, so we have been able to really grow. For 2014 we have earmarked three objectives, namely, to improve our presentation in our point of sales, expand and reinforce our distribution, and communication continuity.”
Recalling the challenges faced by the brand initially, Besse states that the biggest challenge was to develop the brand without huge budgets but banking on creativity and innovation only. “However, things have changed. Now we receive calls for partnerships. In the beginning of January last month, we got around two-three business calls. This shows that the strategy and good work done in the past three years is paying off now and we have a bright perspective,” adds Besse.
According to him, the strategy of Frederique Constant is to let more people enjoy luxury so it is positioned under the accessible luxury segment. “We are doing everything to make our watches look like very expensive and very high-end but at the same time the price is very affordable. Our strategy is to let each person step into a new affordable luxury world,” he says.
Being a global brand, Besse feels the Indian market does not differ much as compared to its markets worldwide in terms of design and price because the brand is not into fancy timepieces but classics which work almost the same everywhere. Almost 60 percent of its collection is for men and 40 percent for women, out of this, 35 percent is for Quartz, 45 percent for Automatics, and 15 percent or more is for our manufactured movements. “We have a manufacture in Geneva where we are developing, designing, producing, assembling, and controlling our manufactured movements. The Manufacture collection is our high-end collection but still they are the most affordable Swiss made watches in the world. A key difference we might find here as compared to other markets is the percentage of leather strap and bracelets are more important in India,” Besse quipped.
Currently, Frederique Constant has around 70 watchmakers in Geneva under a Master Watchmaker who is also the Technical Director. Most of the watchmakers already have three years of study to be a watchmaker so they already have the required knowledge. In 2005, the brand got a CNC machine for 500, 000 US$. A CNC machine uses latest technology for mass quality production of watches. Now the brand has 3 CNC machines. Besse states that to build a full manufacture watch it takes around 18 hours after which 48 hours are spent on quality control. “Our USP is quality, a lot of our competitors do not have a manufacture so they have no control on quality whereas we have all the facilities for that.”
The brand’s pricing strategy is same worldwide. In India, Frederique Constant’s watches are priced between Rs 40,000 and Rs 2.8 lakh. Average bill size for the brand stands at Rs 70,000 in the country. Out of Quartz, Automatics, and Manufacture Collection, Automatics are a sell out in India being priced at Rs 70,000 to Rs 90,000 as compared to Automatics from other competing brands selling at Rs 1.4 lakh. “We also have watches priced at Rs 1.5 lakh but we priced the collection on purpose to win market share. Also, the philosophy of our brand is to let everybody buy a classic swiss made watch and it is reflected in our prices. The limited editions also sell very well which are theme oriented. We have a theme called the Healey named after the iconic racing car from England. Five main collections of the brand are Manufacture, Ladies Automatic, Runabout (limited edition), Vintage Rally (limited edition), and Classics. Runabout is inspired from old time luxury boats found in the lakes of Geneva and Italy while Vintage Rally theme takes its inspiration from vintage rally cars. Both the collections come with special boxes; Runabout comes in a wooden box in the shape of the luxury boat while the box for the other is a miniature of the Healy car. For India, the brand’s objective is to have 60 watches core collection to ensure they are in stock in its Bangalore office. The collections are customised a little for the Indian market to sell out,” Besse says.
He further adds that the company has watches priced higher but the collections have not been launched in India as yet. Besse states: “Our core collection is 500 US$ to 3,000 US$, which sells the most worldwide. In India, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad are the top selling cities for the brand accounting for 30 percent of the sales while rest of India contributes 10 percent,” Developing the rest of the markets is also on the company’s expansion plans.
In 2014, Frederique Constant will push for implementing manufacture collection in India and also spread awareness about manufacture watches. For a Manufacture watch, an internal team builts movement through equipments, and then assembles and encases it.” This year we plan to build 18,000 manufacture movements and produce 150,000 watches by the end of this calendar year globally.
Besse concludes by saying that the swiss watch brand is also looking forward to work with retailers, advising them on location, store layout, etc., and also open to have assoications with business schools.
