Luxuryvolt: When did IWC Schaffhausen enter India? How has the growth been for the brand, so far?
Rajan: We have been represented in India for many years, more than two decades already. But we have had Indian clients in our universe for as long as the brand exist. I mean the brand has truly been international at heart and Indian clients have always travelled the world to seek for beauty. We set up an operation office in India about five years ago, where we have our own distribution our own offices our own back offices, our own supports so that also enabled us to grow much faster.
The growth in the Indian market has been outstanding. I have to say we started from a very small operation where we are testing a bit of what works. Now we have 5 amazing doors which has strong visibility about the brand, full collection. limited editions are available in India. We are also working a lot with carnet pieces; to bring extraordinary timepieces, collectors, museum timepieces that will bring us closer to the Indian clients.
Luxuryvolt: Do you plan to launch dedicated branded stores, just IWC stores in India in the near future?
Rajan: At some point, yes. I think more and more of our clients are looking to have full experience of what is IWC. Where it makes sense, we are looking opportunities. We don’t have any specific projects lined up now but we are always looking for opportunities in the future. For sure I’m sure we will see an Indian boutique in the coming year or so.
Luxuryvolt: Other Richemont brands like Montblanc, in 2018-19 alone will add 8 standalone stores in India. In the last 10 years they established 8 stores across the country and in 2 years alone double that number. Panerai has a bunch of its own standalone boutiques. Does that probably inspire you at all to grow your presence in India? The price in India makes a lot of difference and many watch buyers come down to India and buy.
Rajan: Yes, that’s true many brands and not only the ones that you referred to are focusing on India. IWC has a similar past in terms of growth and future expansion. Now we have a very specific approach of distribution. We want to focus on IWC in quality over quantity and I strongly believe that it’s less question about how many doors you have but how experiential those doors can they be. I don’t think we need to be everywhere all the time. I think we have to be closer to our clients and spend more time with them and be able to provoke an emotion I would say that is more relevant. They should get the opportunity to see the brand, see the collection and see the full width of the collection instead of having few watches here and a few watches there and then and when they come they feel that there are holes that we are not fulfilling. So I rather focus on developing the doors that we have and making sure that we grow steadily and sustainably, organically for the future instead of rushing for quick wins. We have been around for 150 years and we are not going anywhere so I’m really planning for the next 150 years.
Luxuryvolt: What’s the most popular line of IWC watches in India?
Rajan: I would have to say the Pilot collection. In IWC we have a magic formula which we call the three Ps; Portugieser, Pilot or Portofino. That’s really the bulk of our turnover. IWC Portugieser will always be the highest collection in terms of revenue because it’s our most iconic and most popular collector timepieces. Witness over the last 2 years, we have seen growth is two collections, one in Pilots. Because we are seeing more and more Indian client and collector who is looking for very versatile piece so something that you can wear in the office and you can wear on weekends at a brunch or something like that or a function. Our pilot collection is doing fantastically well, the big pilot in particular. Then on the ladies side we are having a great success on the feminine collection with Portofino 37 and Da Vinci 36. It is the collection that launched only 2 years ago and with the help of Sonam we really able to show the craftsmanship of IWC in India and it is doing phenomenal for us.
Luxuryvolt: From what I have collected, the IWC buyers in India are dominantly men and yet you have a lady brand ambassador promoting the brand?
Rajan: It’s a very interesting question. We realised a few years ago that we had a lot of ladies who were buying our watches for themselves. Personal point of view, my wife steals my watches on a daily basis. However we still believe that we needed to develop a collection that was dedicated to the women. Most of my clients are asking for masculine gifts to be made for their wives. We launched our IWC Portofino 37 in 2014 end. If I am not mistaken and it was a great success. Last year we launched Da Vinci collection for ladies. We launched a specific limited edition for the middle east and Indian market with fully paved watch limited to 25 pieces. It enables us to talk to people who have never evolved around IWC before. Our partnership with Sonam is really genuine. We spend a lot of time with Sonam outside of the cameras and she is really close to the brand and the whole team. This helps us in understanding as we are in early stages of what IWC can do for the ladies.
Luxuryvolt: Who are your top retailers in India for IWC watches?
Rajan: We decided few months ago to really focus on less partners and more partnership. We decided to focus on who are the retailers we believe share the same passion and vision that we have and are willing to embark on a journey where we put IWC to new heights. We partnered with the Kapoor family in New Delhi which will also have a distribution in Mumbai with different partner. In Bangalore and soon in Hyderabad with Ethos group. We have a very limited number of partners. Mumbai we have partnership with art of time
Luxuryvolt: Top three watches that you would carry with you when travelling.
Rajan: When I’m travelling, I always wear IWC Portugieser with perpetual calendar, single moon in red gold with a white dial. For me that’s the most understated piece of luxury that you can have. It’s a very complex mechanism but it is very easy and very aesthetically beautiful. Then I have a pilot top gun in black ceramic with a nato strap that I wear when I’m out on weekends. The third, either I bring Portugieser chrono with me that is a limited edition we have but that one is most of the time on my wife’s wrist. Or I have an IWC Aquatimer Jacques-Yves Cousteau blue dial that I use when exercising.
Non IWC watches I have many. I used to work for Cartier so I’m fortunate enough to have few of their watches. Every watch is a moment in your life. Every watch means something with emotional connection. I was a part of a team that launched a watch called ‘Calibre’ in Cartier so obviously I have this watch.It still stays in my collection. Whenever I look at my watch winder and look at this watch it reminds me of a time when I learned all the ropes of watchmaking within Cartier. This is the watch I cherish particularly.
*With inputs from Shalu Jacob
