Inside Tatler’s latest House Stories event at the Upper House.
On May 26, for the seventh edition of Tatler’s House Stories, thought leaders from Hong Kong’s watch world gathered at The Upper House’s Sky Lounge for an in-depth chat on the future of the industry.
Between the cancellation of international watch fairs such as Watches and Wonders and LVMH Watch Week, and the closure of watch factories due to Covid-19, the industry has taken a substantial hit over the past 18 months. Annie Darling, Tatler’s executive editor of style, discussed how watch enthusiasts and brands alike are coping and whether virtual fairs and online shopping are set to be a permanent part of the new normal.
Thomas Perrazzi, head of watches in Asia at Phillips auction house; Mark Cho, co-founder and co-owner of menswear stores The Armoury and Drake’s; Terence Loo, head of operations and senior client advisor at WatchBox; and Austen Chu, the 24-year-old co-founder of Wristcheck and the Horoloupe Instagram account, assembled to share their thoughts.
“Digitisation has been very important to watch auction houses,” said Perrazzi. “At the start of the pandemic, we were scratching our heads about what we were going to do, and for the first time in 40 years we had to postpone a Geneva auction sale. After that, we decided to reshape all of our digital systems.” At a time when travel has been almost non-existent, auction houses have been forced to be innovative to keep their customers happy and meet their needs.
“Trust is extremely important,” said Perrazzi. “Today, 56 per cent of our sales are done online because the majority of our buyers aren’t able to travel. We organise one-to-one Zoom meetings between our collectors and our specialists and it’s a form of escapism for our clients, some of whom are stuck in extreme lockdowns.” The digital method seems to be working: in November 2020, Phillips Geneva set a record for the most expensive watch purchased at any online auction when a rare Patek Philippe sold for a cool US$5.5 million. The watch was sold to a bidder in Germany who had never seen the watch in person; a sign that the market is adapting to international travel being at a standstill by trusting brands to deliver on the remote buying experience.
See also: Danny Yeung’s Prenetics Launches Rapid Covid-19 Test For Home Use
“Trust can take many forms,” Cho added. “It’s about how knowledgeable the dealer is, how reliable they are, how available their watches are. I am always willing to spend my time and money on someone else’s expertise if I trust their taste.” Loo, whose company WatchBox operates both an online shop and a bricks-and-mortar store, says having a hybrid concept has been extremely beneficial, but that Asia has some distance to go before fully embracing the online purchase of watches. “WatchBox originated in the US, where selling watches online is quite common,” he said. “In Asia, it’s different. Yes, people do a lot of e-commerce, but they order toilet paper or athleisure wear—not watches. We’ve realised that we needed a physical location for people to come see the watches in person too, and the combination has been great for us.”
As the first watch collector to collaborate with Audemars Piguet, Chu had his own view: “For Wristcheck, 85 per cent of our customers are under the age of 30. A lot of the time, when they are buying a watch with us, it’s their first one. They want an offline, holistic experience. When you’re buying something this expensive, you want a glass of champagne, you want to see, touch and wear the watch to make sure you are making the right decision,” he said, suggesting that online purchases are usually made by repeat customers and not first-time buyers. The rise in young collectors is something Perrazzi has taken notice of too.
“We now have a younger generation of collectors who want to participate in auctions. They want to learn and understand,” he said.
Other topics included the acceptance of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrency as a mode of payment and the future of watch fairs. Though each member of the panel agreed that the previous size and scale of fairs is not sustainable in the current climate, the idea of cancelling them altogether was off the table. “To be surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands, of like-minded people that love watches just as much as you is incredible,” said Chu. “It’s not something that anything online could ever replace. But that’s the beauty of watch collecting: opinions differ. It’s a matter of personal taste and there is no right or wrong answer.”
See also: Tatler House Stories: Experts Weigh In On The Future Of Lab-Grown Diamonds