6 ★ FT Special^ Report 9 November/10 November 2019Watches&Jewellery
Watch shows such as Baselworld and Geneva’s Watches and
Wonders (formerly known as SIHH) are traditionally
places where business deals are done and hustling is
the order of the day. But the organisers of Dubai
Watch Week insist that uch goings-ons will be
limited at their event later this month — this,
they say, is a gatheringthat is more about
bringing watch lovers together than shifting
product.
The event receives government support rom thef
culture and tourism department and the Dubai
International Finance Centre, but the Seddiqis bear the
brunt of the undisclosed cost of putting it on, even paying the
travel and accommodation expenses of invited speakers, VIP visitors and
members of the press.
Some of this outlay is clawed back by charging brands a fee to participate —
ranging from $6,000 for the smallest, four square metre space, to $89,000 for 32
sq m — but ccording to marketing director Melika Yazdjerdi: “Even with thata
money coming in from the exhibitors, we only recover around 20 per cent of the
cost of putting it on,” says Ms Yazdjerdi.
“We don’t charge an admission fee to the public and, if we invite a watchmaker
or other industry figure to speak, we fly them here business class and put them
up in a five-star hotel.”
Originally intended as a one-off networking event, the success of the first
edition in 2015 saw it become an annual one until 2017 when, largely due tocosts,
the show went biennial.
Last year organisers held a smaller-scale panel discussion in London, the
International Horology Forum, in conjunction with Christie’s
auction house.
“The Seddiqi family is very passionate about the
industry and extremely willing to invest its money
in order to raise the profile of watchmaking — but
it was simply not financially feasible for them to
fund it every year,” she says.
“Staging it biennially also gives us the chance
to evolve the programme according to market
needs,” adds Ms Yazdjerdi, who describes Dubai
Watch Week as “a neutral platform that’s open to
everyone in the watch industry”.
Although only 10 brands participated in the inaugural
event, 40 will take part this year — including the vaunted Rolex, a newcomer to
the show for 2019, and Chopard, which will dedicate its exhibition space to its new
Alpine Eagle range.
Ms Yazdjerdi acknowledges that there is a spike in Dubai’s watch sales for two
or three months after the show, yet she insists that it is not designed to be a
commercial event. “We’re not looking for profit, but we do want to spread
knowledge, help to preserve watch making culture and heritage and bring
together collectors, enthusiasts and some of the best people in the business — it
must be the only show in the world where a visitor can walk up to an industry
icon and get to speak to them without an appointment.”
Leading names due to speak this year include Jean-Claude Biver, the non-
executive head of the LVMH watch division, Christie’s managing director Aline
Sylla-Walbaum, famed independent watchmaker Philippe Dufour and the chief
executive of pre-owned sales platform WatchBox Danny Govberg (pictured
above with Mohammed Seddiqi, chief commercial officer
at Seddiqi).
Other topics on the agenda will cover how to get
on to the waiting lists for currently difficult-to-
obtain watches, such as coveted versions of the
Rolex Cosmograph Daytona and Patek Philippe
Nautilus, andhow women in senior roles exercise
their power, both as leaders and consumers.
Dubai Watch Week runs from November 20-24
and will be open daily from 10am-10pm. Admission
to the public is free. Simon de BurtonDubai Watch Week‘A neutral platform
open to everyone in the watch industry’
W
hen US rapper Pusha T
decided to change the
name of his album last
year, he took to Twitter.
The previous choice of
title, King Push, did not reflect the over-
all message of the body of work, he told
his social media followers. Instead, the
artist named the album after his favour-
itewatch:theDaytona,byRolex.
“Daytonarepresents the fact that I
have the luxury of time,” hetweeted ni
May. The rapperexplained in inter-
views hat he was referring to thet
amount of timehe had to make the
album. It was a luxury not enjoyed by
other artists who arepressured to
releasesingleaftersingle,hesaid.
Pusha T’s use of the watch name in his
album title to suggest careful craftman-
ship,aswellasprohibitivewealth,isjust
one example of the enduring relation-
shipbetweenhip-hopandhorology.
Rap is a bridge that links luxury
watches with popular culture: Daytona
was named the third-best rap album of
2018byRollingStone.
But watchmakers often have little or
no control over such associations, say
brand experts. Markus Kramer, a man-
aging partner at Brand Affairs, a public
relations consultancy, says associations
withagivenartistcanbeaccidental.
“What people don’t understand is
that luxury brands often do not choose
their ambassadors,” says Mr Kramer.
Rather it is the rapper that chooses the
watch. “The more aspirational [a
brand] you are, the harder this dynamic
becomestocontrol.”
The luxury sector has not alwayswel-
comed associations with hip-hop. In
2006, champagne brand Cristal suf-
fered a backlash after an executive at its
parent company was was quoted in an
interview beingless than enthusiasticabout its popularity among rap artists.
Since then, however, endorsements or
collaborations with rappers have
become common as luxury brands try
toforgetieswithyoungeraudiences.
Mainstream brands will associate
themselves with celebrities in an
attempt to pull relevance from them,
Mr Kramer says, while luxury brands
aretheretobechosen.
But the association also comes with
risk, which he says depends on a given
brand’sattributes, the hip-hop artist in
questionandthefitwiththebrand’star-
getaudience.More broadly, consumer brands have
long been intertwined with popular cul-
ture, says Rebecca Robins, global chief
learning and culture officer at Inter-
brand,aconsultancy.
“They are part of our cultural narra-
tive,” she says, pointing to Manet’s 1882
painting“ABarattheFolies-Bergère”.In
front of the barmaid are beer bottles
bearing the red triangle of English beer
brand Bass Pale Ale, the UK’s oldest reg-
isteredtrademark.
Luxury brands have become more
collaborative in recent years, says Ms
Robins, ashaute couturemixes withstreet culture. “The result is that it has
openedupnewlevelsofaccesstoluxury
brands and conversations that are more
inclusivethanexclusive,”shesays.
The luxury watch has long been a
motif within hip-hop. There is the obvi-
ous: itsuggests wealth and success.
“New watch alert — Hublots,” rapped
Jay Z on his triumphant rags-to-riches
anthem “Otis”, a collaboration with
Kanye West released in 2011. “Or the
big-faceRollie:I’vegottwoofthose.”
Onhis2013song“WhoIAm”,PushaT
shares an image of breaking open a wad
of cash in the same breath as wantinganother watch: “I just want to buy
another Rollie/I just want to pop
anotherband.”
With this love affair, however, fancies
come and go. Last August, music web-
site Pitchfork reported hat Rolex hadt
been replaced by Swiss rival Patek
Philippe as the go-to timepiece for
today’srapperstoname-check.
Patek had reached “near-complete
cultural saturation”, it said, when refer-
enced by Beyoncé on The Carters’
albumEverything Is Love.
Aside from accepting the free public-
ity, some watchmakers have sought to
capitalise on this relationship via deals
with artists. In 2013, Jay Z announced a
new watch in partnership with Hublot,
two years after name-checking the
watchmakeron“Otis”.
The same year, one of rap’s biggest
names, Eminem, worked with Casio on
a 30th anniversary edition of its
G-Shock watch. Casio said het
GDX6900MNM-1 paid “homage to
Eminem’s rise from one of the world’s
most rugged urban terrains — the
streets of downtown Detroit”. The city
skyline was traced in red on the wrist-
band.
Horological metaphors abound
within the genre. Since Grandmaster
Flash in the 1980s, rappers have made
cleartheyknow“whattimeitis”.
Public Enemy politicised this motif in
one of its songs, and the band’s Flavor
Flav took to wearing a huge clock
around his neck in an iconic piece of
showmanship — the rapper told Vanity
Fair in 2011 that he ownedmore than
100clocks.
In a wider sense, watches represent
the relentlessness of the beat. As Drake
rapped on his song “Nonstop” last year:
“This a Rollie not a stopwatch/shit don’t
ever stop.” Neither, it seems, does rap-
pers’ preoccupation with high-end
timepieces.Street smart: hip-hop and horology’s enduring tie
CultureRappers revere
watches as symbols of
wealth. What does that
mean for brands?
ByIan Smith
A growing appetite for second-
hand watches is prompting big changes
in theindustry’s approach to sales and
distribution.
At group level, Swiss luxury goods
company Richemont acquired Watch-
finder, an online and physical retailer of
pre-owned watches, in June 2018. Rich-
emont, which owns Cartier, Jaeger-Le-
Coultre,PaneraiandVacheronConstan-
tin, now also offers clientspart-ex-
changeopportunities.
At brand level, watchmaker Aude-
mars Piguet hasstarted offering pre-
ownedpieces.Andinretail,Swissmulti-
brand watch-seller Bucherer launched
its “certified pre-owned”, or CPO, con-
cept in September, with a dedicated
floor at its Geneva boutique.It plans
similar spaces in Hamburg and Zurich
before the end of the year and a new
LondonsiteinCoventGardennextyear.
Yet the latest big move in CPO comes
not from Switzerland’s powerhouses,
buttheMiddleEast.
Dubai retailer Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons
and US resale platform WatchBox last
week announced a joint venturein the
region that will sell pre-owned watches
fromthisautumn.
The companies have invested more
than $10m to bring the WatchBox Mid-
dle East concept to life, with Seddiqi
playing a significant organisational role.
The 1,721 sq ftstandalone flagship store
is located in the Dubai International
Financial Centre. Next year, WatchBox
shop-in-shops will open in some of
AhmedSeddiqi&Sons’stores.
Danny Govberg,WatchBox chief
executive and co-founder, owns a 103-
year-old eponymous family jeweller in
Philadelphia.He says the idea for
WatchBox came about because more of
his customers ere looking to refreshw
their watch collections. “So I offered the
customer the opportunity to buy, sell or
trade.”
In 2015 he launched an app, stream-
ing horological news and giving owners
the chance to buy sell and trade. Watch-
Boxfollowedin2017.
The experience of buying pre-owned,
he believes, should be as close as possi-ble to buying a new watch. This should
include the inspecting, servicing, fitting
a new strap and a 24-month warranty,
he says. “Owning the product, we con-
trol the entire customer experience. We
have a financial investor, we are work-
ing with a $100m-$120m capital base,
and we turn our inventory three times
[ayear].”
WatchBox owns the watches that it
sells and it is now sitting on inventoryworth $80m, Mr Govberg says, of which
$5m-$8m worth (350-550 watches) will
be availableatWatchBoxMiddleEast.
WatchBox has grown rapidly. Ithas
more than 200 employees, withoutlets
worldwide. It was Patrik Hoffmann,
head of the European division and
former chief executive at watchmaker
Ulysse Nardin, who suggested that Mr
Govberg meet the Seddiqis. Little more
than a year on, the two family busi-
nesses are opening their first shop— the
speed of the deal signalling the impor-
tanceoftheCPOmarket.
“The luxury pre-owned market and
specifically the watch category is a fast-
growing segment in the Middle East,”
says Amanda Ellison, president andDubai retailer pairs with US platform
to target second-hand watch market
RetailSeddiqi and
WatchBox bet on
UAE’s position as
east-west entrepôt,
writesNicholas Foulkes
Above: the joint
venture’s Dubai
store. Left: a
selection of
WatchBox pieces
Katerina ThanouMain image: Pusha T performing
onstage in April. Top right: Public
Enemy’s Flavor Flav in 1989. Bottom
right: Beyoncé and Jay Z at the 2018
Grammy Awards
Getty/Michael Ochs ArchiveThe luxury pre-owned
market for watches is a
fast-growing segment inthe Middle East
‘It has opened up new levels
of access to luxury brands
and conversations that aremore inclusive than
exclusive’chief operating officer of WatchBox.
“We see a tremendous opportunity to
not only service the needs of existing
watch enthusiasts in the region but also
engage with a large and affluent Gen Z
and millennial population — a group
focused on resale values, quality and
sustainability.”
Aswellasdemographics,Mohammed
Seddiqi, chief commercial officer of the
familybusiness,whichhas50monoand
multibrand retail locations across the
UAE, indicates that the market is reach-
inganewlevelofmaturity.
Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons is older than
the UAE itself — it celebrates its 70th
anniversary next year — but Mr Seddiqi
says: “The big boom came in 2005- 06
when people appreciated watches for
more than being jewelled pieces. The
idea of doing a second-hand business
has been floating around since then and
when my uncle met Danny Govberg we
decidedtoworktogether.”
The growth in Swiss watch exports,
which have doubled to SFr20bn
($20.3bn) since 2000, has made it a
“necessity” for established names to
enter the second-hand market, says
Jean-Claude Biver, chief executive at
TAGHeuer.
“If you enter the market with a
trusted name.. .with total authentic-
ity and transparency, then the second-
hand market could fly and become a
hugebusiness,”hesays.
While there will be an online compo-
nent to the WatchBox-Seddiqi joint ven-
ture, bricks and mortar is central to
theirvision.
“In the Middle East people still prefer
to go to shops,” Mr Seddiqi says.Dubai
also boasts the world’s largest Rolex
store, which the Seddiqi family opened
lastyear.
Beyond local consumers there is a
large expat community and a great deal
of business from tourists, ays Mr Sed-s
diqi. As an international entrepôt,
“Dubai is a famous transit point of the
grey market between Europe and the
Far East,” he adds. The launch acts as a
curtainraiser for Dubai Watch Week,
Seddiqi’s regional consumer fair, which
startsonNovember20(seebox).
The partnership with WatchBox will,
he hopes, bring a greater degree of
transparency to the market. “It will be
somewhere people can sell unwanted
gifts as well as second-hand pieces and
we will make sure they are authentic
and not stolen. Plus we will offer a 24-
month warranty so all of these things
willaddvaluefortheconsumer.”NOVEMBER 9 2019 Section:Reports Time: 11/20196/ - 17:54 User: maxine.kelly Page Name:WJW6, Part,Page,Edition:WJW , 6, 1