Who’s Buying A Rs 10 Lakh Watch In India?
11 July 2025 6:20 AM IST
There was a time when people needed watches, to check the time of course. But now, our phones, laptops and even fridges can tell us that. Still, the watch market, particularly the luxury watch market, is growing in India.
According to Market Brew, between January to May 2025, exports of Swiss watches to India grew to Rs 1,100 crore – that’s a yearly growth of 10%. Even in 2024, this sector performed quite well – Swiss watch exports to India were worth Rs 2,600 crore.
In the latest episode of The Signal Daily, we’ll learn about who’s buying luxury watches in India, and why? Some buyers also see luxury watches as an investment that will give them returns. How does that work?
The Core produces The Signal Daily. At The Signal Daily, we don’t do hot takes, instead we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends.
To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in. Thank you for listening!
The Core produces The Signal Daily. Find us wherever you get your favourite podcasts. To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in
NOTE: A machine transcribed this episode. A human has looked at this text but there might still be errors. Please refer to the audio above, if you need to clarify something. If you want to give us feedback, please write to us at [email protected].
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TRANSCRIPT
Kudrat (Host): I remember the first, and only, watch I’ve ever bought – it was a 1,000-rupee rainbow-themed Swatch watch. This was at least a decade and a half ago, and at the time, it definitely felt like a fancy purchase. I remember walking into school and showing off my wrist to my friends – who were in awe of how cute the little timepiece was.
Now, I’ve not owned a wristwatch since I was 13. Honestly, no one really needs watches now. Today, our phones, laptops, and even our fridges can tell us what time it is. And yet, watch sales, particularly luxury watch sales – so that’s watches that cost above 10 lakh rupees, are booming in India.
Between January - May 2025, exports of Swiss watches to India grew to 1,100 crore rupees – that’s a yearly growth of 10%, according to Market Brew. Swiss watch export data is a solid marker for luxury watches, as a lot of luxury watch brands like Rolex, Patek Philippe, Omega, Audemars Piguet, and Cartier are from Switzerland. Even in 2024, this sector performed quite well – Swiss watch exports to India were worth 2,600 crore rupees that year. In fact, this segment actually showed an even higher growth rate, of 25.2% in 2024, making India the fastest growing market for Swiss watches.
In the latest episode of The Signal Daily, we’ll learn about who’s buying these 10 lakh rupee watches in India. In India, the per capita income is 2 lakh rupees, meaning these watches are way out of reach for most Indians. How do watch buyers and collectors justify their purchase? Some buyers also see luxury watches as an investment that will give them returns. How does that work?
Kudrat (Host): I’m your host Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Daily. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends.
In this episode, we’ll learn about the consumer side of India’s luxury watch market. Who’s buying 10 lakh rupee watches and why? Are luxury watches a solid investment? And how can you go about buying and later selling or trading a luxury watch?
Kudrat (Host): When we didn’t have the modern gadgets that we do now, people bought watches to check the time. They’d also buy them to commemorate a special occasion, such as a birthday or a promotion at their workplace.
But now, watches are primarily for those who are passionate. No one needs a watch, since pretty much every device today can tell the time. Of course, not every buyer is a dedicated collector. There are those who buy watches casually. These are mostly men, since watches can be a fashion statement. They’re also basically the only accessory that men can wear without getting judgemental looks.
Among those who regularly buy and possess collections of luxury watches – also mostly men, according to experts The Signal Daily interviewed – there’s two kinds of watch collectors: those whose parents were already into the hobby, and those who got into it themselves. And, the people who belong to the latter category almost always have a unique story to tell about how they first got into collecting watches.
Karan Madan: I am, uh, Dr. Karen Madan. Uh, I'm a practicing physician in Delhi. Um, I'm also a watch collector. I started my journey about 12 years back collecting watches
So the first watch was actually, um, at the behest of one of my close friends, and he said, you know, uh, it's a nice watch. It was an HMT and at that time, the, the rumour had started that hmt was shutting down.
I got one.
It cost all, uh, all of it, you know, cost about 1200, 1,200? When I started reading, yeah. Uh, learning about watches, and, you know, about six months later when I had done a deep dive into watches, I think the. Not just the artistic, uh, side of it, that appealed to me, of course, yes. But the, the engineering, the micro engineering, the science behind, uh, watchmaking, uh, absolute, pure watchmaking, the technicalities behind it, that's what appealed to me a lot.
Kudrat (Host): Karan now runs Chronoholic, a watch-collectors community, in addition to his full-time job as a doctor. They have regular online and in-person meetups where watch enthusiasts discuss new trends and trade watches among each other.
Karan’s first watch was an HMT– that’s a state-owned Indian company that’s been around since 1961. For Karan, signalling status wasn’t a big driver for buying his first watch, though that is the case for most first-time buyers.
Here’s Vikram Narula, a corporate guy turned leather watch strap maker, talking about why people buy watches in the 21st century.
Kudrat (Host): Even within watches, there’s several categories – there’s your affordable watches like HMT and Titan. There’s also premium watches, which Vikram says cost under 10 lakhs per watch. Lots of brands come under that watch – Tissot, and even couture fashion brands like Gucci and Armani. And then, there’s the luxury segment, which includes watches that cost over 10 lakh rupees, according to Vikram. But, even under that, there’s generic luxury – like Rolex. And not-so-generic luxury, which only serious watch collectors who actually understand the tech behind watches would buy.
Vikram: the, the most, uh, simple example would be Rolex people who finally understand that you have brands which have much more value, much more history, much more technology involved in the watch. Is when people move on to these higher, uh, end watch brands.
And that's also a statement of people trying to sell that. Now I know what I am and I know what I'm buying.
They know what they're buying. They, they're taking an informed decision. Yeah. Because, uh, somebody who's buying a luxury watch, trust me. He would know much more about the details, the intricacies of that, watch the materials, use the complications, um, and a lot more about the brand rather than, uh, I just take Rolex as a benchmark.
I'm not trying to put it down, or, uh, anything like that. If you, if you take Rolex as a, uh, as the benchmark from where you get into luxury, a buyer of Rolex, trust me, might, there's a very good chance he would hardly know anything about the watch. Since he has the money and he knows, okay, Rolex is going to, is, is a, is a statement that I want to make, he would buy it, he might not even know what is there in the watch or what he, what is the caliber number either.
Why do women buy jewelry? So it's, it's, it's primarily to make a statement.
The way I see it, uh, it's the first and foremost is to make a statement. That one I have reached there.
Kudrat (Host): A new luxury watch buyer generally starts off with a Rolex – that’s to signal status and that he’s “arrived.” If he gets really into watches and learns the science and engineering behind it and becomes a collector, he ventures to even more technically advanced brands like Patek Phillippe, Omega and Berghain, to name a couple.
Now, these watches are absolutely stunning – The Signal Daily visited Second Movement, Ethos watches’s pre-owned luxury store in New Delhi. The store had a large brown sofa smack in the middle and gorgeous, classy coffee table books of watches strewn all over the room. Each watch was in a glass case – there was a silver and green Louis Mognet, which cost 11 lakh rupees, and which had large gold roman numerals engraved on it. There was also a stunning, slender pastel pink stone and diamond Rolex, presumably meant for women. Luxury watches are unique pieces of art and engineering and I can understand why someone would fall in love with them, if they could afford this hobby, of course.
The Signal Daily also spoke to Satyendra Singh, an investment banker, who told us about his journey into becoming a watch collector. He said he sees himself more as someone who likes to experience watches rather than hold on to them, so he’s constantly buying and exchanging his watches – more on that later.
Satyendra said his first watch was a Tissot, which he bought 20 years ago. His second one was an Omega.
Satyendra: I decided to. Give myself an omega, and omega is something that sets you apart within the watch collector circles, right? So you go from suddenly, you're not a starter anymore, you're not into what you call premium watches.
after buying the Omega and people saw that on my wrist, I think at that moment everybody realized that, yeah, I mean this guy has a serious watch buyer.
Kudrat: After buying his first two watches, Satyendra paused for some time. Then, three years later, he made another big purchase. And so he continued for many years after that.
Satyendra: And then came the defining moment, uh, which is basically the COVID episode.
So that COVID changed the entire dynamics of how watch buyers approach this hobby. I bought a total of 15 watches. I. From various sources, uh, this would be from pre-owned sites like Ethos, uh, seconds that they run.
we are part of like two, three prominent watch groups, which probably cover the entire watch community in the country, which totals up to almost 2,500 odd people. And, you know, between these members also, there were a lot of exchanges.
So I ended up with buying some 15 watches, selling another eight watches over the next two years.
And then eventually ended up with 10 or 12 pieces. And now that 10 or 12 pieces steam seems to keep, uh, uh, changing. So it, it's like almost every year you would find three new pieces and, you know, three pieces which have moved out.
So now the collection has, uh, relics, it has omega, it has et moer, uh, zenit.
What else do we have? We have hire, there is, uh, IWC, there are, there are two GLCs, which is JaLako and so on. So, uh, and Breitling obviously.
Kudrat (Host): COVID was when the global watch industry saw a huge boom. Since people were stuck at home, they weren’t going on vacations, or buying cars. So, people started buying and exchanging watches instead.
At the time, two brands saw their prices skyrocket – Rolex and Patek Phillipe. In particular, Rolex’s stainless steel models really took off. One reason for that was scarcity of the product – manufacturers couldn’t make watches because of social distancing rules. Demand exceeded supply, which boosted the prices of these watches.
That was also when people started seeing watches as an investment class that would give them returns – that’s a trend that’s continued since. Knight-Frank’s 2024 Wealth report said that luxury watches are a top investment category for India’s ultra-rich, with 17% of their investable wealth allocated to luxury or passion investments. Of these, watches took the cake in how much the ultra-rich spent on them, followed by art and then jewelery.
The ultra-rich love watches, but they already have plenty of other areas to make them bank. Should the rest of us also invest in watches, with the goal of expecting returns? Satyendra Singh, the investment banker we had just heard from, cautioned against it.
Satyendra Singh: I do not see watches as investment, uh, items at all. It is an absolute fallacy, people, especially because I'm in the investment banking field, if you compare the returns that various asset classes have received over the last five years to seven years or 10 years, Watches don't fit anywhere.
You have just Rolex, AP and, uh, Patek and only a few models amongst these, which have increased in value over this time, everything else depreciates.
Yeah, especially because, um, even the, the specific models of those specific brands that became 3, 4, 5, 10, 15 times the value.
That is just a epi episodic thing. It's, it's happened once. Yeah. There is no guarantee it'll happen again.
Second, to pick out to the next set of winners is absolutely impossible given the uncertainty in terms of, uh, emotional sentiment that goes after it. Yeah. Uh, third is, uh, you do not want to waste away your money because there are asset classes which are giving you far better returns.
Yeah. Uh, whether it is the stock market or it is even gold for that matter, it's got far better returns compared to watches.
Kudrat (Host): Satyendra warned against buying watches to make money. Still, let’s say you’ve always wanted to buy a luxury watch, or maybe, after listening to this episode, the horologist inside you has woken up. How would you go about purchasing a luxury watch?
Satyendra: So if you see, most of the Rolexes, which have been bought, uh, are through the gray market dealers and the gray market dealers get their watches from the retailers themselves. Um, there's a lot of, uh, uh, there's a lot of unprofessionalism that goes on in terms of. Lack of transparency with these, uh, dealers because if you go to a Rolex store, they'll tell you they don't have stock, right?
They don't have inventory. They have created an artificial scarcity. Uh, they always have inventory. They always allocated to people who buy multiple watches from them. They pedal smaller watches to the people who come, you know, and then give them the models that they're looking for. So a lot of strategies that these sales guys follow.
What the gray market dealers do is they basically cut through this red tape. They get you the watch, they charge a premium on it, and then you take it from them. you know, the entire thing is there now. Most both my Rolexes came through the gray market.
Kudrat (Host): Some luxury brands like Rolex do have stores in India, or they work with retailers like Kapoor Watch Co. But, as with so many luxury products, you can’t just walk into a store and buy them, even if you had the money to do so. These places are quite picky about who they’d patronize. When a new collection comes out, they go to events where the ultra rich socialize, like polo matches or fashion shows, to show off their products. Here’s Vikram Narula talking about it →
Vikram: So they do it very subtly. Uh, nobody does, uh, hey, come by me.
Uh, it's more of get togethers and road shows and stuff like that where you, uh, come have a look at the collection. Uh.
And people who are buying that always take a very informed decision. Most of them are very well traveled, so they know, okay, fine. This particular one that I'm planning to buy, I am getting it at X price in India.
I'm getting it at XY price in the Middle East or in in Europe or America. So for, for them it's not selling. It's more of a pull strategy that they work on. Okay.
You could have luxury meets where you perhaps going to a some five star or a, a polo event or anything like that. So their subtlety is the game.
Kudrat (Host): If you’re already going to these events, well then you already know about how to obtain these watches. But, for those of us who aren’t, you can get a luxury watch through the “gray market,” as Satyendra talked about.
There’s also several watch collector groups in the country now, like Chronoholic, which Dr. Karan Madan started. There’s also India Watch Collectors and Red Bar India. These groups have a presence on most major social media platforms, like facebook, instagram and whatsapp. You can join these if you already have a plug, or perhaps, by sending them a message that would set you apart – think of it like a job interview.
There’s also an organised player in town now. These are stores that sell pre-owned luxury watches. Among them, Second Movement by Ethos Watches is the biggest player. Second Movement has both an online presence as well as an in-person presence.
There’s a couple things you should keep in mind though, if you do decide to venture into the luxury watch segment.
Satyendra Singh: never exceed your capacity to buy. Always stick within a budget. Within the budget, there is enough and more brands which are available, which can get you the same amount of prestige, same amount of status in the right watch circles. Maybe normal people that you meet on the street won't be able to acknowledge it, but watches like Hamilton are like widely acknowledged as being excellent and extraordinary.
And try and go for pre-owned as much as possible. Because if you want real value for money, uh, you must let go of this attachment to buying new because there is a substantial depreciation in buying a new watch. You lose almost 50% of your money as soon as you watch out.
Walk out of that store right tomorrow if you ever need that money back. Unlike a gold jewelry or a di a diamond jewelry, you cannot just walk into a store and get it monetized.
And by the way, there is always some watches out there, which if your nature propels you towards it, you can actually live with a single watch.
Kudrat (from clip): I’ll be honest, when I started reporting this story, I came into this with some subconscious judgement. I cannot afford a 10 lakh rupee watch, and even if I could, a part of me would always feel like I was wasting money.
But, as I spoke to collectors – a lot of whom, btw, don’t come from the 0.0001% segment of Indian society – it became clear to me that to the aspirational, and upwardly mobile Indian man, buying his first luxury watch means that he has made it. And, as I saw for myself, these luxury watches are truly stunning, so I can empathise with why so many fall in love with this hobby.
Still, as Satyendra warned, if you’re feeling moved to also venture into buying watches, make sure to stay within your budget. Art and good engineering is also available even in HMTs, which a true collector who isn’t chasing status will appreciate. And, if you want to buy luxury and still want value for money, make sure to check out pre-owned watches, which you can find at a store like Second Movement, or even directly through sellers in watch collecting communities like Chronoholic.
These are called single watch collectors. At one point in time you just buy one particular Rolex, let's say a Submariner, which is the most famous of them all, buy a sub, pre-owned. You'll get it for eight. Eight lakhs to nine lakhs.
Maybe you have to wait five years for it. Buy that, use it for another five, 10 years till you outgrow it. If you never outgrow it, you are very lucky. If you outgrow it, then at least you can sell it for a profit and then buy something else.
Kudrat (Host): That’s all for today. You just heard The Signal Daily. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we’ll bring you deep dives into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ on consumer trends.
The Core produces The Signal Daily. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts. To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in.
If you have feedback, we’d love to hear from you. Write to us @[email protected].
Thank you for listening.
