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Your weekly read on the consumer side of luxury, the watches, jewelry and handbags people actually buy, wear and collect. This week: Watches of Switzerland quietly retreats from its £3 billion sales ambition, a sign the boom has cooled, even as the very top keeps firing, from Christie's Paris jewels to a footballer's wall of Birkins. Plus a run of new watches that says small is back.
Good morning. It's Wednesday, July 1. I'm Sharon, and this is Luxury Spending from ALT/FNDATA, our weekly look at the consumer side of the luxury market, the watches, the jewelry, and the handbags that people actually buy, wear, and collect.
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This week: the biggest luxury watch retailer quietly retreats from its growth ambitions, a sign the boom has cooled; yet the very top keeps firing, from Christie's Paris jewels to a footballer's wall of Birkins; and a run of new watches that says small is back.
We begin with a telling admission from the sharp end of the watch trade. Watches of Switzerland, the largest watch retailer in Britain and one of the biggest sellers of Rolex in the world, is quietly shelving its most ambitious goal. Back in 2023, when it laid out a long-range plan for investors, the group promised to more than double its revenue, from about 1.5 billion pounds to over 3 billion pounds by 2028. This week, Bloomberg reported that the target is being dropped, because the luxury watch market has deteriorated since that forecast was made. The company will now give investors fewer hard, time-bound numbers when it reports later this month.
It is a small corporate climb-down, but a revealing one. When the retailer that sells the watches everyone claims to want stops promising growth, it tells you something real about the everyday end of this market. The shops, the waiting lists, the aspirational buyer stretching for a first nice watch: that is where the heat has come out.
And yet, at the very top, the picture could not look more different. Only last week, Christie's closed its Paris season with a jewelry sale that doubled its estimate. Collectible watches remain white-hot. The French football legend Zinédine Zidane is offering his first ever Cartier to a charity auction, exactly the kind of provenance that sends estimates flying. And in handbags, the trophy market has a new poster child. Robb Report went inside the collection of the footballer Erling Haaland, whose stash of rare Birkins runs to a scale most collectors only dream of.
So here is the split this show keeps returning to, sharper than ever. The mass market cools while the trophy market roars. The retailer trims its targets in the very same week the auction room breaks records. The average buyer is pulling back. The collector at the top is not.
A few notes from the workshops, where the mood is quieter but far from idle. Jaeger-LeCoultre has shrunk its Polaris to a 40 millimeter case, the latest sign that the years-long march toward ever-larger watches has reversed, and that smaller is firmly back in style. Rolex deepened its seventy-year partnership with National Geographic, reopening a transformed base camp exhibit. Blue Nile leaned into colored stones with a new Montana sapphire collection. And in London, London Watch Week wrapped a strong second edition, a reminder that even as the big retail chains retrench, the enthusiast heart of this hobby is thriving.
The industry also set its calendar. Watches and Wonders, the biggest date in the watch year, confirmed its 2027 dates in Geneva. The business of selling watches may be cooling. The passion for them is not.
That's Luxury Spending for Wednesday, July 1.
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I'm Sharon, from ALT/FNDATA. Closing Price is this evening, and Auto Market is out tomorrow. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a five-star rating.
