The Tata Group is partnering with Swiss multi-brand retailer TimeVallée to sell a range of their luxury watches in India, expanding its growing portfolio of marquee brands.

TimeVallée, founded in 2014 by the Richemont Group, will offer six luxury brands — Cartier, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Piaget, and Roger Dubuis on Tata's e-commerce marketplace, Tata CLiQ Luxury.

"We strongly believe in the India story and are here for the long run," Michael Guenoun, chief executive officer, TimeVallée told BQ Prime. TimeVallée's online debut, Guenoun said, will be followed up by opening physical stores as well as bringing more brands to the country.

Globally, TimeVallée sells about 30 brands through its 40 outlets spread across China, Korea, Spain, U.S.A., UAE, Qatar and Switzerland.

"India is no longer flirting with luxury. It is becoming a serious market for luxury, and it will only grow," Gitanjali Saxena, chief business officer, Tata CLiQ Luxury, said.

Saxena said that post Covid there have been several high-net-worth individuals, especially from non-metros like Indore, Surat, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, etc., buying luxury products from their platform because they don't have access to retail outlets.

Non-metros contribute 40% to the company's sales, according to Saxena. "That said, in the luxury space, players can’t necessarily achieve scale only through a physical presence," she said.

The retail prices of watches under TimeVallée start at about Rs 87,000 and go as high as Rs 19 lakh, according to Tata CLiQ Luxury website.

The company's target is the top 1% of the customer group, Saxena said. With this partnership, the website's target group will grow to about one million households, she said.

High Growth Potential

The partnership comes as Tata CLiQ Luxury looks to tap into surging demand for western luxury goods. The luxury goods market in India will be worth $7.74 billion in 2023, according to a forecast by Statista.

The luxury watches and jewellery segment is the largest contributor to this with a market volume of $2.24 billion. Last year, the watch distributors in India imported luxury Swiss watches worth Swiss franc 187.6 million, nearly doubling from Swiss franc 97 million in 2020, according to data from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.

The e-commerce sales have high growth potential, yet they are comparatively underdeveloped in the luxury watches segment, implying there is plenty of space for Tata to grow, Statista said.

The market researcher has projected that 8% of total revenue in the luxury goods space will be generated through online sales by 2023.

The Tatas, however, are burning money in e-commerce. Tata Unistore, which owns and operates Tata CLiQ and Tata CLiQ Luxury platforms, saw its net losses more than double to Rs 750 crore in FY22, according to its latest regulatory filings. Its revenue, however, rose 137% to Rs 844 crore, the filings show.

Tata CLiQ started operations in 2016. Recently, it separated the luxury version and has a dedicated app for its luxury brands.