Sales of luxury timepieces experienced a significant decline in 2020. The category was particularly badly affected by store closures under the state of emergency in April and May and longer-term border closures.
Industry players endeavoured to make the best of the situation and began developing new ways in which to engage with consumers and sustain their interest in luxury timepieces during 2020. For instance, Hublot’s digital boutique, which is available worldwide, also made this platform available in Japan.
Rental watch service Karitoke expanded its service and now offers 2-piece rentals at one time, reflecting customer demand to have two different watches for private/business use or fashion/functional use. Karitoke offers a wide variety of watches from affordable to luxury timepieces including Rolex and Omega.
Despite a strong anticipated recovery in sales in 2021 after a sharp drop in 2020 as consumers release pent-up demand and engage in revenge shopping, luxury timepieces players will need to alter their approaches in order to cater to longer-term changes in demand from both inbound arrivals and domestic consumers in the forecast period.
As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated consumers’ digital shifts and expanded consumers’ activities on devices, this could pose both a threat and an opportunity for manufacturers of luxury timepieces and their implementation of technologies in the coming years. For example, although smartwatches had not seen much momentum in Japan prior to the pandemic, COVID-19 significantly increased consumer preferences for touchless payments in order to keep themselves safe from the virus.
Recovery of luxury timepieces in Japan is expected to take time due to longer-time shifts in lifestyle and working habits. Moreover, the prolonged nature of the global pandemic as well as new variants of the virus could encourage potential inbound tourists to shift to at-home consumption.
Delivery:
Files are delivered directly into your account soon after payment is received and any tax is certification is verified (where applicable).
Understand the latest market trends and future growth opportunities for the Luxury Timepieces industry in Japan with research from Euromonitor International's team of in-country analysts – experts by industry and geographic specialisation.
Key trends are clearly and succinctly summarised alongside the most current research data available. Understand and assess competitive threats and plan corporate strategy with our qualitative analysis, insight and confident growth projections.
If you're in the Luxury Timepieces industry in Japan, our research will help you to make informed, intelligent decisions; to recognise and profit from opportunity, or to offer resilience amidst market uncertainty.
This report originates from Passport, our Luxury Timepieces research and analysis database.
If you purchase a report that is updated in the next 60 days, we will send you the new edition and data extract FREE! Home Page