Luxury retail infrastructure in India is becoming sophisticated: Panerai CEO Jean-Marc Pontroue

Panerai CEO Jean-Marc Pontroue about India’s potential as a luxury watch market, material innovation, and the experiential watch business.

Jean-Marc Pontroue, the CEO of the Italian luxury watch brand Panerai, is wearing a Submersible Elux LAB-ID, which, he thinks, could interest a few buyers in India. The 49mm whopper has a case made of ceramised titanium, a material which, Panerai claims, is 44% lighter than steel but with a fracture toughness ten times higher than traditional ceramic. The $100,000 watch ( ₹83 lakh) lights up on demand by using mechanical energy. “No batteries, of course. Four energy storing barrels engineered to unwind in a microgenerator convert mechanical energy into electricity,” he says.

Jean-Marc Pontroue, the CEO of the Italian luxury watch brand Panerai.

Panerai, which has had a long association with the Italian Navy, was founded in 1860 in Florence. The company now manufactures its mostly big, brawny watches in Switzerland, and is among the brightest stars in luxury goods major Richemont’s stable. Panerais were only made available to civilians as recently as the 1990s, and its first models were the 44mm Luminor and the Luminor Marina.

American actor and filmmaker Sylvester Stallone liked them so much, he not only wore them in his movies, but also evangelised the brand in the US, which continues to be its biggest market.

Since taking over as its head in 2018, Pontroue has doubled down on innovation with new alloys such as esteel, which is made of recycled material; spun off the Submersible line into a standalone collection, and paid a lot more attention to its Radiomir range. This year Panerai, which was ranked 18th among top 20 brands in the Morgan Stanley 2023 watch industry report, will add 45 boutiques across the world. The watchmaker, which earlier this year opened its third and largest boutique in India at the Jio World Plaza in Mumbai, will soon open another one in Bangalore. In this interview with Hindustan Times, Pontroue, who was in Mumbai last week, talks about India’s potential as a luxury watch market, material innovation, and the experiential watch business. Edited excerpts.

Several news reports claim that with China facing a slowdown, luxury brands, including watchmakers, are increasingly looking towards India. Would you agree with that sentiment?

Not really. Each market undergoes its own evolution and I don’t think it works the same way for all brands. Even if China is slowing down, it still remains, along with the US, an important market for luxury watches. And then you have tourism, which further complicates the picture. So, you get Hong Kong, which is slowing down, but Italy, which is doing very well. In that context, India is an important market for Panerai, like many others. We are growing a lot in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Turkey… These are markets where the retail infrastructure has become more sophisticated, like it has in India. Our biggest market is still the US, with Italy and Japan jointly in second place. China is still in the top ten for us. India isn’t, but we are opening another boutique next week to add to the three we already have, and with the kind of development I see in India, it, too, should be on that list soon.

What is your sense of India’s luxury retail infrastructure?

It is growing rapidly, and I’d think that India’s free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association, which will gradually reduce import tariffs on watches, will help. You’ll have a lot more Indians buying luxury watches here. In that sense, India reminds me a lot of Thailand some 15 years ago. Many Thai watch lovers would always make their purchases in Singapore. Now everyone picks up their watches in Thailand, including tourists who visit the country. I expect the same thing to happen in India.

Panerai has been focused on material innovation and sustainability. But how much of a criterion is sustainability when it comes to a watch purchase? If I were to buy a Panerai tomorrow, I’d still be primarily guided by its brawny appeal.

True. A large number of people who enter the Panerai universe don’t necessarily do it because of our emphasis on circularity or sustainability. They are drawn by the Italian heritage, by the sandwich dials, the big crown… But with some people, they eventually move up to our more hi-tech range. Elux is one of the brand’s key pillars along with pushing the envelope when it comes to recyclability for Panerai.

Panerais have reportedly found favour with women, especially the 38mms in the Luminor Due range.

Yes, we have acquired many new customers with the Luminor Due, and many of them are women. In Asia, 25 percent of our customers are female, while across the world, it’s about 15 percent. While we’re glad that some of our watches are loved by women, we remain a very masculine, tough brand.

You were with Roger Dubuis before you joined Panerai. What kind of lessons did you learn leading a bold luxury watch brand?

You learn a lot about the experiential watch business by working with a brand like Roger Dubuis. You don’t have people walking into a boutique and saying, I want to buy a double tourbillon for $250,000. So, you have to, in a way, conceptualise the whole process of customer experience, the ceremony of selling to make it worth their while. I apply a lot of those lessons while designing the Panerai experiences that we offer to customers of our limited edition watches. These are comprehensive itineraries. Over the years we’ve had a North Pole adventure with the great explorer Mike Horn; our guests have trained with the SEALs; and we were working on an exclusive experience with MS Dhoni, who has been a great friend of the brand, before Covid struck.