Editor’s Note
While luxury watch brands have made strides in digital engagement, a new report highlights a persistent gap in their online sophistication compared to other luxury sectors. This analysis explores the current landscape.
[Economic Review=Reporter Kim Su-jin] There is good news and bad news. The good news is that luxury watch brands have recently become more familiar with digitalization over the past 1-2 years by launching online sales and actively engaging in SNS communication. The bad news is that luxury watch & jewelry brands still lag behind other luxury industries in terms of digital sophistication. Business intelligence provider L2 released the ‘Digital IQ Index: Watches & Jewelry 2018 Report’. L2, which annually researches the Digital IQ Index across various industries, analyzed the digital performance of a total of 70 watch & jewelry brands over the past year.
According to the report, the watch & jewelry brand most friendly with digital this year is Tiffany, with Cartier closely following behind. Rolex, the most popular watch brand, remained in the mid-tier, while Patek Philippe, the king of watches, stayed in the lower tier. L2 selected the rankings based on each brand’s e-commerce, digital marketing, SNS, and mobile performance, and classified them into five groups according to the evaluation results: genius, gifted, average, challenged, and feeble.
The only watch & jewelry brands to receive the genius rating were Tiffany and Cartier. A significant number of brands were included in the gifted group: Bulgari, Tag Heuer, Longines, Montblanc, Van Cleef & Arpels, IWC, Omega, Tissot, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, and Piaget. The average grade contained the most brands, with Breitling, Chopard, Rolex, Hamilton, Baume & Mercier, Wyler, Rado, Oris, Zenith, Audemars Piguet, Citizen, and Vacheron Constantin showing average-level digital IQ. Many brands remained in the lower tiers. Raymond Weil, Bell & Ross, Chaumet, Boucheron, Patek Philippe, Tudor, Blancpain, Roger Dubuis, Frederique Constant, and Breguet only reached the challenged grade, while Ulysse Nardin, Richard Mille, Glashütte Original, Girard-Perregaux, and A. Lange & Söhne were judged to have a feeble Digital IQ Index.
Overall, brands belonging to large groups showed higher rankings than independent watch brands. The Richemont Group, which includes Cartier, and the LVMH Group, which includes Bulgari and Tag Heuer, ranked in the top tier, followed by the Swatch Group, the parent company of Omega, Tissot, and Hamilton. Citizen Holdings, which acquired Frederique Constant in 2016, and Rolex Holdings, which owns Rolex and Tudor, positioned themselves in the mid-tier. An impressive point is the Kering Group, which showed weakness in the digital capabilities of its watch & jewelry brands relative to its size. Among Kering Group brands, Boucheron and Pomellato received the challenged grade, while Ulysse Nardin, Girard-Perregaux, and JeanRichard received the feeble grade. This is an ironic result considering that Gucci, a luxury fashion brand under the same group, ranked first with a genius grade in L2’s luxury fashion Digital IQ Index survey last year.