The next sports frontier that luxury watch brands have in their sights

Swiss watch brands are obsessed with sport. Omega provides the timing for the Olympics. Rolex sponsors grand slam tennis, while TAG Heuer became the Formula 1 timekeeper in January as part of a 10-year deal reportedly worth $US1 billion. Even niche sports command serious interest: Mido is the partner of the world cliff-diving championships, while Certina is involved in the racquet sport, padel.

Cricket has traditionally proved less popular. The reason why is that unless you hail from a country where the sport is the soundtrack to summer, cricket is as bamboozling as a Shane Warne flipper. Yet plucky brands are finally starting to pad up.

Hublot had a brief dalliance with the game, but Rado is now leading the run chase, sponsoring the England cricket team and, blind to any apparent conflict of interest, the Australian all-rounder, Cameron Green.

“Before, cricket was not a sport that I had on the radar,” concedes Rado CEO Adrian Bosshard. Despite finding it largely unfathomable, he believes cricket can help drive brand awareness in England and Australia.

Yet the real drawcard, he admits, is the most cricket-mad nation of them all. “India,” he says, “is a growing economy where people have more and more access to luxury consumer goods.”

Bosshard’s sentiment is backed by data from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry that showed exports to India grew 25 per cent year-on-year, making it the sector’s fastest growing market. Meanwhile, a report by McKinsey and The Business of Fashion showed the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (assets of $US30 million-plus) is spiking.

By 2027, India could boast 100 million “luxury” consumers. That translates to a lot of potential watch-buyers deeply familiar with the sound of willow on leather. Don’t be surprised if more big-hitting brands start to circle a sport whose appeal could soar way beyond the boundary rope.

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