Is Dubai the next global luxury watch hub? Rolex and Cartier are favourites of UAE collectors, who meet on Instagram amid a timepiece retail market that’s booming even during the pandemic

Mar 25 , 2022

The biennial Dubai Watch Week only started in 2015 and has quickly grown into a highly respected and influential event – just one sign of the increasing prominence of the Middle East in the global watch scene. Photo: Handout

The Middle East’s luxury watch market is mostly driven by Dubai, then Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, but with different preferences partly due to Instagram

Despite Covid-19, demand is high and there are waiting lists on watches – everyone wants a Rolex Daytona, Patek Philippe Nautilus or Audemars Piguet Royal Oak

The overall value of Swiss watch exports into the Middle East in 2021 was over US$2.2 billion (2.1 billion Swiss francs), or about 10 per cent of global exports by value, according to FH, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. Close to half of that goes to the UAE, making it the eighth most important single country market. This says a lot about the buying power of the Gulf nation, considering the total population is only eight million people.

The Balancier S2 is a pared-back sports watch that shows the time only. Photo: Greubel Forsey

Other statistics for the Middle East correlate with most other markets in the world: a 50 per cent drop in 2020 thanks to the pandemic followed by a super quick rebound in 2021, up both on 2019, and the previous record year of 2015. Another global phenomenon is that the volume of watches is down, but turnover is up. This is partially attributed to a higher demand for pieces with higher quality and price tags – but also to some brands opportunistically raising prices when demand is at an all-time high.

Hind Seddiqi, chief marketing and communications officer of Dubai’s Seddiqi Holding, distributor of 60 watch brands and thus around 50 per cent of the watch retail market in the UAE, attests to the present Klondike-like rush into the global watch market. “There is a waiting list on pretty much everything apart from some entry-level fashion brands’ creations,” she said.

Is the Ferdinand Berthoud 1.4-3 a collectible piece of the future? Photo: Ferdinand Berthoud

“Dubai is the place to be for the watch industry,” adds Antonio Calce, CEO of watchmakers Greubel Forsey. “Lots of collectors and connoisseurs – this city is an absolute flagship for the region.

“Yes, the official numbers are 10 per cent of the export market, but for many brands the amount is much higher.”

“The hub for high-end independent watchmaking used to be Singapore – but now it is here in Dubai,” says Max Büsser, founder of 17-year-old independent brand MB&F. Büsser moved to Dubai seven years ago, where his refurbished M. A. D Gallery today sits in Dubai Mall, a showroom for MB&F timepieces and kinetic art in a space where sci-fi meets 1950s Scandinavian chic. He says the region absorbed around 17 per cent of his global distribution of 275 timepieces in 2021.

November 2021’s Dubai Watch Week saw regional watch connoisseurs gather for a horology forum where expert panels discussed aspects of watch collecting and even NFTs. Photo: Handout

“It used to be a very different watch market – it was very blingy. Now taste is globalised, sophisticated, thanks very much to Instagram. Everyone wants a [Rolex] Daytona, [Patek Philippe] Nautilus, [Audemars Piguet] Royal Oak in steel, Richard Mille – exactly like in the rest of the world,” says Busser.