In Fine Watchmaking, the Real Competition Is No Longer the Transaction

Gilbert Fang
2 days ago
4 min read

A Number Worth Sitting With

Swiss watch exports totaled CHF 25.5 billion in 2025, down 1.7% — the second consecutive year of decline. But buried in the same reports is the figure almost no one talks about:

Watches priced above CHF 50,000 accounted for just 1.4% of export volume, yet delivered 37% of total export value — and 89% of the industry's growth in 2025. (Morgan Stanley × LuxeConsult Swiss Watcher 2025, as cited by Monochrome Watches)

Over the same period, Rolex Certified Pre-Owned grew to USD 594M, up 204% year over year (industry figures via WatchPro). Watches & Wonders Geneva 2026 brought together 65 brands and nearly 60,000 visitors, up 9% (official / Europa Star).

Taken together, these numbers tell us 2025 wasn't a story of decline. It was a story of K-shaped divergence — and an extreme concentration of the relationship economy: the overwhelming majority of growth came from a tiny group of clients whom brands have cultivated over many years.

Which brings me to the one point this article exists to make:

In fine watchmaking, the real competition is no longer the transaction — it's who can preserve and extend a complete Relationship Memory.

The Nature of Fine Watches: A 5-to-20-Year Relationship, Not a One-Time Sale

The multi-year waitlist for a Patek Philippe Nautilus. Audemars Piguet's purchase-history considerations. The allocation discretion of a Rolex AD (all widely reported across the industry). The allocation model itself says everything: whether you can buy a particular watch depends on the quality of your relationship with the brand — not on the cash in your hand today.

The secondary market tells the same story. Rolex CPO up 204%; AP launching an official certified pre-owned program (JCK / Robb Report, 2023). Brands are reclaiming the relationship that begins after the sale. A single watch may change hands three times across three generations — and every handover is a moment where the relationship restarts.

And that relationship was never just "brand × one client." A collector, their circle, their next generation, their retailer, the six weeks their watch spends back at the manufacture for servicing — it's a web of relationships that extends across decades. The entire job of a private-domain strategy is to make sure that web is remembered.

Three Ways Relationship Memory Breaks

The reality is that brands are losing their relationship memory in three places:

Across markets. In 2025, Swiss watch exports to China fell 12% and Hong Kong 6.5%, while India grew 8.9% and Saudi Arabia 9% (FH, Jan 2026). A collector shops in Hong Kong this year and Tokyo next year — and if the relationship doesn't travel with them, it breaks at the border.
Across channels. WhatsApp, LINE, and WeChat are all talking to the same client, yet no single place holds the full context. One collector gets fragmented into several "different people" living in separate systems.
Across advisors. The sales advisor is the sole carrier of the relationship, but the memory doesn't belong to the brand. When a senior advisor leaves, fifteen years of a collector's preferences, habits, and family details vanish overnight.

What Brands Need Is a Relationship Operating System

For cross-channel conversational infrastructure, mature solutions already exist in the market — they solve the problem of a collector being recognized. But from IMAG's hands-on experience serving fine watch brands, the most common predicament isn't "we lack tools." It's "we can't keep them" — the collector adds the brand, reads the messages, but never interacts, never books, and eventually goes silent.

Being recognized is not the same as being cultivated. What's genuinely scarce is the layer that sits on top of the infrastructure and makes the relationship operable — which is exactly what IMAG's Relationship Operating System is built to answer, through four questions:

How does a collector keep engaging on their own initiative? Through content that genuinely matters to them — watchmaking craft, movement deep-dives, collector interviews, historical reference research — content they choose to browse, save, and share, rather than being pushed at.
How do content, events, bookings, and boutiques connect into one continuous relationship journey? At most brands, the website booking system and the private domain are disconnected: everything a collector viewed and saved, and the reason they booked, all evaporates the moment they reach the booking page. The journey has to be continuous.
Where is this collector in the relationship right now — and what should happen next? Relationships must be readable and tiered, so the brand knows whether this is the moment to send content, extend an invitation, or have the advisor step in.
How does every booking, service visit, saved item, and advisor interaction accumulate into a long-term asset? The details an advisor remembers should be systematically captured — so they survive advisor transitions and carry across generations.

Under this system, IMAG delivers through three modules: a Content Hub (where content engagement and collecting behavior accumulate), an RSVP system (relationship data from events and bookings), and a membership system (identity, tiering, and relationship memory). They aren't three parallel tools — they're three landing surfaces of one and the same Relationship Operating System.

Closing: The Truly Scarce Thing Isn't the Watch

When growth is this concentrated in 1.4% of clients, when secondary-market relationships are returning to the brand's own hands, when collectors move across markets and across generations —the truly scarce thing isn't the watch. It's whether the brand can remember, and extend, every chapter of the relationship.

If your team wants to turn a collector's 5-to-20-year relationship into a brand asset, we'd welcome a conversation — book a consultation with IMAG.

About IMAG

IMAG is a specialist in private-domain strategy and data integration, helping brands build long-term relationships with consumers in owned channels and design complete user journeys — with deep expertise in using data to cultivate brand relationships at every step of the consumer journey. Book a consultation with us.

IMAG Website: www.imag.global

Author: Gilbert Fang, Deputy General Manager, IMAG Marketing