ELECTRONICS-based Industronics Bhd will tap into the US$17 bil pre-owned luxury watch market with the official launch of its own luxury watch e-commerce platform, watch-exchanges.com (WatchExchange) through its wholly-owned Hong Kong subsidiary Ecgo International Ltd.
WatchExchange is poised to be the first luxury watch e-commerce platform that issues authenticity certificates for pre-owned luxury watches in Malaysia and Asia Pacific.
Among some of the leading brands profiled include Audemars Piguet, Hublot, Patek Philippe, Tag Heuer, IWC, Omega, Jaeger LeCoultre, Panerai, Rolex, Breitling.
Management consultancy, Bain & Company, has valued the global pre-owned luxury watch market at about US$17 bil in 2018.
However, less than 20% of that market is in the Asia Pacific region, while only 25% of the total pre-owned luxury watch sales were online transactions.
Euromonitor International, an independent strategic market research provider, estimates the value of retail sales of timepieces in Malaysia to grow by some 5% per annum between 2019 and 2022 to reach a market value of up to RM2.5 bil.
“Based on data and overall market performance, it is evident that the pre-owned luxury watch market has promising growth prospects with a potential boom ahead,” commented Industronics’ executive director Datuk Chu Boon Tiong.
“We are excited to capitalise on the growing trend with the launch of WatchExchange and aim to pave the way for a streamlined trading platform that will not only revolutionise the transactions of pre-owned luxury watches but drive further growth in this industry.”
“As we have seen over the last few years, pricing and demand for pre-owned luxury watches have been so strong that even high-end watch brands are moving into the pre-owned market themselves.
As Chu has observed, the biggest challenge for the pre-owned luxury watch market lies in authenticating the watches. As such, Industronics will ensure that shoppers can safely purchase luxury watches on WatchExchange without having to worry about the security and authenticity of the pre-owned luxury watches.
With its team of professional and experienced watch appraisers, the company aims to create a professional, safe trading environment that will elevate the customer experience of purchasing pre-owned luxury watches to a new level.
Industronics will also set up offices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, the US, Canada and Europe where sellers from all over the world could visit for physical appraisals of their watch collections.
For now, the group is looking to set up a fund in Hong Kong to raise a total of RM250 mil from potential investors. Proceeds raised will be utilised to purchase different brands of luxury watches for resale on the group’s platform.
Industronics aims to invest around RM25 mil or 10% of the total funding required together with Hong Kong Cyberport Fund which will invest an equivalent amount as the group or at a 1:1 ratio. The remainder of RM200 mil will be open to other investment groups for investment.
Chu believes that the competitive advantage for WatchExchange lies in the ability of the group to build an entire “unicorn” ecosystem around the region.
“We do not think that the strength of the platform lies solely in the certification and authentication guarantees. We intend to replicate the business models globally via partnerships with a locally listed company in the respective countries,” he pointed out.
“Among the markets that we are looking into are Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China and several emerging markets in Europe as well. Once our ecosystem matures, we will have so much more to offer to our customers, in terms of the variety of brands, models, and other services.”
At the mid-day close, Industronics was up 1.5 sen or 6.82% to 23.5 sen with 8.57 million shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM71 mil. – July 13, 2021
