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Why India’s super-rich are snapping up Rolexes

Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant during their wedding, July 2024 (Credit: Getty images)

Here’s a question: what do crazy rich Indians want more than anything? The answer appears to be luxury watches, and the more the merrier. From January to July of this year, Swiss watch exports to India were up 20 per cent compared with the same period in 2023, and up more than 41 per cent compared with the same period in 2022, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. The growing demand from the super-rich is set to soon make India one of the international watch industry’s top export markets. 

The luxury watch market is very much about the exclusivity and social cachet it brings

India’s economy is booming, and the good times are most definitely here for those who are doing well out of it. In April, the International Monetary Fund projected India’s gross domestic product ‘to remain strong at 6.8 per cent in 2024 and 6.5 per cent in 2025’.

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