Watch out: the ladies are doing it for themselves

In 2019, as the marketing manager for the BlackBox luxury agency, Irina Ciobanu was trying to generate female interest in new collections.

“There are?a lot of women in the watch industry?and collecting watches, but when I looked at watch clubs, it was men, men, men, men, men. And cigars,” Ciobanu recently told the media on a video interview from her home of Dubai, UAE.

“I was surprised, but I also wasn’t surprised that no one had connected these ladies.”

So, on International Women’s Day, Ciobanu created the Ladies Watch Club on Instagram – which now has about 11,000 followers, plus a website, a weekly e-newsletter, and occasional conferences. It is the first worldwide female club where enthusiasts from around the globe connect over a shared passion for beautiful and expert timepieces.?

While the watchmaking trade has used varied strategies to attract female watch enthusiasts, little consideration has been paid to wooing the younger, prosperous feminine collector.

The world of watches is, undoubtedly, still very much a man’s world. Men buy more watches than women; advertising is about men’s watches – in short, watches for men dominate the horological landscape.

However, women’s tastes and needs in watches are changing and the industry has finally started to pay attention – especially to the increasing number of female watch collectors.

This is an unexpected trend that is slowly spanning the globe – from the Middle East to Eastern Europe, women are forming watch clubs to share their timepieces, network, and just enjoy one another’s company.?

Even despite the pandemic.

“It was the worst time to start a club,” said Karina Kwiatkowska, who founded the?bourgeoning Omega Ladies Club?in Warsaw, Poland in March 2019.

She planned and then had to cancel several in-person events because of Covid restrictions but pivoted to WhatsApp instead – which has proved very successful.

Kwiatkowska inherited her love of horology from her forward-looking mother, who is also a collector.

She commented recently: “What is happening right now within the watch industry, it’s still very technical and guys want to know if you have the knowledge or the reference number, but I don’t think that’s relevant for women. There are women who see beautiful timepieces without a greater interest and that’s creating a new chapter for the watch industry.”

https://www.a-zeventz.com/fashion/from-dubai-to-warsaw-women-are-forming-their-own-watch-clubs.html