Farfetch launches hubs for luxe watches and jewellery

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 8, 2018

As fine jewellery and luxury watches prove to be among the strongest selling product areas on high-end websites, Farfetch on Tuesday unveiled its own launch into the ‘hard luxury’ sector.

It has launched dedicated hubs and linked up with major brands including watch specialists Bell & Ross, Girard-Perregaux, Tag Heuer, Ulysse Nardin, and Zenith, and jewellery names Chopard, David Yurman, De Beers, Pomellato, and Tiffany, who have signed up to the luxury marketplace for the first time. Some of them will be offering exclusives.

Farfetch Chief Commercial & Sustainability Officer Giorgio Belloli said that the move is a natural extension of the company’s current luxury fashion offer.

The e-tailer also aims to offer “new and hard-to-find items that are beautifully crafted” with this new development.

It's an unsurprising move for the expanding business with Farfetch’s rivals in the luxury space having found fine jewellery and watches to be a sales goldmine. In the Holiday season late last year, Net-a-Porter reported selling its highest-priced item yet, a diamond bracelet at £38,000, and also said that on Black Friday weekend it sold a £20,000 ear cuff. And the launch of fine jewellery collections particularly boosted its hard luxury sales in the US.

As well as helping to develop the overall Farfetch offer with a stronger presence in the ultra-luxury segment, the move also exposes some of the brands currently signed up to new geographies for the first time, given that the items will be available on its five sites in almost 150 countries.

And the company is backing the debut with a new campaign that it said aims to “breathe playfulness into the category.”

The launch of the hubs come at a busy time for the online retailer, which has already this month unveiled its dedicated Arabic website.