Jamaal Rajan conceptualised the luxury watch boutique Time Avenue, 20 years ago, with on e idea in mind – to provide a retail platform to the thriving horological community in India. Today, two decades later, his son Viraal Rajan, director, Time Avenue, has managed to successfully fill his father’s shoes and carry forward the dream.
Born into the watch business, Viraal is passionate about music and machines, and expresses his familial love for the world of watches through his work. “With the market changing and growing, we’re looking at experimenting with more strategies to engage with the customers on a personal and experiential level,” he says. “I’m proud to announce that Time Avenue will be opening two new boutiques with Franck Muller and Panerai in Palladium mall around the end of March 2018”. With 22 brands under its belt, the Mumbai-based boutique will also be expanding its standalone Bandra boutique with another boutique on the same street. “The new store in Bandra will be ready by September-October. We’re not going to wait for the customers any more, we’re going to make them come to us,” says Viraal. With the revision of the GST rate from 28 to 18 per cent, things seem to be looking up for the watch market in India. “This drop has led to extreme competitive pricing in the overall industry. We’ll probably grow as much as we have in the last 20 years, within the next two years, because of this change,” says Viraal. “I think India still has the potential to grow in terms of visual merchandising. There is till a 25 to 30 per cent gap between us and the retail stores of the world, and I want to focus on bringing the right luxury experience to the market by renovating and increasing our stores.”
Time Avenue has an exciting 2018 in store; it will celebrate its 20 anniversary on February 1. “We’re looking at digital marketing, social media, in-house events, influencer associations etc,” says Viraal. They also hope to reintroduce TAHH— Time Avenue Haute Horlogerie luxury watch exhibition—in 2018.
