More Women are Buying Their Own Luxury Watches
Is the old stereotype of the wealthy “sugar daddy” buying expensive watches and other jewelry for his ladylove a relic of the past? Not totally, but statistics show that more of today’s women are treating themselves to pricey pieces of jewelry—just because they can.
A survey by Mintel revealed that more than half of the 2,000 women surveyed admitted to buying fine jewelry for themselves. These buyers tended to be well-heeled professionals over the age of 45 who purchased baubles to celebrate an occasion like a divorce or promotion. These women have an average disposable income of around $90,000 and don’t mind spending it on themselves. Surprisingly, some are buying at auction which has for decades been the province of the male customer. In fact, Bonhams auction house has reported that at its most recent sales of jewelry in London, female buyers were responsible for half of the purchases.
Bonhams predicts that in 2015 a third of its jewelry buyers in the US will be female and over 40% in Hong Kong. Jean Ghika of Bonhams jewelry team in Europe explained, “More people see auctions as a good way to buy vintage, one-off jewelry and we’ve seen a big increase in female buyers who are buying jewelry for themselves. These are career women who have successful jobs, who have their own money and are happy to choose their own jewelry with it – sometimes they are spending their bonus on a tangible asset, sometimes they are just treating themselves.”
These facts and figure should be of interest to the makers of luxury watches and other types of fine jewelry. Maybe their target audience should be the independent career woman rather than the old fashioned gold digger who thinks “diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”
