What took you so long to launch in India? How do you see the potential of the brand here?

India is a market that has an enormous growth potential for all industries, and the watch industry is no exception. We wish we could have brought the brand to the market long ago, but there were many hurdles. The biggest challenge I would say - that we still face - is the fact that the import duties and taxes on luxury watches remain extremely high in India. From a strict business standpoint, this implies that the profits generated by working in India are greatly eroded, and this financial erosion ends up being detrimental to all the involved parties, including India itself. Basically, whatever monies the brand would normally allocate to brand promotion in a market (advertising, events, sponsorship, etc), are greatly diminished because of the weight of taxes and duties. In other markets, where this is not an issue, we are able to spend rather comfortable budgets that allow us not just to build our brand image, but also inject fresh money into the local economy.

The past one year has been severe for the world economy, particularly so for the luxury category. How has Roger
Dubuis performed across the world in these difficult times?

These past 12 months have indeed been very challenging for everyone, and the luxury industry perhaps has suffered
more than most. Globally, I think that Roger Dubuis has faced the same difficulties as everyone else, but I cannot say more as my own involvement is only in Middle Eastern and Subcontinental markets. And as far as my region goes, the challenge is definitely there, but with the help of our partners and retailers, we manage to face this situation rather well. Qualitative and rare products are always in demand, as there are always people who appreciate such things, no matter what the situation is.

You recently launched the Excalibur collection in India. Tell us more about it.

The Excalibur line is one of the four main collections of Roger Dubuis (the others being KingSquare, GoldenSquare and EasyDiver). The Excalibur is perhaps the most iconic watch by Roger Dubuis, as it is immediately recognisable thanks to its very elegant - yet very bold - design, and more importantly, it is the collection that has been chosen to house every movement that Roger Dubuis has developed over the years. The most sought-after Excalibur watches would be the Excalibur Double Tourbillion -