2016 has been a spectacular year for luxury watch sales in the Manchester area. London has enjoyed a boom this summer thanks to the weak pound sucking in shoppers from China and the US. Manchester is also attracting Chinese buyers, but has been particularly welcoming to Middle Eastern visitors.
The billionaire owners of Manchester City also own Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, and the connection has really put the city on the map for Arab visitors.
An increase in wealthy customers is fuelling demand, but independent retailers like Harrington & Hallworth are also benefiting from a key retailer, Selfridges, closing down its Manchester watch department last year. Mr Harrington says that he always matched the prices of the watches being sold in Selfridges, but the department store was tough to compete with.
“Our wealthy clientele likes to shop in Selfridges. A watch in my shop is the same price as the same watch in Selfridges, but customers using their Selfridges loyalty cards got additional benefits on top. I used to have customers say to me that they bought in Selfridges because of those benefits. But Selfridges in Manchester has closed its watch shop, and we have noticed an upsurge in our business since it closed,” he reveals.
2016 has been a unique year for luxury retailers, with the uncertainty of the EU referendum, the shock of the Brexit vote, the plunging value of the pound, and the convulsions of the major Swiss watch houses adjusting to falling sales in Asia. Harrington & Hallworth has taken the turmoil in its stride.
“We are running about 15% up this year,” Mr Harrington discloses. “I don’t think that the change in the value of the pound matters a jot to 90% of my customers. I don’t think they are aware that watches have gone up by 10% in price. If they are buying a watch for £10,200, they are not going to notice if it goes up to £10,900. It is all relative.”
Those five-figure prices are far from unusual at Harrington & Hallworth’s Wilmslow store, which specialises in limited editions and the most complicated watches from the brands. There is fierce competition among retailers to get their hands on these rare models, and only those boutiques with a proven track record of finding customers for them get a look in.
Harrington & Hallworth’s second store is run by the other man with his name above the door, Alfred Hallworth. Mr Harrington and Mr Hallworth have been a couple for even longer than the 33 years in which they have been business partners.
“Most people in the trade know we are a gay couple. When we were young, we were quite a novelty among all the austere jewellers. We are both consummate retailers. I am always on the shop floor. Alf is even more so than me because he doesn’t have a jeweller’s background; he comes from menswear. We have owned our own business since 1983, so now he knows a bit about jewellery and watches,” Mr Harrington jokes.
That sense of humour, personal touch and passion for retail are all central to the success of Mr Harrington and Mr Hallworth and there is no sign that enthusiasm is dimming, despite them both being in their sixties.
“I’m 62. I should be retiring, but I am opening another shop,” says Mr Harrington. “I am not responsible for anybody. It is just me and Alf and, allegedly, we are quite well-off. Alf sometimes asks why we don’t retire because he won’t retire unless I retire. But I think I have got another spurt in me yet,” he laughs.
