The seller of time – Style – Kommersant

Founded in 2000 as a niche online store, AllTime has become a leading player in the Russian watch and jewelry retail market. In Europe’s largest flagship Moscow store and in 20 stores in the regions, the buyer can choose from more than 20 thousand watches from manufacturers of all price segments: from premium Swiss to affordable Japanese, German and Russian, as well as gold and silver jewelry from more than 100 brands. Vyacheslav Savaneev, founder and owner, tells how an Internet startup has grown into a trading empire in an exclusive interview with Kommersant Style.

— Was the choice of watch retail as a business accidental or conscious for you? What was the impetus?

– Random. While still a student at MEPhI, in 1994 he began working for Belka, the Russian distributor of Casio. Another coincidence happened later. At the end of the institute, my parents gave me an apartment directly opposite the Poljot watch factory on Marksistskaya Street. The plant, by the way, at that time was still producing something. But around it there were already a large number of offices of beginner watch dealers. After that, the chance to do something else was already excluded.

— What have you learned from more than 20 years of entrepreneurship in this area?

“Taught me to learn all my life. Both in the watch industry and at the heart of our business, the Internet, everything is unstable and changeable. In the hour area, we are constantly faced with throwing. For prestigious brands, network sales are evil, dumping and luring customers from physical stores, and they are fighting it with all their might. It turns out that the Internet is a panacea and even entire collections are released for sale only through the network. Then a new one: in connection with the collapse of the market, a showdown begins, which of the retailers works with which brands, and the rights to some brands are again taken away from us. Objectively, these shyness is to our advantage: we begin to exclusively import stamps, replacing the selected ones, and they are sold in a volume exceeding those that have gone.

The story itself, how we came to the current format of work – a powerful Internet resource and the largest retail stores, was the result of the 2008 crisis. A large warehouse began to sell worse exclusively via the Internet, and in 2009 we decided to make a physical showroom not far from the office. The result was a 300 sq. m. Now we have the largest watch store in Europe with a sales area of ​​1200 sq. m. m, and together with the warehouse it exceeds 2 thousand “squares”. There is also a concept boutique for premium brands in the center of Moscow on the Boulevard Ring. And a network of 20 largest stores in the regions. I believe that we are ahead of the times, and now we see that many brands are thinking about this format: a large store instead of a network of small ones with strong online support and retail pumping from the site. This model is due to the fact that the consumer makes more deliberate purchases. Shopping centers are slowly losing traffic, and there are fewer impulse purchases.

— When in these 20 years Russian consumers were most interested in watches, are you ready for experiments?

“The Apple Watch has become a turning point in the price segment in which we operate. The watch business was divided into the period before their appearance and after. Their appearance has become an impetus for brands in the direction of forming a culture of consumption of traditional watches. The brands that continued to “ride” on the name, who believed that there was no call from the smart watch for them, lost a lot. Companies, especially not the first echelon, who perceived the new competitor as a threat and made efforts, on the contrary, added to their popularity.

– If we talk about the time frame for the existence of watch retail not only in Russia, but also in the world as a whole, then how long do you give it? Will this business exist in 10–20 years, or will gadgets (smart watches, fitness bracelets) replace quartz and mechanics, and watches will be sold only in electronics stores?

– Yes, there is a feeling that we are sellers of inkwells when the ballpoint pen has already been invented. But since, according to the apt remark of Stanislav Jerzy Lec, “it is impossible to stop time: the watch industry will not allow this,” I am sure that the market will remain in some format and volume. In the luxury segment, of course, but also in ours. Mechanics – exactly.

— How has the retail business changed over the past year? Have foreign partners changed their attitude towards the Russian market? Were there events in 2022 that confirmed you in the correctness of the chosen business model?

– We approached the current situation as well-trained as possible, I would say – we waited in the wings. Some brands have stopped importing their products to the Russian Federation. The brands we work with have become more in demand than ever. Our supply chains have become more complicated, but not interrupted. The scheme of work is partially rebuilt, and AllTime took a bank loan for the first time in 23 years, but we see that development does not stop.

— You are the first in your market segment to start developing online sales. What is the current ratio of online and physical sales in the AllTime network?

– Formally, we have 95% of online sales. Virtually all customers who came to our retail stores found out about us online (we don’t have a lot of print and other advertising). Over 50% of in-store purchases are booked in advance online at a specific store. If we talk about watches sold remotely with delivery, now they account for less than a quarter of the total. But this is again due to our extensive network of retail stores and the specifics of the product. Customers want physical choice and tactile satisfaction at the moment they try on and buy, not just open the package.

What watch do you wear yourself?

– I don’t wear any. Earlier, when we worked with a limited assortment, I kept interesting models for myself. Upon reaching certain results in business, they began to give me many hours. And it became inconvenient to answer the constant questions of partners: “What kind of watch do you have, why not ours? ..”

– What is the value of the Museum of Time and Clocks, which you sheltered, for you personally? What was the motive: respect for collectors, the desire to promote the business, an understanding of the duty to society? What are the development plans of the museum?

— At the Moscow Watch Expo in the fall of 2021, I met Leonid Evropeytsev (President of the Russian Club of Watch Collectors.— “Kommersant Style”). I was infected by his enthusiasm and passion for the desire to create a museum. I decided to help in any way I could, provided part of my premises. Leonid put his whole soul into the museum, and, according to the reviews of his colleagues, everyone really liked what he did. The realization that with my help Leonid created something socially significant is already a reward for me. Well, the plans are to continue to do good. We want to turn the museum into a club of watchmakers and collectors with the opportunity to sit and chat in a cozy atmosphere at the bar. Start making exhibitions not only of Russian watches, but also of foreign ones. A party for watch geeks that will live its own life, an analogue of a network watch forum, but live – that’s what I would like. But here the main Leonid is the director of the museum, this is his brainchild!

– I can not help but ask, what is the state of your legal cases on the issue of trademark ownership?

– We’re fighting. Our last appeal was to the Moscow Arbitration Court. I have already told how two independent experts of Rospatent issued conclusions that our trademark is similar to the logo of Sberbank. As soon as we were about to take these conclusions to the court with the words “Yes, we are trying to prove it!”, as the head of the experts, recollecting himself, canceled both conclusions. Our lawyers are not aware of such precedents in Rospatent. Therefore, our question to the arbitration was approximately the following: “What can they do, can they?” Arbitration response: “They can.” That is, the arbitration made it clear that Rospatent can write whatever it wants, and cover up the absurdity going on. And we have to deal with a government agency that will never admit its mistakes. But we do not lose hope, we will go to the end.

Interviewed by Yuri Khnychkin