Watch brands and retailers are at long last embracing online sales – but the figures don?t yet stack up. We look at how buying watches has changed from visiting a bricks and mortar store to a digital journey.
By Chris Hall

Here?s the thing about the watch world. You will read a lot ? and not just on SalonQP.com ? about what?s new, or ?innovative?.  That?s to be expected; we love that an industry as fundamentally anachronistic as the luxury watch business can be so full of individuals dedicated to toying, tinkering and improving by leaps and bounds the concept of mechanical timekeeping. 

But making watches is only one side of this business. Of course, without the gleaming manufactures, intense R&D laboratories and hushed assembly lines we just wouldn?t have watches. But without distributors and retailers, boutiques, jewellers and department stores, well, we just wouldn?t have watches. And this side of things has been a little bit less willing to ?reinvent tradition?, as a marketing department might have it. Only a fraction of new watches can be bought online, with the most popular brands, including Rolex, totally unavailable. Not everyone can easily reach London boutiques, and often in regional shops you face a reduced choice (with some notable exceptions). It?s hardly befitting the wide range of watches being produced in the world.
Some brands have built a business around online sales, and a few of the big Swiss firms did recognise...