Art of Time brings in Ashwin Menon as marketing chief

MUMBAI: Art of Time is putting its money where its watch dial is. The luxury retailer, run by Aetas Retail Private Limited, has appointed Ashwin Menon as chief marketing officer, handing him the marketing and growth brief across both Art of Time and its bridge-to-luxury sibling, CIRCA.

The timing is no accident. Menon walks in fresh off a year of expansion for the group, which has just rolled out TimeVallée boutiques in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad and is widening the footprint of both its formats to chase India’s fast-growing luxury watch market — a crowd that now spans affluent regulars, aspirational shoppers and first-time luxury buyers alike.

Menon brings over 12 years across consumer, telecom and automotive brands, a mix that has left him equally at home building brand equity and building sales pipelines. He joins from Enrich Beauty, a WestBridge Capital-backed venture, where he headed marketing, and carries earlier leadership stints at Vodafone Idea and Tata Motors — brands not short on scale or competition.

Gaurav Bhatia and Bharat Kapoor, founders of Art of Time, are betting his instincts translate neatly to watches. The duo said the company has already built a platform bringing together some of the world’s finest watch maisons under one elevated retail roof, and that strengthening leadership remains central as the business scales further. Menon’s grip on brand building and growth engines, they said, is exactly what the next phase needs.

Menon himself is characteristically upbeat about the brief. Today’s luxury buyer, he said, wants more than the product — seamless experiences, real engagement and honest conversation with the brands they choose. India’s watch industry, he added, has been on a genuine tear over the past decade, propelled as much by growing appreciation for craftsmanship and engineering as by aspiration, and Art of Time has been central to that story. He plans to build on that momentum with fresh, sustainable initiatives built around the consumer.

Founded in 2015 by Bhatia and Kapoor, Art of Time has grown into India’s leading luxury watch and jewellery retailer, partnering with the likes of Cartier, IWC Schaffhausen, Panerai, Piaget, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Omega across boutiques in Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Noida. With Menon now steering the marketing engine, the brand looks primed to turn its expansion into serious momentum.