Selling watches online in India: two products

A Rs 500 fashion watch and a Rs 5 lakh mechanical watch share a catalogue tile and almost nothing else. The case metal moves the tariff line, the movement decides which Indian Standard applies, and new versus pre-owned decides whether you needed an import authorisation. Operational guidance, not legal advice.

Rs 500 and Rs 5 lakh are not one category

The customs tariff splits watches before you do. Chapter 91 puts wrist-watches, pocket-watches and other watches with a case of precious metal or of metal clad with precious metal in heading 9101, and everything else in heading 9102. That fork is decided on the case, not on positioning. Settle it in writing with your broker, and do not carry a duty or GST rate in your head: quote the heading, read the notification in force.

The second fork is the movement. BIS issues IS 13130 in two parts, Part 1 mechanical and Part 2 quartz electronic. A connected watch is not in horology at all. Smart watches are a notified electronics product under the Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirement for Compulsory Registration) Order, 2021, registered against IS 13252 (Part 1). One catalogue, three regulatory homes, and no paperwork transfers between them.

A gold case is marked, not hallmarked

Start with the clean negative. A watch is expressly outside mandatory hallmarking. The Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery and Gold Artefacts (Second Amendment) Order, 2021, S.O. 2481(E) dated 23 June 2021, inserted item (l), watch and fountain pen, into the exemptions at clause 2(3) of the 2020 order. A solid gold case carries no HUID. What the regime does cover is in our post on hallmarking for online jewellery sales, and none of it reaches the watch.

What does reach it is IS 12114 (Part 1):1987, on gold alloy coverings applied to watch cases and their accessories. Clause 3.1 sets minimum fineness by covering type: 585 parts per thousand for plating, 417 for rolled gold, 585 for capping. Clause 5 marks the covering by a letter, the nominal thickness in micrometres and the maker’s mark, indelible and normally visible, so P40 is a 40 micrometre plated covering and C250 a 250 micrometre capping. Clause 5.4 catches brands: the fineness of the gold alloy shall not be mentioned. An 18K gold plated stamp is the marking the standard tells you not to make, and the micrometre figure it wants is the one nobody prints.

Plating thickness is a measurable claim, so hold the evidence, per the claim substantiation file. If the watch is stone-set, naming and disclosure for the stone is its own subject with its own standard, in selling lab-grown diamonds.

What the pack and the listing have to declare

A boxed watch is a pre-packaged commodity. Rule 6(1) of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 requires the manufacturer’s name and address, or the manufacturer’s and packer’s where they differ, the common or generic name, net quantity in standard units, which for a watch is a number, the month and year of manufacture, packing or import, the retail sale price stated as maximum retail price inclusive of all taxes, and for an imported product the country of origin or manufacture or assembly. Mechanics in legal metrology labelling for e-commerce.

Two traps are watch-specific. Origin: the rule names origin or manufacture or assembly, and a movement’s origin is not the article’s, so Swiss movement and Made in Switzerland are two statements and only one may be true of your unit. And the case back: marks that belong there under IS 12114 are not declarations. A photograph of a case back is not a compliant label image.

Import is a separate question from listing

Para 2.03(a) of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023 says domestic laws, orders, technical specifications and safety norms applying to domestically produced goods apply to imports unless specifically exempted. Importing buys you nothing.

The surprise is pre-owned. Para 2.02(d) says the ITC (HS) Schedule 1 import policy is for new goods and not second hand goods except where clearly specified, and sends you to para 2.31, where second hand goods other than capital goods are Restricted, importable against Authorisation. A pre-owned watch is a second hand good other than capital goods, so the certified pre-owned catalogue is a licensing question first, which is the argument in import licensing for restricted goods.

Counterfeit, grey and pre-owned are three different fights

A counterfeit is a fake, and the route is a documented takedown, covered in the counterfeit takedown evidence pack. What is watch-specific is the unit identifier: a case reference, a serial, often a movement number. Record them at packing against the airway bill, as in high-value order fulfilment. Without one you cannot separate your own unit from a copy, or from a parallel import.

A parallel import is not a counterfeit, and in India it is largely lawful. Section 30(3) of the Trade Marks Act, 1999 provides that where goods bearing a registered trade mark are lawfully acquired, dealing in them is not infringement by reason only of the goods having been put on the market under the mark by the proprietor or with his consent. The Delhi High Court Division Bench read that as international exhaustion in Kapil Wadhwa v. Samsung Electronics on 3 October 2012, allowing the imports subject to disclaimers that the goods were imported independently and the proprietor gives no warranty and no after-sales service.

Section 30(4) is the opening: sub-section (3) does not apply where there are legitimate reasons to oppose further dealings, in particular where the condition of the goods has been changed or impaired after being put on the market. A re-polished case, a swapped bracelet, a broken factory seal, a service by an unauthorised watchmaker. Those are facts captured at the time, which is what the authorised-dealer chain is for. It is evidence, not a rule.

The document set that gets a watch listing approved

Hold five things before you apply. The trade mark registration, or an authorisation chain running from the rights owner to the exact selling entity on the account. Current tax invoices from the authorised source. Importer details as they will read on the pack. Pack images in which every rule 6(1) declaration is legible without zooming. And, for a connected watch, the BIS registration. The failure that repeats is a letter naming the brand but not the selling entity. The second is a line of copy with no file behind it. The two ends of this category need two different files, and the cheap end is not the easy end.