“Everyone has a crazy hobby, and for me, it’s cars and watches,” said Thiri Thein Than, an automotive engineer from Yangon.

Thiri Thein Than is 40 years old. Over the years, he has often gone overseas for high-end shopping. But in March this year, Thiri Thein Than went to a Franck Muller Swiss watch brand store opened in the Sedona Hotel on the Inya Lake in Yangon. This is the company’s 44th global branch and the first luxury brand watch store in Myanmar.

Thiri Thein Than bought a pink gold moon phase watch from this store. There is a small moon on the dial that rises and falls according to the lunar calendar. He said the watch sold for $33,500 and his colleagues all praised the watch, which made him feel unique.

"This is my jewelry." Thiri Thein Than said.

After the military coup in 1962, Myanmar's economy was in a slump, but it began to improve in 2012. Several landmark elections were held on political reform, and the investment environment was improved, attracting a large number of foreign investments. Thanks to the rise of domestic timber, coal mining and oil and gas industries, the urban real estate market and high-end domestic jewelry market have also begun to develop. International brands have also begun to enter Myanmar from scratch. Before this, even Myanmar's most modern capital, Yangon, had almost no international luxury brands.

Many Myanmar people have long been accustomed to spending money in traditional markets and street stalls, where the price of an all-vegetarian meal is less expensive than a cup of Starbucks latte. However, Myanmar's economy achieved an annual growth rate of 7% in 2015, far exceeding the 5.6% in 2011. Some high-end shopping malls have been built around Yangon's colonial buildings.

Some analysts and merchants said that almost all retail stores in Yangon are targeting middle and low-end consumers. Generally, customers who can afford luxury goods will go to Singapore, Thailand and Europe to spend, or shop online. But now some luxury brands have begun to open watch and other luxury stores in Yangon, and they have hope for the future.

“It’s a good start here,” Nicholas Ruda, director of Franck Muller Watch Store, said when reporting to the Swiss headquarters, “but of course, this is a long-term investment.”

Even with the emergence of many new shopping malls, Yangon's retail market is still too small compared to other shopping malls such as Bangkok. Antony Picon, manager of Myanmar commercial real estate company Collier, said that although a small number of luxury cosmetics brand chains have settled in some boutique hotels in Yangon, this model is common in emerging market countries, but it will not happen in the next 5 to 10 years.It is likely that major luxury brands will enter the Myanmar market.

But in the long term, Myanmar's retail growth is likely to explode, said Gregory Miller, a partner at Myanmar Capital Partners, a Bangkok-based financial services firm. "It makes no sense to put Laos and Cambodia together because they are not rich in resources. Myanmar will become more and more like Thailand."

Miller also said that luxury retail consumption demand comes not only from the existing elite, but also from the growing middle class and returned overseas Chinese.

There are already signs of growth in demand for luxury goods in Myanmar. For example, after 2012, Jaguar Land Rover, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have successively opened exhibition centers in Yangon.

Okkar is a brand manager for Ford Motor Company in Myanmar. His job is mainly to sell Ford, Jaguar and Land Rover. He said that some of these luxury brand off-road vehicles are mainly favored by government officials, while other buyers of luxury cars are wealthy people who have their own fleets.

Another signal of the growth of Myanmar's luxury market is Swiss Time Square. This store specializing in a variety of luxury brand watches was opened in the Golden Valley area of Yangon in 2013. The store has Tissot and Rado watches worth a few hundred dollars, as well as diamond and ruby-encrusted Rolex watches worth up to 13 million U.S. dollars.

"Wearing a Rolex is like driving a luxury car. If you buy a BMW or a Mercedes-Benz, other people will know you are rich when they see you," said Tay Zar Win Htoo, sales director of Swiss Time Square in Yangon.

However, Tay Zar Win Htoo said that the best-selling watches are those priced from US$500 to US$1,000, and sales of each of the most popular brands can reach 30 before the Lantern Festival in October.

The person in charge of the project of Singaporean real estate company Yoma Strategic Holdings said that some commercial and residential real estate projects in downtown Yangon will also add luxury elements. For example, the Landmark Plaza covering an area of 2 million square meters will be completed in 2019 or 2020, and the luxury brand hotel Peninsula Hotel will be located in it.

Cyrus Pun, director of the company's real estate department, said in an email that the luxury elements of Landmark will be few at first, but will continue to expand as Myanmar's retail market matures.

There is also a Surrey Plaza developed by Hong Kong Shangri-La Group in the adjacent block of Landmark. This project was almost completed this summer. Yinn Mar Nyo, head of sales at Suri Plaza, said the project’s retail space will cover 64,583 square feet and will house Myanmar’s first Rolex store.

But Yinn Mar Nyo also said that the main target group of Suri Plaza is actually middle-level consumers. “Although there are luxury goods consumers in Myanmar, the number is not large.”

Serge Pun, the father of Myanmar entrepreneur Ivan Pun, is the executive chairman of Yoma Strategic Holdings and he shares the same view on Myanmar’s retail market.

“I think Myanmar’s luxury consumer group is wealthy ladies in their twenties and thirties,” Pun said, “but there are not many of them.” Pun also said that this group of people like to buy “cool” brands like 3.1 Phillip Lim and Mary Katrantzou, which are priced between US$300 and US$7,000.

Pun, who has worked in New York and Beijing before, said he is now talking to some international luxury brands about cooperation in Myanmar, but none of them want to open a store in Yangon because Myanmar's luxury market has just started.

Now Pun is working on his own entrepreneurial project, Pun + Projects, which is opening a series of restaurants in Yangon that will not lose quality even in Brooklyn and East London. For example, a Vietnamese restaurant offers Hokkaido raw scallops, lemongrass cheese fried chicken, and a designer cocktail called "pho real."

Translation: Zhang Hang