Is There a Place for Luxury During Wartime? Insights from the Ukrainian Luxury Watch Market

The luxury market, defined by its aspirational qualities and symbolic significance, has shown notable resilience during economic downturns, geopolitical tensions, and social disruptions. Luxury items differ from everyday goods in that they fulfill dual roles: they act as tangible investments while also providing emotional satisfaction, thus delivering both material advantages and psychological fulfillment to individuals. This duality has enabled the luxury market to sustain relevance and demand during turbulent periods, as demonstrated during the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies indicate that high-net-worth individuals and affluent consumers frequently perceive luxury consumption as a means of escapism, emotional solace, and status maintenance. Concurrently, brands effectively utilize digital innovations (Sanz-Lopez et al., 2024; Tam & Lung, 2025), non-fungible tokens (Chen et al., 2025; Kim et al., 2025), and customized marketing strategies to create a luxury brand personality (Balabanis & Karpova, 2025) and secure the authenticity of their products.