Watch exports held up in May by fewer working days
The Swiss watch industry has reported a slight decline in exports for May. However, figures published on Monday showed that between January and May, exports rose by 7.6 per cent to achieve a record SFr4.163 billion ($2.35 billion).
The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry in Biel said that exports in May were down by 2.2 per cent at SFr909 million. However, it pointed out in a statement that the month had two working days less than the comparable period last year.
It also reported that unprecedented growth of 33.2 per cent had been achieved in May 2000.
The decline in the volume of complete watches continues with one million fewer timepieces exported in the first five months of the year
(-8.9 per cent at 10.8 million).
On the other hand, the Federation said their value continued to rise (+7.1 per cent to SFr3.772 billion).
It added that this divergent trend can be explained by the confirmed success of fine quality watches, primarily gold products (+16.9 per cent in quantity and +35.5 per cent in value).
In May, the United States remained the leading market, despite a 19.1 per cent fall to a value of SFr145.1 million). The US was followed by Hong Kong, which imported SFr129.8 million of Swiss watch watches, movements and parts.
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