Swiss watchmakers anticipate record year for sales
The Swiss watch industry remains on track to achieve record sales this year, with October export figures showing continued growth.
In October, more timepieces were once again exported abroad compared to the same month last year, despite growing economic risks and tensions in the Middle East. The export record of the previous year is now within reach.
+ India next growth market for Swiss watches
In October 2023, watch exports rose by 5.1% to CHF2.39 billion compared to the previous year, as the Federal Office of Customs and Border Security and the Association of the Swiss Watch Industry announced on Tuesday. Exports grew by around 4% in September and August.
Looking at the first ten months, this still represents a plus: from January to October, watch exports increased by 8.3% compared to the previous year. There is now much to suggest that the industry will break the export record of CHF24.8 billion from the previous year.
The watch industry is recording solid growth, the watch association writes in its statement. Compared to the strong increase in the first half of the year, growth has weakened somewhat, but the industry is still growing at a high level.
+ Buying a watch a deeply emotional act
The development in the reporting month of October was primarily influenced positively by the strong increase in the “Other metals” (+14%) and “Bimetals” (+13%) categories. But exports of watches made of precious metals (+7.9%) also increased well. Meanwhile, steel watches fell by 2% compared to the previous year.
The industry has grown significantly in China (24%) and Hong Kong (+17%). In both cases, the strong increases were also due to the low previous year’s levels, which were impacted by the corona pandemic. In contrast, exports to other Asian markets such as Japan (-2.7%) and Singapore (-9.8%) fell.
The largest sales market, the United States, continued to grow well, although less strongly than in the past (+5.0%). Meanwhile, there is a mixed picture in Europe: While markets such as Great Britain (+7.7%), France (+6.2%) and Italy (+2.7%) grew, exports to Germany developed (-12% ) and Spain (-2.5%) declined.
Looking at price categories, the cheap segments with export prices of under CHF200 and between CHF200-500 were on the rise. Exports in Swiss francs increased by 17% and 11%, respectively. The reason for this is probably the popular Swatch models in the design of the luxury brands Omega and Blancpain. Exports of expensive watches (over CHF3,000) grew by 6.2%.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
More
Can AI bridge the access to healthcare gap in sub-Saharan Africa?
More
A Geneva-based global health foundation came close to ‘collapse’. Where were regulators?
More
Is Switzerland repeating England’s housing mistakes?
More
Will Switzerland finally do away with imputed rental-value tax on homeowners?
More
Swiss divisions highlighted by vote on imputed rental-value tax
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.