Swiss Watch Exports Register Regular Development in September

PARIS — The shift to a “regular stage of development” continued for Swiss watch exports in September. 

Whole exports grew 3.8 p.c year-on-year to 2.3 billion Swiss francs, or $2.56 billion, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Business mentioned Thursday. It described the rise as “akin to August” and coming regardless of “a very destructive base impact.” 

Whereas the month-to-month good points have been slower because the summer season, the primary 9 months of 2023 noticed an 8.6 p.c rise in exports versus the identical prior-year interval. 

International demand was blended in September, with timepiece gross sales to the U.S. and China declining 6.4 and 5.5 p.c, respectively. Gross sales to the third-largest market, Hong Kong, jumped 24 p.c, as exports to France, Italy and Taiwan noticed excessive double-digit development. 

Whereas different main markets like Japan or the U.Okay. registered modest development and others like Singapore contracted barely, at 2.7 p.c, the federation famous “the highest 20 markets have all maintained regular development because the begin of the yr, apart from South Korea.” And all eyes shall be on the most recent entrant, within the twentieth place: India.

With export gross sales of 20.5 million Swiss francs, India stays a modest marketplace for now, however a Deloitte research printed in October mentioned the nation would climb to a top-10 place inside the subsequent decade, producing at an estimated 400 million francs of Swiss watch gross sales.

Total, for the third consecutive month, gross sales of the 500-to-3,000 franc value class, which accounted for round one-fifth of all watch exports, was down 10.4 p.c. Whereas the summer season months have been quiet for the highest finish of the value vary, gross sales of watches costing greater than 3,000 francs rose 8.2 p.c, and gross sales of the entry stage vary, below 200 francs, grew 4.3 p.c in September. 

That month, the quantity of exported wristwatches declined 2.9 p.c, eqivalent to 47,000 fewer models leaving Switzerland, however their worth elevated 4 p.c, pointing to an increase in export costs. 

Even the 22.5 p.c in worth and 11.5 p.c leaps in quantity of the “different metals” class was not sufficient to offset the contraction in metal watches, which accounted for greater than half of all timepieces offered and have been down 7.2 p.c in worth. The “different supplies” class, falling 7.1 p.c in models, was a significant contributing issue to the decline in variety of objects exported.