Taking advantage of a surge of 11% to 804.1 million francs, precious metal watches alone accounted for more than half of the growth in October.
The evolution of watch exports remained very favorable in October, these having increased by 6.7% over one year to 2.27 billion francs, according to figures from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH). The umbrella organization qualifies this increase as “moderate but still significant growth”.
Taking advantage of a surge of 11% to 804.1 million francs, watches made of precious metals alone accounted for more than half of the growth in October, said the FH on Thursday in its monthly report. Steel timepieces, which represent a volume of 820.7 million, stagnated (+1.5%).
The “other metals” (+19.7%) and “other materials” (+26.8%) categories experienced surges, to be put into perspective in terms of volumes. Bimetallic watches saw their exports increase by 3.5% to 325.1 million francs.
In terms of parts delivered, the picture is less encouraging. Declines are to be noted for a majority of categories, with the exception of “precious metals” (+9.7%) and other materials (+10.3%). The FH notes an overall decline of 12.0% to 1.39 million units in October.
Last month, demand mainly concerned watches in the high price ranges (export price), as evidenced by an increase of 11.4%. The 500-3000 franc category benefited from a favorable trend (+3.1%), unlike timepieces costing less than 500 francs (-26.4%), especially for those whose prices are between 200 and 500 francs (-37.1%), indicates the umbrella.
The United States remained at the top of the ranking of outlets for the Swiss watch industry in October, despite a somewhat reduced market share of 15.9% to 306.2 million francs. China (9.7% to 220.1 million) and Hong Kong (7.2% to 163.4 million francs) complete the top three.
From January to October, watch exports represented a volume of 20.4 billion francs, up 11.9% over one year.
