Well, after some rocky swiss watch exports for the last year, we finally got some stability in Swiss watch export numbers this month. Watch exports totaled almost CHF 2 billion in November, coming in at a decline of around 3% year over year. This was probably bolstered by the Holiday shoppers and points to somewhat of stabilizing consumer spend. The 12 month moving average was fairly stable as well, at just under -20%.

Exports by price category showed a boost in watches above CHF 500. There were still negative results for watches under CHF 200, which might point to the fact that when consumers buy watches, they want to buy luxury products. There were positive results for gold/steel watches at +5% as well basically unchanged steel watch results in terms of value.

Similar to the story this entire year, Asian markets, in particular China, dominated the main markets. China made up 15.5% of the top 6 markets, growing at almost 70% year over year. The USA results show signs of optimism at only slightly negative growth year over year.

December Predictions

The Holiday season definitely had a positive influence on results this last month. The vaccine optimism has helped economies come out of their shells and hopefully, going into 2021, will continue to open up and recovery from the last year. We predict a decline in watch exports by -2% for the month of December.