Warning Signs Flashing! Swiss Watch Industry Export Statistics - July 2021

As predicted, Swiss watch exports passed the CHF 2 billion mark last month. This points to strong results due to high consumer spending during the summer months. The 12 month moving average moved north of +20%, getting our exports back on track and forming an ‘S’ curve.

Watches by material and price category showed signs of cracks in the resilient return of watch exports for Switzerland. Units exported were heavily down by -17.5% which may point to lower volumes as the global economy begins to recovery. Steel and precious metals lead the pack in value exported, by volumes were still hit quite hard compared to 2019. Watches over CHF 3,000, showing again the grab for value and more expensive watches. This means the recovery is really only hitting a certain section of the Swiss watches, and more recovery is needed in others.

The US top the 30 largest watch markets, followed by China and Hong Kong in July. The Federation for Swiss Horology is reporting variation compared to 2020 again as the results stabilize somewhat. The value change from the USA between 2019 and 2019 is quite remarkable, making the July 2021 result even more significant. Vaccination rollouts continued which led to many other countries to positive results like the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

August Predictions
Similar to this past month, I predict August will still shows signs of positive growth compared to 2019. August continues to be a month of summer holidays and hopefully getting back to some sort of normalcy for most people. This will mean higher consumer spending, and of course that will help watches out. I predict an increase of 6% for watch exports for August 2021.

Enjoy!