The Best Month this Year! Swiss Watch Industry Export Statistics - October 2020

Last month, the bleeding of swiss watch exports continued. But, October saw the best month in 9 months. Exports totaled almost CHF1.9 billion moving the 12 month moving average lower than -20%.

There were continued signs of recovery for more expensive watches, with both CHF 500-3,000 and over 3000 which saw lower loses than other price categories. Interestingly gold-steel watches saw positive results this month, which probably was from a lower month this time last year.

Asian markets continued to dominate the top 6 markets. There were also fairly positive results of only -5% which really would be considered a bad month in non-pandemic circumstances. The top six markets made up over 50% and only saw declines of -1.3% year over year in total. This really shows a recovery is on the way.

November Predictions

While these results show positive signs for swiss watches, COVID-19 cases continue to rise. There were some vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer and a cocktail therapy from Regeneron that are optimistic signs of a possible end to the pandemic. We still think there will will be decent results and think there will be a 5% decrease in exports next month.