The watch industry had to contend with a weakening of its exports last year, which reached a volume of CHF25.9 billion ($28.5 billion).
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Annual volumes fell by 9.4% to 15.3 million pieces, a decline of 1.6 million units, according to statistics published Thursday by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH). Steel watches (-7.0%) and other materials (-12.2%) dragged down exports.
At the end of the year, deliveries abroad fell sharply. In December, they fell by 5.4% to CHF1.96 billion. In terms of volume and value, the overall trend was negative.
Steel watches, the main category in terms of number of pieces exported, increased by 1.2% to 685,500 units, while precious metals stagnated (+0.2%). Volumes of bimetallic timepieces (-16.0%) and the “other metals” segment (-10.9%) plunged. The “other materials” category declined by 8.5% to 394,300 units. The number of total pieces fell by 5.0% to 1.29 million.
In terms of value, the decline was almost across the board for exports. The “precious metals” segment fell by 3.4% to CHF796.3 million, with shipments of steel watches reaching CHF635.4 million (-5.9%), while bimetallic timepieces fell by 10.3% to CHF305.7 million. The “other materials” category was the only survivor, growing by 9.4% to CHF91.9 million.
All price segments recorded declines, notes the FH in its report. The sharpest decline, of 13.2%, was attributable to watches with an export price of between CHF200 and CHF500. Timepieces costing less than CHF200 (-5.9%) and those costing more than CHF3,000 (-5.3%) were also down. The CHF500 to CHF3,000 francs segment limited the damage, declining by 1.8%.
Demand fell in four of the Swiss watch industry’s leading markets, especially in Asia. In order, these were the United States (-1.0%), Hong Kong (-6.4%), China (-19.0%) and Japan (-12.7%). Together with the United Arab Emirates (+0.6%) and Great Britain (+5.8%), these countries accounted for CHF1.04 billion in exports.
Adapted from French by DeepL/ac
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