“Exports in the sector rose steadily in May (+11.4%) to more than 2 billion francs. The increase was driven by an additional business day, and by an exceptional export of alarm clocks and small clocks“. That is the latest news shared by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. The surge in need for alarm clocks seems to have originated in China where this months numbers are up a whopping 81 percent!
They continued with the positive note that “Underlying growth in the sector was between +8 and +9%, as evidenced by the increase in watch exports.”
Now the next bit got me intrigued, and I wonder if a certain Luxury brand has anything to do with this: “The main groups of materials all followed the positive trend, particularly precious metal and bimetal watches. The number of items exported failed to keep pace, however, falling by 9.3% in total. Steel timepieces had a significant impact on this result, as did the Other metals category”.
Watches priced below 200 francs (export price)continue their descent and fell by 16.1% by the number of items. On the other hand, the more expensive watches priced over 3,000 francs recorded double-digit growth. Everything in between remained mostly flat.
As briefly mentioned above “China (+81.0%) was boosted by the exceptional export of alarm clocks and small clocks, but would have recorded very strong growth even without it. Among the other Asian markets, Japan (+39.8%), Singapore (+24.9%) and the United Arab Emirates (+44.6%) all saw significant gains. The United States (+10.4%) was close to the global average, as was France (+10.9%)”.
Did you just say ALARM clocks?! 😀 What am I missing here?_?
Thinking exactly the same – I hope someone has an explanation for this 😀