The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry has shared their latest export data for January 2021. As you all know by now, 2020 was a pretty terrible year for everyone, including the Swiss Watch industry. Swiss Watch executives are also not overly optimistic of what is yet to come, based on the findings in the latest Swiss Watch industry study by Deloitte. However, the latest export data does show signs of hope for 2021 despite the overall number for the month coloring red once again.
As per the FH “Swiss watch exports suffered from a negative base effect and one business day fewer in January, posting an 11.0% fall, to 1.6 billion francs. The result for the month will nonetheless have only a limited effect on the upward trend seen since last summer and a return to significant growth is expected over the next few months.”
While the January number in and by itself is certainly not a pretty one, there are signs of a recovery ahead. It might be a swift one even. Based on the regional data, it appears that there are key regions that negatively affect the numbers. Unsurprisingly these are the regions with the strictest lockdowns.
That said, we can reasonably expect regions such as Europe and Japan to slowly but surely re-open. Not to mention, the global rollout of the vaccine is currently ongoing and this will lead to more and more people finding their way out of their confinement and into the consumer market.
One could reasonably expect the second quarter export data to look drastically different than the ones we will witness still in this first quarter of 2021.
Hang in there everyone