Monthly Swiss watch exports suffered their biggest decline since 2020 as demand for premium and luxury timepieces in key markets including China and Hong Kong plunged.
Exports dropped 16 per cent by value in March to 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.2bn) from a year earlier, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry said yesterday.
Shipments to China, the second biggest market for Swiss watches, slid 42pc, falling below levels seen in March 2020 when the industry came to a halt due to pandemic lockdowns. Shipments to Hong Kong plummeted 44pc.
“The negative trend is even worse than we expected and the decline in China is really worrying and probably indicates that inventories in the region were once again too high,” said Jean-Philippe Bertschy, an analyst at Vontobel in Switzerland.
Shares of Swatch Group, which makes the Omega and Longines brands, hit a fresh 52-week low yesterday, dropping about 1 percent in Zurich trading. Shares of Richemont, the owner of Vacheron Constantin and Cartier, also fell about 1pc.
The sharp drop in exports underscores a global decline in demand for Swiss timepieces, which enjoyed an unprecedented boom beginning in 2021 that lasted until the middle of 2023.
Higher interest rates, shaky economic growth and geopolitical conflicts have prompted watch buyers to reconsider splashing out on expensive timepieces.
The Federation said the number of watches shipped from Switzerland in March dropped 25pc to 1.1 million units as retailers pulled back on orders.
Shipments to the US, which overtook China as the top market for Swiss watches in 2021, fell 6.5pc in March.
The declines were across all price categories, with shipments of watches above 3,000 francs - which account for more than 80pc of export values - falling about 10pc by value. Exports of watches priced between 500 francs and 3,000 francs dropped by 38pc.
Even the lowest category, watches priced below 200 francs – which include Swatch Group AG’s popular MoonSwatch collaboration – plummeted 19pc in March from the year before.