Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. Swiss Watch Exports Down 3.2% in November 2020, With Signs of Improvement
Chinese Demand moderates the decline...
The FHS, the Swiss Watch Federation, just released its export statistics for November 2020. These were down 3.2% for the month, confirming the trend of a gradual slowdown of the decline over the past few weeks. This trend is mainly due to China with shipments up 69.5% but other markets are showing signs of improvement. Over 11 months, Switzerland has seen a 23.5% decline in its watch exports.
China has become the first major economy to recover from Covid-19. Since the pandemic has stopped international travel, Chinese consumers have spent a growing proportion of their luxury budget at home, a trend that has been encouraged by government policies. As both overseas travel and daigou activities are greatly affected, the pandemic is accelerating this re-shoring of luxury consumption in domestic China. As a consequence, mainland China has become the number one destination for Swiss watch exports.
More than ever, luxury watch brands find signs of hope in China… But other markets, to a lesser extent though, are showing signs of recovery. Among them, the United Kingdom (+21.8%), Taiwan (+18.5%) or Russia (+36.3%) were notable for growth in November. Other key areas showed more moderate declines, including the United States (-2.8%), Germany (-1.1%) or the United Arab Emirates (-3.7%). Naturally, the trend is generally negative as illustrated by Hong Kong (-14.0%), Singapore (-31.9%), Italy (-27.8%) and France (-29.0%).
For more information, please visit www.fhs.swiss.
1 response
The Swiss watch industry will continue to be affected by a pandemic long after COVID passes. And what “pandemic” might that be, you ask? Arrogance and Avarice. And the way the Swiss watch industry puts it into practice amounts to pandemic proportions. But unlike a vaccine forthcoming for COVID the Swiss take their pandemic as a value to be exploited.