The latest Swiss watch export figures do not a pretty picture paint. Data gathered by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry in April, showed exports fell 26.3 per cent in the month, continuing the precipitous decline which began in October 2008.
As the Federation reports:
This marked slowdown in exports is comparable to the contraction recorded in March. Over the first four months of the year, Swiss watch manufacturers suffered a decline of 24.3%, with exports registering a total value of 3.9 billion francs.
Swiss-watch purchases, of course, are not only a great indicator for the health of the global luxury goods market — being universally considered among the ultimate high-end luxury items — they’re also a great indicator of the health of Swiss exports generally, with watches accounting for almost a tenth of the whole.
Accordingly it’s interesting to note that from a regional perspective, the biggest knock to Swiss exports came from the US and Japan, where exports were down 42.3 per cent and 34.8 per cent respectively.
What’s more, the Swiss government’s intervention in the currency markets in March to help reduce the Swiss franc’s recent strength, appears not to have made much of a difference.
As for the type of watches that suffered most, the greatest decline was seen in the mid-range category of watches priced between CHF500-3,000. And while steel and gold wristwatches saw their sales fall by the average for the sector, the biggest decline actually came in gold-steel watches sales of which were down 47.7 per cent.
All in all, there was only one type of watch that actually saw unit sales rise: the silver, gold-plated category registered a 107.7 per cent increase in units sold. While perhaps this is the effect of trading down from solid gold-watch purchases, there could also be some other factors at play — a Swiss watch, after all, is the ultimate Armageddon asset, easily pawned, traded and bartered in the worst war-torn economic catastrophe zones.
Related links:
Tick, tick, tick…Switzerland - FT Alphaville
A financial black hole in Geneva – FT Alphaville