The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry has reported a "marked recovery" in watch exports in July, following a first half of the year that was practically identical to the period before the COVID-19 crisis.
Exports of Swiss watches, many of which are set with diamonds, showed a 29.1% increase compared with 2020 which marked the start of a slow and uncertain recovery, driven almost exclusively by very strong performance in China, the Federation said. There was an increase of 7.6% compared with July 2019.
The negative trend continued for watches priced at under 500 francs (export price) which saw declines of 18.7% by value and 24.2% by number of items.
Meanwhile, the 500 francs to 3,000 francs range saw modest growth, while watches priced at over 3,000 francs saw their export value increase by 13.6%.
There was strong growth in exports to the United States (+48.5% compared with 2019), making it the leading market in July "and underlined the importance of the recovery there, which was probably buoyed by domestic consumption of some items that would have been purchased abroad before the crisis.
"China continued to perform strongly for the same reasons, with an increase of 75.0%. The other main Asian markets, such as Hong Kong (-24.8%), Japan (-4.1%) and Singapore (-3.4%) all declined. In Europe (+1.8% on average), the United Kingdom (+12.4%), France (+10.2%) and Germany (+5.0%) returned to growth, while Italy (-24.2%) fell back sharply after a strong month in June (+33.6%)."