While Swiss watch export figures point to the worst November in five years globally, the UK is surging ahead now even importing more watches than China.
Figures from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) show that, for the first time since 2010, Switzerland exported watches worth less than CHF 2bn (£1.35bn) over the course of November, which was down 5.6% on 2014.
While Hong Kong continued its astonishing fall from grace, importing 27.9% fewer watches in November compared to the same month in 2014, the UK surged ahead with 14.3% more orders than in November 2014.
WatchPro first reported that the UK was the fastest growing major market for Swiss watches in the world in October, based on the FH’s January-September 2015 figures. Since then it has continued to defy the global trend of falling imports.
During November the UK was the world’s fourth biggest market for Swiss watches worth CHF 121.1m (£82m), ahead of China, Germany, Japan and Singapore and only beaten by Hong Kong, USA and Italy.
In the last two years UK imports of Swiss watches, between January-November, have increased by 21.2%. During the same period Hong Kong’s market has shrunk by 22.5%.
