Hermès increased sales by 25% in the first half of 2023 to €6.7 billion, with profit rising 33% to €2.2 billion.
Revenue for the group’s watch business line was up by 24% over the same period.
According to Morgan Stanley’s annual report on the state of the Swiss watch industry, Hermès was the 17th biggest manufacturer last year with sales of CHF 521 million.
Growth of 24% this year and next would push the watchmaker into the exclusive club of billion dollar watch brands, which is currently a list of just seven.
Hermès credits growth from its watch brand with “exceptional creativity, style and remarkable watch-making savoir-faire, both for the complication models and the house’s classic models”.
Its H08 collection is singled-out for its contribution to the success of the Hermès watch business.
The sporty line was expanded earlier this year with a carbon fibre-cased chronograph and a three-hander made from an aluminised fibreglass composite (pictured top).
Growth in Asia of 28%, excluding Japan, for the whole of Hermès is further evidence that mainland China has not bounced back as Western countries after covid restrictions were lifted.
H1 in 2022 was severely hampered by covid, so it would have been hoped that China would have risen more sharply.
