The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FHS) has announced its export figures for August, revealing a significant year-on-year increase in export value totalling CHF1.5 billion (£1bn).
The FHS said exports remain “on course”, with Swiss watch exports increasing 12.7% in terms of value, year-on-year, in August.
Cumulative growth over the first two thirds of the year has maintained its momentum at a high level, up 16.0%.
The FHS said gold watches remained the principal driving force of this growth thanks to their “very pronounced upturn”. Exports of Swiss-made bimetallic timepieces have declined.
Taking all materials together the number of timepieces exported fell slightly while remaining at a level comparable to 2011, which the FHS dubbed an “excellent year” for Swiss watch exports.
In total 38,200 gold watches were exported in August, while 1,049,600 steel watches left the Swiss valleys for global markets.
The varying price segments for Swiss timepieces exhibited some turbulence in August, however, with watches costing less than CHF200 (£133) at export price fell in volume terms by 5%. Those timepieces sitting in the CHF200 to CHF500 (£133 to £334) sector produced a good results, with exports increasing more than 10%.
Higher priced watches retailing between CHF 500 and CHF3,000 (£334 and £2,002) continued to weaken, with exports exhibiting a slight downturn.
At The higher end of the market timepieces retailing at more than £2,002 were said to have enjoyed a very high increase in value terms, leaping 21.5%.
Watch exports to Hong Kong and the United States recorded exactly the same rate of growth, very close to the sector average, with watches worth CHF308 million (£206m) exported to Hong Kong.
After two months of decline, exports to China are on the up, albeit just slightly. The main European markets registered considerable increases, with France and Germany leading the way for exports in August.
