{"id":67897,"date":"2021-08-02T09:18:09","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T08:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/?p=67897"},"modified":"2021-08-02T09:19:45","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T08:19:45","slug":"covid-concerns-closures-and-lock-downs-relegate-uk-to-the-slow-lane-of-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/covid-concerns-closures-and-lock-downs-relegate-uk-to-the-slow-lane-of-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid concerns, closures and lock downs relegate UK to the slow lane of recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Swiss watch sales have sprung back to perform at the same level as before the pandemic, latest export figures compiled by the Federation of Swiss Watch Industry show.<\/strong><\/p>\n Exports worth almost CHF 2 billion were recorded for June, exceeding the same month in 2019 by 12.5%.<\/p>\n For the first half of 2021, global exports worth CHF 10.6 billion are now less than one percent lower than in 2019 and rising fast.<\/p>\n Remarkably, 2021 is on track to be a record year for the Swiss watch industry.<\/p>\n However, the UK, where the country was in hard lock down for the first quarter of the year and a terrified public are only now beginning to emerge after being told to work from home and avoid almost all social contacts, the picture is more bleak.<\/p>\n Despite the success of the UK’s world-leading vaccination programme, Swiss exports\u00a0 to the UK in June remained 5.4% below the same month in 2019.<\/p>\n For the first six months of this year, the UK imported Swiss watches worth 15.4% less than the first half of 2019.<\/p>\n In the top 10 markets in the world, only Hong Kong, which faces massive political challenges on top of its pandemic crisis, and France under-performed the UK.<\/p>\n