Swiss watch exports reached a new record in 2022, rising 11.4% year-on-year to 24.8 billion Swiss francs (24.7 billion euros), despite a sharp slowdown in December, the Swiss watchmaking federation announced on Tuesday.
They thus broke their previous record of 2021 when the sector had experienced a very strong rebound after the pandemic hit in a context of very strong recovery in demand for luxury products.
In December, however, they slowed down sharply, weighed down by China. During the last month of the year, its growth was limited to 5.8%, that is, a “rate below the annual average”, specifies the watchmaking federation in a press release.
general revival
But even with this slowdown, they crossed the 2 billion franc mark in December, “which has never happened before at this time of year,” he insists.
The drop in exports to China was further accentuated, falling 22.5% in December after falling 11.5% in November and 18.1% in October.
However, they increased towards the other main markets with the exception of Hong Kong, rising 11.5% towards the United States, 26.2% towards Singapore, 20.4% towards Japan and 14.8% on average towards European markets.
After a 21.8% drop in 2020, Swiss watch exports had rebounded 31.2% in 2021 on the back of demand for luxury goods in the US and Gulf countries before the recovery taking hold. expands to Europe in 2022 with the return of tourists who come to shop in London, Paris or Milan.
Expected recovery in China
The year 2022 had started auspiciously. “But in February, the war in Ukraine created certain uncertainties,” Jean-Daniel Pasche, president of the watchmakers’ federation, said in an interview with AFP.
“But in the end the conflict did not hurt Swiss watchmaking too much,” he continued, recalling that Russia only accounted for around 1% of exports before the conflict.
Like other sectors, the watch industry has faced supply difficulties and rising energy prices, “which affects certain companies, particularly subcontracted ones,” he stresses.
“But despite everything, watchmaking is doing quite well,” he says.
In 2022, China was the shadow on the board for Swiss watchmakers. Last week, the luxury giant Richemont reported a contraction in sales of its watch division during the last three months of 2022 due to the explosion of Covid cases in China that weighed on the frequentation of its stores but also on availability. of personnel, forcing to reduce opening hours or temporarily close the points of sale.
Standardization
On Tuesday, watchmaker Swatch Group also revealed a sharp drop in sales in China, particularly in December with infections rising since the lifting of sanitary measures.
The Swiss group, owner of the Swatch brand but also of Tissot, Longines and Omega, however, is betting on a rebound in demand with the end of the Covid-0 strategy, both in China and in the main tourist destinations with the return of Chinese tourists.
By 2023, Jean-Philippe Bertschy, an analyst at Vontobel, expects “mid-single-digit” growth for Swiss watch exports, he told AFP, against a backdrop of “normalization at a high level” in the United States and Europe and a recovery of consumption in China.
Source: BFM TV
