The resilience of luxury in times of crisis is evidenced by new data on the sales and exports of luxury watches provided to the media by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH). The body overseeing the watch market announced that exports from Swiss manufacturers rose to $25.7 billion (23.7 billion Swiss francs) last year, an increase of 11.6 percent compared to the previous year, marking the highest value ever recorded.
Last year’s exports also exceeded pre-pandemic 2019 levels by 15.5 percent, or $3.47 billion (3.2 billion Swiss francs). However, while the value increased, the quantity did not see a significant rise. Since 2020, when the lowest number of watches was sold at 13.8 million, quantities have not significantly recovered. Last year, 15.8 million pieces were exported, an increase of 0.3 percent compared to 2021, while in the ‘fertile’ year of 2000, Switzerland exported as many as 30 million watches.
Pareto Principle
According to the website Watches by SJX, the watch industry clearly demonstrates the so-called Pareto Principle, as 17 percent of the sales volume in the watch industry generates 83 percent of the value. In other words, less than one-fifth of watches creates four-fifths of the total value of the industry. Watches with a retail price exceeding $100,000 were sold in 25,000 pieces (0.2 percent of the total 15.8 million pieces), but accounted for about $3 billion in value or 12.5 percent of the total export value.
