PARIS — Is it the inflection level for Swiss watches?
Exports in March grew by 1.5 % in worth to 2.1 billion Swiss francs regardless of a 4.8 % hunch in quantity, in line with figures launched by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Trade on Thursday.
This amounted to a primary quarter that shank 1.1 % towards the identical interval in 2024, and down virtually 6 % towards 2023.
Driving the expansion within the month was the U.S., as the highest marketplace for Swiss watch exports leapt 13.7 %. Japan, nonetheless in second place, rose 1.1 % whereas the U.Okay., now within the main trio, grew 10.6 %.
In fourth and fifth place respectively, Hong Kong and China had been neck-in-neck. Each markets had been down over 11 % however for the mainland, it was a marked slowing of its decline.
In supplies, metal watches led the cost, rising 4.2 % in quantity and 5 % in worth.
In the meantime, different materials classes all shrunk in quantity. Treasured metallic timepieces, the second-largest class, recorded a 1.9 % enhance in worth, hinting at a possible influence from surging gold costs.
By value class, all segments had been down in quantity, with the troubled 200-to-500 Swiss francs exhibiting the largest decline at 17.5 %.
In worth, pricier timekeepers, beginning at 500 francs and together with the above-3,000 high-end section, confirmed a cumulated 1.9 % enhance, which blunted the decline of the lower-end of the market.
However it might be too quickly to pop the Champagne, because the sector girds within the face of the Trump administration stop-and-go method to tariffs.
There’s the prospect of the 31 % levy on Swiss merchandise imported to the U.S., introduced on April 2. Execution of tariffs for all nations besides China has since been suspended by Trump for 90 days, leaving Switzerland with the ten % fee utilized globally that kicked in on April 5.
The export figures come as luxurious teams have began to report their first-quarter gross sales.
Gross sales had been flat on the watches and jewellery unit of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, though the group higlighted “good progress on strategic priorities.” Tag Heuer returned as official timekeeper for Components 1 in January, as a part of a worldwide 10-year take care of LVMH.
At Hermès, watchmaking noticed a ten % decline for the quarter, citing “a nonetheless difficult context” whereas highlighting new launches together with iterations on the favored H08 line and its Watches and Wonders novelties Le Temps Suspendu Arceau and Hermès Lower designs
Compagnie Financière Richemont, which owns Cartier and watchmakers together with Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai and Vacheron Constantin, will report earnings on Might 16 for its fiscal 12 months 2025 that ended on March 31.
