Broken Spring for Swiss Watch Exports

After experiencing an uptick in April ahead of expected tariffs, exports of Swiss watches fell significantly in May, according to the latest statistics from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.

“The monthly exports totaled $2.6 billion (down 9.5%), which was notably impacted by the downturn in the U.S. market, following the peak in April driven by anticipation of the increase in tariffs,” the federation report said.

Still, the trade group noted that the overall trend since the start of the year has remained positive on average, with growth of 1.1% at the end of May, bringing the cumulative total to $13.2 billion. “However, this result does not reflect the actual sales situation, which has followed a less positive trend,” the report noted.

Though the United States is still the largest market in the world by for such exports, it also experienced the largest drop from a month earlier, falling by 25.3%.

“Although more moderate than expected, this boomerang effect followed the increase of 150% seen in April,” the report notes. “Japan (-10.5%) and the United Kingdom (-14.5%) joined the list of markets in sharp decline, which is already dominated by China (-17.4%) and Hong Kong (-12.6%).

The United Arab Emirates was the only one of the top 12 markets to achieve positive performance in May, but exports to that country have still been on a downward trend since the start of the year, the report noted.

Editor’s note: All the figures released by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry refer to exports and not to sales to end-consumers, and all the dollar figures have been converted from francs.