We may be in a recession but the sales of Swiss watches climbed 19% in 2011 to an all-time record high. This is, in part, due to booming demand for luxury watches in the Asian market. The Swiss Watch Industry announced on their website that shipments of Swiss Made watches rose from 16.2 billion francs in 2010 to 19.3 billion francs ($21.1 billion) in 2011. What’s more, in December alone, exports of Swiss watches increased by 21%.
Even more staggering is more than half of all Swiss watches sold outside of Switzerland last year were to Asia, with China becoming the third largest market for watch exports. Pretty incredible, since this is also the hub of counterfeit watches. Sales here, however, rose by a remarkable 49%. Meanwhile, the US (which is the second largest market for Swiss watches) experienced an 18% growth in sales.
It is expected that Swiss-watch exports will rise further throughout 2012, though it is projected it will be at a “single-digit” pace, according to Jean-Daniel Pasche, the head of the trade group.
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