The Swiss watchmaking federation announced on Thursday that the sector’s exports continued to grow in April. Exports to the USA, however, fell back, marking the first decline in over two years.
After an excellent start to the year, Swiss watch exports maintained their strong growth in April. “Watch exports continued to grow strongly in April”, the watchmaking federation reported on Thursday.
These exports thus recorded an increase of 6.8% compared with April 2022, once again surpassing the 2 billion Swiss francs mark, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) reported on Thursday. The cumulative total for the first four months shows an increase of 10.5%. In 2022, they had reached a record level of 24.8 billion Swiss francs.
In Europe, exports rose by 6% in April, driven in particular by France (+18.9%) and the UK (+9.8%). Swiss watchmakers are eagerly awaiting the return of Chinese tourists to the Old Continent, following a boom in sales to American and Middle Eastern tourists last year. In mid-May, the chairman of Swiss luxury group Richemont, which owns the Cartier, IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre brands, said he expected Chinese tourists to return gradually to Europe, not least because flight prices were expected to ease.
Exports to the USA down
According to the watchmaking federation, exports of Swiss watches to the USA fell by 4.9% year-on-year in April, due to a very high basis of comparison after a long phase of growth. This confirms watchmakers’ concerns about a possible downturn in this market in recent months.
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