The test will be whether timepieces can be aloof to the ups and downs affecting other categories, from online shopping to residential property and cryptocurrencies. That corresponds with retailers’ anecdotal delight that demand is as strong as it’s ever been. If that’s the world picture, Swiss watch imports to Australia – ranked 15th globally – have risen more than 20 per cent this year. Others who toil in the vital behind-the-scenes concerns that service the brands we know are wondering if the market is overheated, hence poised for a correction. This includes reports that smaller component suppliers in the Swiss valleys are looking increasingly to consolidation to protect against the kind of boom and bust many have experienced in the past. We need to really pay attention to everything that is happening.” But I would say that we need to be very cautious. In conversation with Watch, Chanel’s chief executive of watches and fine jewellery, Frederic Grangie, put it succinctly: “The market now, for example, is very strong. While this is another indication of desirability being at an all-time high, manufacturers are mindful of factors that can quickly affect market sentiment, from unexpected events such as the war in Ukraine, to sharemarket fluctuations and local social, political and financial issues.Īt the same time they have their own issues, not least a post-shutdown scramble for parts and people, all while dealing with a recent and savage surge in raw material costs. Interestingly, the overall growth is almost exclusively coming from watches priced above $10,000. MB&F’s first chronograph, the LM Sequential Evo. While the top market, the USA, is up more than 30 per cent, exports to the second-place holder, China, are down by a similar amount.
Official Swiss export figures, considered the most accurate guide to the health of the industry, have for months been confirming the upward trend, but what looked like 30 per cent year-on-year growth in February had tailed off to 13 per cent growth by May. As the pandemic curtailed our activities and travel, it seems we resorted to gratifying our wrists. Lange & Söhne’s Odysseus, and similar from Vacheron Constantin, Zenith et al. Sales threaten to overtake the high points of 20, and the post-COVID recovery looks like a thing of wonder as brand after brand enjoys double-digit growth in demand.Ĭustomers seeking a watch in the popular steel sports category know all about demand exceeding supply: the main hard-to-get culprits being almost any Rolex, any Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, Patek Philippe’s Nautilus and Aquanaut models, A. As anyone on the waiting list for a watch knows, business has been booming.
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