We have been hearing, here at The Watchery, about the enormous increase in sales of Swiss watches last year. Yesterday, LVMH who owns Tag Heuer watches, among others, announced their sales rose by a staggering 23% in 2011. Apparently, this is due to a massive increase in demand for Swiss watches in the Asian markets. Growth is especially strong in China and South Korea. During 2011, Tag Heuer unveiled their groundbreaking, state-of-the-art watches, Mikrograph 100 and Mikrotimer Flying 1000. Both men's watches were built in-house and utilized the unprecedented Calibre 1887 automatic movement.
Meanwhile, the Swiss Watch Industry made an announcement on their website this week 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%.
Again, the Swiss Watch council is crediting the boom in Asian demand, with China becoming the third largest market for watch exports. 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.
