Driven by strong demand from China, Hong Kong and Japan, the Swiss watch export industry registered strong growth at the start of the New Year, with exports rising by 12.6% during January 2018 as compared to the same month a year earlier, to reach 1.6 billion francs, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH said in a statement released last week.

The performance further confirms the recovery of watch exports, especially to key markets, with Hong Kong rising to CHF 242.2 million, thus registering a 21.3% rise in demand, its highest monthly increase for over five years.

China, which reported a 44.3% rise in demand to CHF 176.8 million, became the second largest global importer, overtaking the United States where a decline of 1.9% saw demand dropping to CHF 163.1 million.

Like its Asian neighbours, Japan (+12.9%) also confirmed the strong performance of recent months, while the European markets lagged behind somewhat, apart from France (+19.0%). The United Kingdom bounced back to +4.6%, Germany (-4.1%) reported a fall, as too did Italy (-4.7%).

Reversing the trend of uneven performance across different product categories, January saw the value of all the main groups of materials increasing. Steel and bimetal watches made the biggest contribution. Total volumes were 2.5% higher, boosted by timepieces in steel and the Other metals category. Against the trend, while the Other materials category reported another substantial fall in volume terms, it registered a strong rise in value terms, nevertheless.

The Federation also said that after declining for more than two years, watches costing less than 200 francs (export price) continued to lose ground in January. All the other segments achieved sustained growth, especially in the price range between 500 and 3000 francs which saw an improvement of around +20%.