Swiss watch exports continues to grow in the first 6 months 2005

23 august 2005

Swiss Watch Exports in the First Half of 2005

Despite a very unfavourable base effect, the value of Swiss watch exports continued to grow in June. Exceeding the one billion franc mark for the third consecutive month, it registered an increase of 0.6%, to 1,030.4 million. The slowdown in the rate of growth is due to a very high basis of comparison, since June 2004 recorded an increase of 26.6% compared to June 2003. For the first half-year as a whole, the value of Swiss watch exports amounted to 5.6 billion francs, or 11.0% more than in January-June 2004. The moving average over twelve months rose by 9.7%.

The Swiss watch industry therefore continues to build on the excellent progress made in 2004, registering high rates of growth and outstripping forecasts. It is recording steady growth despite a difficult economic environment in some markets, particularly in Europe. While prospects for the second half-year are good, a few monthly setbacks are to be expected in view of the high benchmarks set last year, particularly in August.

Products

After six months, exports of finished watches reached a value of 5.1 billion francs, an increase of 12.3% compared to the first half-year of 2004. Gold timepieces (+20.3%) contributed to nearly half this increase. Steel watches (+8.2%) and bimetallic watches (+20.9%) also helped to achieve this good result.

The number of pieces exported did not follow the same trend and fell by 820,000 units, to 11.2 million watches (-6.8%). The variation of the moving average over twelve months was affected by declines registered since February and weakened to -4.7% at the end of the first half-year, mainly on account of lower-priced watches. Steel watches recorded a slight decline (-1.3%) during the same period, however their variation over twelve months remains positive.

Among other watch and clock products exported by Switzerland during the first half of the year, not all followed the same trend. Exports of movements (+0.9%), dials (-1.1%) and bracelets (-1.7%) did not vary greatly in value terms compared to 2004. The figure for finished cases however fell by 17.8%. Large volume articles increased by 9.9%, on average in the sector, thanks in particular to the good performance by alarms and other clocks (+17.8%).

Markets

In the first half of 2005, the fifteen main markets showed the following trend (total value in million francs and % variation by comparison with the first half of 2004):