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Drop in Swiss luxury watches sales abroad impacts fledgling industry

Xinhua, September 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

Swiss watch exports in August 2016 totalled 1.4 billion CHF (1.43 billion U.S. dollars), down 8.8 percent from last year, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry reported on Tuesday.

"The fall in value was explained almost entirely by watches made of precious metals," the federation explained in a statement.

"At the other extreme, steel timepieces reported growth as did the other materials category. Volumes fell across the board," it added.

With both the number of precious-metal wristwatches sold abroad and their export value dropping by over 25 percent last month, the Federation said that timepieces costing more than 3,000 CHF suffered the steepest export-decline in the period under review.

Watches priced between 200 CHF and 3,000 CHF showed significant growth on the other hand, while the export of products priced below 200 CHF remained constant in value terms, it added.

Figures show that the value of exports to Hong Kong were down almost 29 percent, a drop compounded by disappointing revenue generated by sales in the United States, Germany and Japan (down around 12, 15 and 27 percent respectively).

The value of Swiss watch exports to China's mainland (up 29 percent) and Britain (up 23.5 percent) were more promising however.

Witnessing the first downturn in seven years, Swiss watch exports reached 21.5 billion CHF last year, down 3.3 percent compared to 2014. (1 CHF=1.02 U.S. dollar) Endit