Swiss watch exports rose 11.2 percent in June, but the growth is a barbell: cheap and dear both climbed, and the middle was the only band to fall.
That middle, watches at 500 to 3,000 francs in wholesale export prices, is where the aspirational mechanical watch lives: Tissot, Longines, TAG Heuer, the first real Swiss watch a normal person saves for.
- Under 200 francs up 9.9 percent, 200-to-500 up 54.1 percent, over 3,000 up 14.2 percent, the 500-to-3,000 band down 4.7 percent.
- The top four houses (Rolex, Patek, Audemars Piguet, Richard Mille) now take an estimated 49.1 percent of the market by value.
- Swatch Group, which owns Longines and Tissot, has slid from about 26 to 16 percent share since 2019, on an estimate it disputes.
Price the entry mechanical watch out of reach and you lose the buyer who becomes tomorrow's regular.
