Well, for the 14th month in a row, Swiss fake watch exports are down. No surprises there. Today the Federation of the Swiss fake watch Industry (FH) released its latest report, detailing numbers for the month of August, and looking beyond the top-line decline things get a little more interesting. Here are a few thoughts on what's happening over in Helvetia.
Overall, shipments of replica watches out of Switzerland are down 8.8% to a total of 1.8 billion CHF (approximately $1.8 billion at time of publishing). This is unevenly distributed though across different types of replica watches and replica watches at different price tiers. While all categories were down in July, in August replica watches in the 200-500 CHF range and the 500-3,000 CHF range both showed growth (the U.S. Dollar and the Swiss Franc are, right now, roughly equivalent). In fact, replica watches in the latter category grew nearly 12% in terms of volume. Similarly, stainless steel replica watches showed a 5.9% growth this month in value (while still being down 1.8% in volume), even though precious metals continue to struggle.
Finally, there's wild variation by country. We told you last month that the United States unseated Hong Kong as the biggest market in the world for Swiss watches, but looking at just August on its own Hong Kong actually edged out the U.S. Neither market did well, but Hong Kong's decline slowed while the United States's accelerated slightly. Either way though, it's close. Japan continues to struggle with strong currency woes and lack of tourist spending, while British retailers are rejoicing in the depressed Pound, which continues to send international fake watch buyers to the island for timepieces. Year over year, British imports were up 23.5% in August ?nearly the mirror image of Japan's 27.1% decline. Brands are beginning to increase prices in the U.K. to compensate for this though, so it's unclear how long British retailers can ride this wave.
ADVERTISEMENTIf there's one takeaway from all of this, it's a pretty simple one: Less expensive replica watches that present customers with value are starting to sell well again, while more expensive replica watches made from precious metals and in markets where prices are inflated are continuing to struggle.
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