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SWITZERLAND. Chinese consumers remain the biggest purchasing group of luxury watches worldwide despite decreasing sales in mainland China, according to a preview of this year’s World Watch Report from the Digital Luxury Group.
Now in its tenth year, the report is produced for the annual Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), which is taking place this week from 20-24 January in Geneva. Full results from the report will be released in March at Baselworld (27 March -3 April 2014) in Basel, Switzerland.
BRIC consumers drive category as UK and US markets recover
Compared with last year, luxury watches sales to Chinese consumers grew by +57.9%, accounting for over +30% of total interest in the segment.
Digital Luxury Group Founder and CEO David Sadigh said: “Despite lower reported sales on the mainland, Chinese consumers’ interest for haute horlogerie watches continues to grow. This love story is not ready to end any time soon and will continue to drive a substantial amount of sales outside of China.”
On its own, mainland China has 34% of the global market share for luxury watches, an increase of +58% year-on-year. Previous reports have also underlined the strong demand from Chinese consumers for high-end watches.
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China remains the biggest market for luxury watches with a 34% share of global sales |
The other BRIC markets also retained their high growth rates in 2013, with Brazil at +7%, Russia at +15% and India at +20%.The US and UK markets, the second and third biggest, showed signs of recovery following last year’s decline. The UK posted the strongest increase in Europe at +7.7%, rebounding from -8.5% last year while the US market evened out at -1.5% versus -11.6% in 2012.
Global double-digit growth for luxury watch brands
Overall high-end brands continue to experience double-digit growth, with an increase of +12% on last year. Sadigh said: “This marks the fourth year in a row that we’ve observed the category increasing in the World Watch Report, showing the continued strength of haute horlogerie within the overall market.”
The Haute Horlogerie Preview of the World Watch Report 2014 covers 18 brands across 20 international markets including Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Taiwan, the UK, the United Arab Emirates and the USA.
Brands tracked in the preview report include: A. Lange & Söhne, Audemars Piguet, Blancpain, Bovet, Breguet, De Bethune, Franck Muller, Girard-Perregaux, Glashütte Original, Greubel Forsey, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Jaquet Droz, Parmigiani, Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, Roger Dubuis, Ulysse Nardin and Vacheron Constantin.
The entire report will cover the performance of over 60 luxury watch brands including other brands that are exhibiting at this week’s SIHH show, including Cartier, IWC, Panerai and Piaget.
Patek Philippe retains biggest brand interest
Patek Philippe led the way in consumer interest with 28.1% of brand interest share, an increase of +21.4% since last year, while Vacheron Constantin and Audemars Piguet came in second and third place at 13.4% and 13.0% respectively.
Richard Mille, however, recorded the biggest slowdown of the high-end group at -2.7% compared with a +61% increase in market share in 2012. At the other end of the spectrum, Swatch Group brand Glashütte Original was the fastest growing in the category this year with +40.2% market share.
Glashütte Original and Vacheron Constantin show strongest interest in forums
Vacheron Constantin showed the strongest increase in interest on the top ten most popular luxury watch brands on selected forums including PuristSPro, TimeZone and iWatch365. Vacheron Contantin was up +53.4% in total number of views, trailed closely by Glashütte Original at +48.7%.
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