Keep calm and read about watches

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Keep calm and read about watches - Newsletter
2 minutes read
Swiss watch exports drop, Apple’s revenue slumps

The Federation of the Swiss Watchmaking Industry’s March export statistics were published just before we sent out last week’s newsletter. A 16% drop in exports was the main headline, calling in to question, for example, Vontobel’s report that the growth curve for the industry would be flat for the full year of 2016. But can the figures for one month be extrapolated to a whole year? Last week we also saw disappointing second quarter figures for Apple, with a drop in sales by units and value for all its main product categories, whether measured over the year or the quarter. What is interesting for the watch industry in particular is that, although Apple does not provide unit sales figures for its watches, it does list the revenue for “Other products”, which includes Apple Watch, Apple TV, Beats products and the humble iPod (you can find the results sheet here). These other products generated 2.19 billion US dollars in revenue in the second quarter for Apple, which is half the figure for the first quarter. Even the most creative analysts would be hard-pressed to conclude from these figures that sales of the Apple watch are booming.

« Ce mois-ci, gagnez une montre Eterna pour dames »

In addition to some products with great value for money seen at Baselworld this year (see David Chokron’s analysis of the excellent Seiko Presage collection tomorrow), there was still a fair amount of innovation on show. Ulysse Nardin’s Grand Deck Marine Tourbillon caught my eye but a chat with Hamilton’s CEO Sylvain Dolla revealed an altogether more discreet form of innovation as the brand works with ETA on testing movements in zero gravity. Read today’s interview for the full story

There is a little surprise in store this month for those who are regular participants in our monthly competition. For the first time you can win something other than a watch. This month’s prize is a luxury watch winder by RDI Charles Kaeser. The K10-5 model from the Prestige range is worth 2,100 Swiss francs and comes with soft-black metal columns, black glass sides, and an open front. It has 16 different winding programmes and can be operated by mains electricity or batteries. As always, you simply need to answer three questions to be in with a chance to win this fantastic prize.

 

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