We’ve noticed it over the last year and a half. You may have too. Despite the ongoing tumult of global economies and the precarious health situation, the watch business is doing better than ever. I hear the same story everywhere I go, from everyone I speak to. Sales are strong and demand is high, despite pandemic-related staffing shortages and supply-chain blockages. Brands that had been quiet for the last two years, that many thought we had seen the last of, are back with revitalised leadership and new funding. Just last week, Swatch Group issued a press release announcing that their upcoming Annual General Meeting would include a proposal for a 57 per cent increase in shareholder dividend compared to the previous year.
Online, amid the predominant high-profile topics of NFT trading, pandemic updates and concern over the Ukraine situation, our small world of high-end watch appreciation is active in new and exciting ways. We’re seeing more diversity in audiences, with more women joining the conversation about watches (something that you all know is particularly important to me). For years, every informal or official discussion I’ve had about the future of the watch industry has arrived at the conclusion that women consumers are a major part of our long-term survival and prosperity, so this is an optimistic development for everyone.
Buyers are also shifting more attention towards independent watchmaking and the secondary market, which are two well-known signs of a mature and sustainable consumer industry. The recent auction results reinforce this observation. Two years ago, in the first few months of the Covid panic, market analysts predicted an increasingly narrow focus on large and established prestige brands, in line with the less adventurous expenditure patterns associated with lean economic times. Today’s market trends are even more astonishing when mitigating factors such as this are taken into consideration.
Across the world, from North America to the Asia-Pacific, my trusted and reliable information sources — industry insiders and retail veterans — are reporting exceptional market performance, backed up by sales figures. This applies across various levels of government-implemented pandemic controls; watches are selling both in and out of lockdown, whether or not the country is open to international travel.
Even if we step back from the macro view and look at the watches themselves, it’s possible to extrapolate the same ideas. Watches that we’ve seen in the last year, watches that some of us have been privileged to preview before Watches And Wonders 2022, they all tell us the same thing. The creativity and innovation in the products speak to the investment of resources by watch companies. The movement provenance tells us that the industry infrastructure of suppliers and parts manufacturers is doing well. (The reverse is also true; to find out the true health of a consumer industry, speak to its suppliers, not its brands.)
Like I said at the beginning, you may have already noticed some, or all, of the above signs. Now, I’m not an economist. The last time I had more than a passing familiarity with economic concepts was 20 years ago when I was doing exams on the subject. (I got a C, sad face emoji.) So don’t forget to check out our report published last week, written by regular contributor Olivier Müller, breaking down the odds-defying sales of high-end watches today.
