Fier d’être Français! France continues to prop up Swiss watch exports

France continues its incredible recent run of Swiss watch export growth, reporting a barely believable increase of 72% year-on-year for the month of March.

This comes on the back of year-on-year growth of 51% in December of last year, 37% in January, and 57% in February.

The USA and UK saw sales value growth of -1.55% and 3.19% respectively.

The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, which provides the export data, has made clear that the booming French figures are not reflective of a booming French market. 

“The very strong variation shown by France does not reflect actual market growth, but rather re-exports to other destinations,” it said in its monthly analysis. 

This ties in with the general consensus across the market, which is that the inflated French numbers are more about logistical centralisation in Europe, whereby brands use France as a consolidation point for all of their EU VAT/customs processes, and take advantage of the country’s extensive shipping networks and larger airports.

In total, Swiss watch exports (in terms of sales value) were down 1.04% in March, and, for the year to date, are down 1.93%.