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The Federation of the watch industry anticipates a …

“We anticipate a fall of around 25 to 30%,” says the president of the Federation of the Watch Industry (FH), Jean-Daniel Pasche, on the sidelines of the general meeting of the umbrella held without the physical presence of its members, due to health measures linked to the pandemic.

In the first five months of the year, the industry’s international shipments fell 35.8% to 5.7 billion francs.

Read also: Patrick Linder: “Watchmaking retains a key role for the Swiss industrial center”

Over the next few months, the situation should gradually begin to improve, as the watch and jewelry stores are once again open. However, challenges like the absence of tourists – especially Chinese and American in Europe – will complicate the restart.

Consumer confidence

“The overall situation remains difficult and the market is slowly recovering. The recovery will also depend on consumer confidence and the evolution of the pandemic, “said the president of the federation.

Concerning the production of the factories, Jean-Daniel Pasche noted that most of the watchmakers had resumed their activities. “Not necessarily 100%, because of the sanitary measures to respect,” he said before adding that the situation varied a lot from one brand to another.

As in the 2008 financial crisis, subcontractors in the watch sector are the first to suffer the consequences of this pandemic on their businesses and the last to recover, noted the FH.

Some of the suppliers of watch brands, such as Neuchâtel Gilbert Petit-Jean, have already had to lay off workers because of the sharp slowdown in sales.

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