Recently, investment bank Morgan Stanley (Morgan Stanley) and Swiss consulting firm LuxConsult jointly released the annual list of sales in the Swiss watch industry in 2023. Rolex's full-year sales of 10.1 billion Swiss francs (US$11.5 billion) last year exceeded the US$10 billion mark for the first time, and its retail market share rose to 303%。Rolex produced 1.24 million watches last year, according to the report, and now has an "unprecedented" market share. The Swiss watch industry ended 2023 on a positive note, achieving record sales of CHF 26.7 billion, of which CHF 25.5 billion (up 7.).7%) from watches, with 16.9 million units sold.
According to the report, the ranking of the top 10 Swiss watch brands in 2023 has not changed significantly compared to 2022, with four brands dominating, Rolex, Cartier, Omega and Patek Philippe, which together account for 50% of total sales2%, but Rolex's sales "are more than the next brands of Cartier, Omega, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe and Richard Miller combined in terms of market share." ”
Tissot, the mid-range brand of the Swatch Group, once again made it into the top 10, while IWC, a member of the Richemont Group, slipped to 11th place, with sales falling by 13% to around 72.6 billion Swiss francs. Despite the launch of an eye-catching replica of the new Ingenieur Automatic 40, the price tag of nearly $100,000** is less attractive than competitors in the same class, such as Omega and Breitling.
IWC Ingenieur Automatic 40.
Vacheron Constantin, also part of the Richemont Group, continued its eighth place on the list and entered the "1 billion franc club", achieving sales of 10. for the first time in 20239.7 billion Swiss francs (about 8.1 billion500 million yuan), an increase of 18% year-on-year, becoming the eighth watch brand with sales of more than 1 billion Swiss francs.
Sales of Cartier, the second-ranked watch, increased by 8% to CHF 3.1 billion, and the retail market share surpassed that of Omega for the first time to 754% compared to 7 for Omega49%。
Swatch Swatch, the entry-level brand owned by the Swatch Group, performed well, entering the list at No. 13, compared to No. 22 last year. Morgan Stanley expects the Swatch brand to achieve a year-on-year increase in revenue of 63% to 6600 million Swiss francs (about 53.)6.2 billion yuan), its sales tripled compared to 2021 and were the largest increase among all brands in the top 50 Swiss watch sales list. As a result, the Swatch brand became the fastest-growing Swiss watchmaking brand for the second year in a row. This is mainly due to the continued popularity of the Swatch and Omega co-branded Moonswatch, which sold more than 2 million pieces last year, accounting for 73% of the brand's total sales, and is priced at 2,100 yuan on the official website. The Swatch Group was also a major contributor to sales in the entry-level and mid-range** segments, accounting for 72% of the total volume share.
Swatch and OMEGA Moonswatch.
The report also notes that the entry-level Swiss watch** range continues to be influenced by smartwatches, with around 80 million premium smartwatches sold worldwide in 2023, compared to 16.9 million Swiss watches exported last year.
Written by: Nandu reporter Wang Xin.