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The Truth About Watches has done its level best to report on the secretive Swiss watch industry throughout Coronageddon. While the Swiss Watch Federation provides some general stats (e.g., Swiss watch exports declined another 10 percent in January) and we read Big Watch’s’ financial reports, we’ve been mostly flying blind. Until now . . .
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“The Swatch Group reported its first annual loss since the early days of the Swiss watchmaker almost 40 years ago,” news18.com reports. Before we run the numbers, know this: Coronageddon is obscuring an existential threat to Swiss watches in general and the Swatch Group in particular. This isn’t news to regular readers of this series. Anyway, here’s where the Group stands now . . .
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“Swiss watch brand Frederique Constant is hoping to limit the fall in sales to 25% this year,” its chief executive told Reuters. “That’s what we’re aiming for.” Niels Eggerding said in an interview in Zurich this week. The Citizen subsidiary’s “cut some jobs” and “many employees are still working shorter hours under a Swiss state-backed programme to avoid layoffs.” Well there’s something the mainstream watch press isn’t reporting. The beginning of the end for the traditional watch industry? . . .
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UPDATE 1/5/2021: This post about the Rolex wait list was written in May 2019. I was dead wrong when I predicted “a big fall after the fall” in Rolex prices, an increase in availability and an imminent end to wait lists. So here’s where we stand now . . .
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Pre-Coronageddon, Rolex made some one million timepieces a year. Despite those vast production numbers, Rolex prices have been steadily climbing. Buyers were willing to stretch their budget -Rolex was the “safe choice.” Come hard times, they could convert their pricey watch into cash. Maybe not as much as they paid, but some. Well hard times are here . . .
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