Rollercoaster ride: After a huge increase in exports in April, Swiss watch exports to the USA are now collapsing

Rollercoaster ride: After a huge increase in exports in April, Swiss watch exports to the USA are now collapsing

Not only did Switzerland's watch exports decline significantly in May 2025, but overall exports were 13.6 percent lower than in May 2024, seasonally adjusted, falling to CHF 21 billion.

Of this, just under CHF 2.1 million was accounted for by exports from the Swiss watch industry. This is 9.5 percent less than in the same month last year. In terms of volume, the decline was 13.4 percent (180,000 units) to just under two million units.

USA: Export slump announced

The export decline again primarily affected the USA, with a decline in value of 25.3 percent, meaning that this single market contributed 40 percent to the global decline.

This was to be expected after the extraordinary increase in exports as a result of threatened tariffs of 31 percent in April 2025.

Customs chaos causes Swiss watch exports to explode

The United States contributed over 40% to the global decline, with a decline of 25.3%.

The reported export data is not surprising given the artificially inflated April figures, according to the major Swiss bank UBS. However, the true underlying trend for the US market remains difficult to decipher, partly due to uncertain consumer sentiment. Regarding the rest of the world, the trend remains "largely unchanged." "All in all, this could further dampen market sentiment," say the UBS experts.

According to the major Swiss bank UBS, the reported export data is not surprising given the artificially inflated figures in April. However, the underlying trend for the US market remains difficult to interpret due to uncertain consumer sentiment. Looking at the rest of the global market, the trend remains "largely unchanged." Overall, this could further weigh on market sentiment, the UBS experts explain.

Sharp decline in Swiss exports to the main markets

The other top markets also performed negatively in May compared to the same month last year: Japan (-10.5 %), United Kingdom (-14.5 %), Hong Kong (-12.6 %), Japan (-10.5 %), Singapore (-3.4 %).

The United Arab Emirates (+17 %) was the only one of the top 12 markets to achieve a positive performance in May, but showed a negative development throughout the year.

Exports to Europe fell by 8.4 percent in value in May. While exports to Austria plummeted by 48 percent, the declines to Germany (-4 percent), Spain (-0.2 percent), and the Netherlands (-4.5 percent) were comparatively small. France (-18.1 percent) and Italy (-9.7 percent) also performed below the European average.

Swiss watch exports with slight increase in the first five months

At approximately CHF 10.8 billion from January to May 2025, exports from the Swiss watch industry are slightly up by 1.1 percent (volume +1.2%) compared to the same period last year. However, given current developments, it is questionable whether this result can be maintained in the coming months.

“However, this result does not reflect the actual sales situation, which developed less positively,” commented the Swiss Watch Industry Federation (FH), which publishes the monthly export statistics.

All watch categories lose

With regard to materials, all categories developed negatively or stagnated, led by the category Other Materials: Precious Metal (value -9 t/volume -11.3 t), Steel (value -9 t/volume +0.4 t), Gold-Steel (value -12.6 t/volume -3.1 t), Other Metals (value -13.6 t/volume -18.3 t), Other Materials (value -3.6 t/volume -38.4 t).

Exports of watches in the price range between CHF 500 and CHF 3,000 (export price) remained stable in value compared to May 2024. The other main price segments recorded an average decline of 11.4 percent.