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Hong Kong No Longer Top Market for Luxury Watches
Sales have been hit hard by a strong Hong Kong dollar and by China’s crackdown on gifting by party officials
By KATHY CHU and KIMAYA DE SILVA
Aug. 24, 2016 2:57 a.m. ET
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Hong Kong has lost its title as the world’s largest luxury-watch market to the U.S., the latest casualty in a nearly yearlong decline in global Swiss-watch exports as consumers spurn expensive timepieces.
In Hong Kong, Swiss watch exports plunged nearly 33% in July, compared with a 14% decline globally from a year earlier. The U.S. saw a 14.7% drop, with total Swiss watch exports of 178.5 million Swiss francs (185 million dollars).
The global luxury-goods industry is hurting as consumers pare back spending in the wake of terror attacks and economic uncertainty. WSJ’s Kathy Chu explains five things to know about the slowdown. Photo: Menglin Huang/The Wall Street Journal
Hong Kong fell to under 175 million Swiss francs in July, down from nearly 260 million Swiss francs for the month last year, according to statistics released Wednesday by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.
“Wealthy Chinese no longer want luxury watches,” said Shaun Rein, the founder of China Market Research Group, which consults with high-end brands. “The new luxury is going on safari in Botswana and skydiving in New Zealand. It’s no longer about wearing a 5,000 dollars or 15,000 dollars watch.”
Hong Kong has long been the top market for luxury watches, but sales here have been hit hard by the strong Hong Kong dollar and by the Chinese government’s crackdown on gifting by party officials as part of its anticorruption campaign.
To stimulate sales and appease dealers, makers of luxury watches including Cartier and Tag Heuer have been buying back slow-selling timepieces to make room for lower-cost goods that sell more quickly. Analysts estimate up to thousands of costly watches are being returned.
Luxury brands under Cie. Financière Richemont, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE and Swatch Group AG have also been quietly rolling out more affordable versions of their timepieces as diamond-encrusted watches generally lose favor to stainless-steel and other designs.
The news isn’t all bad: Luxury-watch sales in mainland China are starting to recover as some luxury brands have narrowed the up-to-40% price differential between watches sold on the mainland versus in the West, according to Bruno Lannes, a partner at Bain & Co.
Still, Mr. Rein doesn’t expect the global luxury watch market “to bounce back anytime soon.”
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