The Swiss watch export industry recorded its sixth consecutive month of growth with value of exports rising by 4.7% to 1.8 billion francs in September as compared to a year earlier, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH said in a statement released this week. This rising trend over a 12 month period is expected to continue, the statement added.

Growth was driven by a stronger performance across most categories, except at the lower end of the price spectrum, the statement revealed. In terms of material too, most categories showed improvement with the exception of bi-metal watches which registered a sharp downturn, continuing the trend seen in recent months.

In terms of price brackets, strongest growth (8%) was seen for watches priced at over 3000 francs (export price). Products costing less than 200 francs continued to decline, with a sharp over 18% fall in both value and volume terms, while there was slight growth in the in-between ranges.

Watches in precious metals (+10% in value terms) and steel (+6.7%) made a strong contribution to the overall growth. Volumes were down by 11.6% overall and across all categories, with the largest drop being in the Other materials category.

A majority of markets reported higher sales in September. Hong Kong showed positive growth for the fifth consecutive month, with exports rising by 13.7%, while China and UK reported marginal increases. US reported a marginal drop, while exports to Singapore practically doubled (89.6% rise) because of delivery of high priced watches, the federation reported.