Swiss watch exports accelerate in September, but UK shipments fall 5.2%
Swiss watch exports rose 11.7% year on year in September 2026, the fourth consecutive month of growth, but the UK was one of the few major markets to move backwards.
The headline numbers
The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) reported on 20 October 2026 that total exports reached CHF 2,225.9 million in September. Wristwatches accounted for CHF 2,125.5 million, an increase of 11.6%, while volumes rose 19.9% to 1.37 million pieces — around 228,000 more watches than in September 2025. Other products added CHF 100.5 million.
For the first nine months of the year, export value reached CHF 19.5 billion, 2.7% ahead of the same period in 2025. That is a marked improvement on the half-year, when the FH reported exports 0.7% below 2025. The next set of figures, covering October, is due on 19 November 2026.
Steel and the entry level do the work
By value, steel watches rose 13.0% and bimetallic gold-steel models 29.3%, while precious-metal watches managed 1.3%. By volume, steel was up 21.5% and watches in the “other materials” category 17.9%; together those two accounted for 81% of the watches exported.
The price bands were similarly broad. Watches with an export price above CHF 3,000 — the segment that matters most to the luxury market — grew 9.9% by value. But the sharpest increase came below CHF 500, where exports rose 39.5%. Every price segment posted growth.
That breadth is worth noting. A recovery confined to the top would suggest a market running on a narrow group of wealthy buyers; a recovery that also lifts entry-level volumes points to restocking and a healthier pipeline. For pre-owned dealers, the entry-level movement is the more forward-looking signal, because today’s new-watch buyers become tomorrow’s trade-ins.
The UK: a fall against a hard comparison
Shipments to the UK were CHF 164.3 million in September, 5.2% lower than a year earlier, giving Britain a 7.4% share of Swiss exports. That made it the fourth-largest market, behind the United States (CHF 292.9 million), France (CHF 246.5 million) and Japan (CHF 177.3 million), and just ahead of Hong Kong (CHF 160.5 million).
The FH attributes the UK decline to an unfavourable base effect rather than a sudden loss of appetite. September 2025 was a strong month for Britain, and matching it was always going to be difficult.
The same distortion runs through much of the table. Exports to the United States rose 85.7% because September 2025 was so weak. France rose 128.2%, which the FH says may reflect trade-flow reallocations between markets rather than retail demand. China fell 14.2%, Singapore 8.3% and the United Arab Emirates 9.0%, while the EU as a whole rose 15.5%.
In other words, this month’s country ranking says more about what happened a year ago — and about how groups move stock between markets — than about what customers are buying now.
What it means for buyers and sellers
The first thing to keep in mind is what the numbers measure. FH statistics track exports, not sales to consumers, and the federation says explicitly that they cannot be used to infer the performance of individual companies. A softer shipment month for the UK is not the same as a softer pre-owned market.
The second is supply. Fewer new watches arriving in Britain tends to mean fewer part-exchanges and trade-ins further down the line, which can tighten the supply of recent pre-owned references. That effect is slow-moving, but it matters for anyone waiting for a particular model to appear.
The third is currency. Sterling’s level against the franc and the dollar changes the relative cost of UK stock to overseas buyers, and can distort country-level trade figures from one month to the next. That is one reason we value against completed transactions rather than a single headline.
For sellers, the practical conclusion is unchanged: a valuation based on what comparable watches actually change hands for is a better guide than any monthly export print. For buyers, periods of allocation and currency uncertainty often produce the most sensible buying conditions.
Sources
- Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry — Swiss watchmaking in September 2026: Growth acceleration (PDF, 20 October 2026) — www.fhs.swiss/scripts/getstat.php?file=comm_260909_a.pdf
- Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry — Watch industry statistics: September 2026 — www.fhs.swiss/eng/statistics.html
- Bloomberg Law — Switzerland Sept. Watch Exports Rise 11.7% Y/Y (20 October 2026) — news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/switzerland-sept-watch-exports-rise-11-7-y-y
- Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry — Swiss watch exports in the first half of 2026 (21 July 2026) — www.fhs.swiss/eng/2026_07_21_statistics.html
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