Swiss watch exports in August: growth almost everywhere except America
Exports rose 9.1% in August, but shipments to the largest market, the United States, fell by almost a fifth. Here is what the numbers do and do not say.
Every month the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) publishes the numbers the whole trade watches: the value of watches leaving Switzerland. The August 2026 figures, released in mid-September, looked good at first glance and got more interesting the closer you read them.
The headline
Swiss watch exports were worth CHF 1,789.2 million in August, up 9.1% on August 2025. Wristwatches, which make up almost all of that, came to CHF 1,704.5 million, up 8.6% in value, on about 1.1 million pieces (+9.5%).
Two caveats come straight from the FH. First, August 2026 had one more working day than August 2025, which flatters any year-on-year comparison. Second, the federation notes that the twelve-month moving average had just moved back into positive territory for the first time in two years. In other words, this is a sign of recovery, not a boom. Over the first eight months of the year exports were up 1.7%.
The United States went the other way
The United States is still the largest single market, at CHF 197.5 million in August. But that was 19.4% lower than a year earlier, and the FH points out that this happened despite an easy comparison. The trade press has tied the swings in US shipments this year to tariff uncertainty and stock moving earlier or later than usual. The FH's August release itself does not give a reason, so we won't guess one.
Elsewhere the picture was broadly positive. The United Kingdom was up 46.1%, Japan 22.1%, China 15.8%, Germany 34.0%, Singapore 8.5%, the United Arab Emirates 6.1% and Hong Kong 1.4%. Italy was the big exception, down 40.4%. France showed an extraordinary +113.5%, and the FH itself warns that this may partly be goods passing through France on their way to other EU countries rather than French demand.
Cheap and expensive did best
By price band, watches under CHF 200 (export price) rose 13.3% and those over CHF 3,000 rose 10.2%. The middle, CHF 500 to 3,000, slipped 0.9%. That fits a pattern seen for a while now: the very top of the market and the entry level are holding up better than the mid-range brands in between.
How to read these numbers
It helps to know what the FH statistics actually measure, because they are often misread.
- They are exports, not sales. A watch is counted when it leaves Switzerland, at its export price, not when someone buys it in a shop. A brand stocking up a distributor ahead of a price rise or a tariff shows up as a jump, even if no customer has bought anything.
- They are not about one brand. The FH says plainly that its figures combine all Swiss firms, so you can't tell from them how any single company is doing.
- They get revised. Customs data are sometimes corrected later, and the most recent publication counts.
So one strong month does not mean the industry has turned the corner, and one weak month in a single country does not mean that market has collapsed. What matters is the trend over several months.
What's next
The FH will publish September's figures on 20 October 2026. The questions to watch are whether the US slide continues into the busy end-of-year shipping season, and whether the recovery holds without the help of an extra working day.
Sources
- FH (Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry): Swiss watchmaking in August 2026
- FH: Swiss watch exports, August 2026 (statistics table)
- FH: Watch industry statistics and release calendar
- JCK: Swiss Watch Exports to the U.S. Fell Nearly 20% in August
- Carat Capital: Swiss watch exports rise 9.1% in August, US shipments fall 19.4%