Swiss watch exports to the United States rose by almost 50% in April as wholesalers and retailers rushed to bring product into the country ahead of any increases in tariffs that the Trump administration might impose.
That surge in exports to the world’s biggest market for luxury watches snapped back in May, with a year-on-year drop of 25.3%.
This has been followed by a 17.6% fall in Swiss watch exports to the USA in June, according to fresh data from Switzerland’s Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.
Zooming out to look at the year-to-date, exports to the United States have risen by 20% to CHF 2.55 billion for the first 7 months of 2025. Exports to Japan, now the world’s second largest market for Swiss watches, are down 3.2% over the same period to CHF 931 million.
China and Hong Kong are showing signs of recovery. For the year to date, exports to the two markets contracted by 18.7% and 13.3%, respectively.
For June, alone, exports actually rose, year-on-year, to China by 6.1%, although Hong Kong was down by 10%.
Exports to the UK were flat YoY in June and also flat for the year-to-date.
Overall, Swiss watch exports declined by 5.6% in June, which has now wiped out the strong gains in April to see growth extinguished (-0.1% year-to-date).