Credits: Article and images by Marton Radkai @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/09/12/hong-kong-clock-and-watch-fair-wrap-up-and-industry-outlook/
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Whither the watch
Anyone even cursorily following trade news of late will know one thing: 2024 has been a bumpy year for timepieces. The haut-de-game segment has suffered less, of course, but for a good reason. As one insider told me during a casual meeting: “During the pandemic, people had time to look at watches and money to buy them. Now they are putting their money in trips.”
In other words, if you have a few millions of petty cash lying around, you can allocate some to a nice timepiece.
This was all confirmed at the Hong Kong International Watch Forum by watch federation representatives from China, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, France, Great Britain, and local associations.
The figures for watches sold, components, and so on, in the first six months of 2024 were not positive, but signs for the second half of the year suggest a recovery. Japan, apparently, is the only country that seems to have weathered the downturn.
Hong Kong Clock and Watch Fair
Great Britain rising?
As an interesting aside during this discussion, Alistair Audsley, co-founder and CEO of the British Watch and Clock Makers association did add some context. The British industry, which produced half of the world’s watches in the mid-nineteenth century, had all but died out by 1970.
In the past few years, however, it has made a comeback, with now just over 100 brands generating total sales of £2.1 billion. A quarter of those brands are under three years old and many, he pointed out, have been launched by people outside the industry, which now employs 840 people.
The outlook is good, with projected growth of over 3% in the coming years, but the challenges are great as well. British watchmakers rely on an international supply chain for parts, and they still lack proper physical retail sales experience.
Hong Kong International Watch forum
A few trends were explored in greater depth at the Asian Watch Conference. According to Euromonitor, a global market research company, emerging markets notably in the Asian-Pacific region (APAC) are showing promise. Rising incomes in these regions often translates as a quest for fashion accessories.
To take advantage of this, said Senior Research Analyst Clifton Chiu, innovations will be necessary in the online and offline experience of consumers, which is particularly important
He mentioned as an example Audemars Piguet boutiques designed to look like living rooms. In the aesthetics department, the favored style for traditional watch brands – not smartwatches and other electronic wrist devices – is still vintage, because it expresses “durability and individuality.”
Not surprisingly, a majority of respondents to the survey also had a special liking for “nostalgia and cultural connection.”
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Credits: Article and images by Marton Radkai @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/09/12/hong-kong-clock-and-watch-fair-wrap-up-and-industry-outlook/
