Worrying times for the Swiss watch industry
Further to my earlier post on the latest Swiss trade balance where I noted the decline in watch exports Bloomberg now highlighting that the fall was the biggest mm fall in six years
Led by a 39% fall in shipments to HK, the industry's largest market, the data reflects a lack of global demand in these less than buoyant times
Watch shipments make up about 10% of Swiss total exports and some firms are pulling out of the HK market with TAG Heuer shutting a store there in August and has begun to cut jobs
Stronger CHF is obviously part of the problem but competition from Apple's Smartwatch is also being cited
Meanwhile USDCHF and EURCHF remain underpinned with the SNB unlikely to allow them to fall too far ahead of the potential ECB easing in December
