William Tell must turn around in his grave to see a Californian apple stronger than the whole of Switzerland. But the world is big, and Switzerland is small. It therefore seemed inevitable that the Cupertino giant would, from a pure accounting point of view, surpass the Swiss watch industry in terms of turnover. According to statistics, recently revealed by Strategy Analytics, Apple would have delivered 30.7 million smart watches in 2019, against 22.5 million in 2018. Or an increase of 36% over a year, due to an attractive design, easy-to-use technology and addictive apps. Meanwhile, according to statistics from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, 20.633 million watches left the mountain pastures last year to conquer the world. A figure in sharp decline (-13%).
An achievement in itself
Delivering more than 30 million watches when a single one was not sold four years before, the feat is worthy of the apple brand, even if these figures are incommensurate with sales of iPhones. Conversely, despite its notoriety and the global celebrity of its brands, the Swiss watch industry is in fact only a small industry, barely weighing a few tens of billions of euros in turnover. planet scale. It will therefore have been enough for Apple, roughly speaking, to release a product and many bracelets to sell more watches than what represents all Swiss watch exports in 2019.
For analysts at Strategy Analytics, the Swiss made industry may have closed the window of opportunity that would have allowed it to thwart the American giant. However, such a judgment is doubly in perspective. Firstly due to the average selling price of an Apple Watch: analysts estimate the turnover of Apple's connected watch at around 12 billion euros, its average selling price therefore hovers around 400 euros . A price to compare with that of Swiss quartz or mechanical watches. Watchmaking luxury does not play in the same court in terms of selling price. The proof: still according to figures from the federation of the Swiss watch industry, "watches over 3000 Swiss francs (just over 2,800 euros) recorded strong growth, + 12.9% in value" , in December 2019.
Another territory for luxury
Will the brands of the Swatch Group, starting with Tissot and its famous T-Touch, this year take the step of the connected watch and take on Apple? This is another question. If this is finally the case, it will have to be with functionalities and autonomy capable of distinguishing itself from the fashion and connected creations of the Californian giant. Especially since, alongside the mass market that Apple has managed to create and monopolize, another territory does exist for the connected watch. The luxury one. A choice clearly made by different brands of the LVMH group, each according to their universe: Hublot around football, Louis Vuitton around travel and TAG Heuer around sport. With a sale price between 1800 and almost 5000 euros, these luxury connected watches (which cannot be Swiss Made, battery and processor require) clearly do not target the same clientele as that of Apple, and are not also not produced in the same quantities as the Apple Watch. Faced with Apple products that have become the norm, there are still places to take for the Swiss watch industry ... provided you play the "Think different" card ...