“The Swiss watch industry has been sticking its head in the sand and hoping smartwatches will go away”, he said.
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Swiss watch moguls haven’t ignored the rise in smart technology with several brands showing an interest in entering the smartwatch space, and Tag Heuer even creating its own line of luxury smartwatches, released late 2015. Unsurprisingly, Apple and Samsung led the smartwatch charge accounting for eight out of 10 smartwatch shipments worldwide.
Overall, Swiss watches recorded a 3.3 percent decline in exports during 2015 – coming in at 21.5 billion Swiss francs (Exchange:CHF=) ($21.7 billion) – its first annual fall since 2009.
Strategy Analytics estimates all smartwatch sales globally totaled 8.1 million units in the three months ended in December, versus 7.9 million units for the Swiss watch business.
According to the numbers, it seems that the sales of smartwatches in Q4 2015 managed to pull ahead of that of smartwatches for the first time ever.
With such an amount of shipped units in the fourth quarter, the smartwatch market grew nearly 316 percent compared to the 1.9 million units that were shipped in the fourth quarter 2014. Apple does not break out Apple Watch sales in its financial earnings results, but rather groups the wrist-worn device under its “Other Products” category with iPod, Apple TV, Beats, and accessories revenue. “Global demand for Swiss watches is slowing down, and major players like Swatch are struggling to find growth”.
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Although Strategy Analytics didn’t break down its shipment estimates, previous reports from IDC and Juniper Research have credited most of the recent growth to the Apple Watch, which reportedly claimed more than half of all smartwatch shipments a year ago. Software specifically designed for these devices is also getting better and more useful, so people are starting to see additional benefits of smartwatches.
