Watch Statistics 2026: Market Size, Swiss Exports, and Smartwatch Trends

The watch industry’s smartwatch segment was declining as recently as 2024. By the first quarter of 2026, Counterpoint Research was describing the opposite: shipments up 4% year over year, Apple growing 21%, and an analyst calling it a market that “regained momentum in 2025 after a slowdown in 2024.” That reversal, alongside a genuinely different Swiss export story than the one still being repeated across most watch statistics roundups, is why this data needed a real update rather than a cosmetic one.

These figures draw from Statista’s 2026 market outlook, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry’s full year 2025 export report, Counterpoint Research’s Q1 2026 shipment data, WatchCharts and Morgan Stanley’s secondary market tracking, and company financial disclosures. Every number below is dated to the period it actually covers, not presented as current when it is not. Readers exploring specific watch brands and deals can use this data to benchmark a purchase decision, the same discipline covered in our guide to the best time to buy electronics, against real market conditions rather than a marketing calendar.

Statista Market Insights, FHS, Counterpoint Research, and WatchCharts/Morgan Stanley, compiled August 2026.

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Global Watch Market Size and Growth

Statista’s 2026 market outlook puts global watch revenue at $135.63 billion for the year, up from $126.9 billion in 2025, with a projected annual growth rate of 5.62% through 2031. Per person spending on watches reached $17.22 globally in 2026, up from $16.24 the year before.

Alternative sizing methodologies still produce meaningfully lower totals. Straits Research valued the market at $103 billion for 2024 and projects $158.2 billion by 2033, a 4.8% CAGR, reflecting a narrower definition that excludes some smartwatch adjacent categories Statista counts.

The United States remains the single largest national market, generating $24 billion in 2026 revenue per Statista, up from roughly $22 billion the year before. That concentration reflects both high disposable income and the cultural weight Americans attach to watches as functional tools and status signals at once.

Market Size by Forecast Source

Variance across research firms is real, not error. Methodology, segment definitions, and what counts as a “watch” differ enough between firms that the numbers are not directly comparable without reading the fine print.

Compiled from each firm’s own published market outlook, checked August 2026.

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Swiss Watch Export Statistics: Full Year 2025

The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry reported that Swiss watch exports reached CHF 24.4 billion in 2025, a decline of 1.7% from 2024. That marks a second consecutive annual contraction, though the decline rate slowed from 2024’s 2.8% drop.

Unit volume fell harder than value again: 14.6 million watches were exported in 2025, down 4.8% from the year before. Fewer watches are leaving Switzerland at higher average prices, a deliberate industry trade of volume for premium positioning that has now held for 2 straight years.

What actually changed in 2025 is the geography, and most published watch statistics articles have not caught up to it yet. The United States swung from 5% growth in 2024 to a 0.5% decline in 2025, disrupted by tariff announcements during the year even as trade partly recovered by year end. Japan reversed even harder, from 7.8% growth to a 5.8% decline.

Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, full year 2025 export report, published January 29, 2026.

Europe stayed close to flat at negative 0.3%, with France growing 1.3% while Germany fell 6.8%. The UAE grew 3.5%, part of the same pattern as Saudi Arabia, and together they show Gulf demand doing real work to offset softness elsewhere.

Price Segment Performance, 2025

The FHS restructured its 2025 price segment reporting into 3 tiers instead of the 4 used in prior years, which limits a clean year over year comparison at every boundary. Watches exported above CHF 3,000 fell 1.9% in value. The CHF 500 to CHF 3,000 tier held roughly stable, the strongest relative performance of any segment.

Watches under CHF 500 fell 4.5%, continuing the pattern of aspirational and entry buyers pulling back hardest. Steel watches fell 2.8% in value but actually rose 3.8% in unit volume, meaning more steel watches shipped at a lower average price each. Precious metal watches held nearly flat at negative 0.3%, a real moderation from 2024’s swings.

FHS full year 2025 export report, 3 tier structure introduced for 2025 reporting.

Employment in the Swiss watch sector fell 1.3% in 2025 according to the Swiss Watch Industry Employers’ Association’s annual survey, a real, if modest, sign the slowdown is reaching headcount, not just headline revenue. The FHS itself described 2026 as likely to “remain steady, against a background still marked by significant uncertainty,” a genuinely hedged outlook rather than a confident recovery call.

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Luxury Watch Market Statistics

The global luxury watch market generated $63.44 billion in 2026 revenue according to Statista, growing at a projected 2.92% annually. Luxury still represents roughly half of total watch market sales, a concentration that reflects the industry’s decade long push toward premiumization.

Millennials and Gen Z now account for roughly 40% of the mechanical luxury segment, with a clear preference for vintage inspired and slimmer, design driven pieces over the sports dominated references that defined 2020 to 2022 collector behavior. Cartier has been a primary beneficiary of that generational shift, with secondary market demand among younger buyers reported up fourfold by Chrono24 in its H1 2025 market report.

Leading Luxury Watch Groups

Swatch Group closed full year 2025 with net sales of CHF 6.28 billion, down 1.3% at constant exchange rates and 5.9% at current rates. Richemont and LVMH report on different fiscal calendars and do not isolate watch division revenue as cleanly in their most recent disclosures, so the table below uses each group’s most recently reported watch segment figures with the exact period noted for each.

Each group’s own most recently published financial disclosure, compiled August 2026. Reporting periods differ by company.

Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet remain privately held and disclose no financial data at all. Their dominance is most visible in secondary market pricing rather than primary sales figures, covered in full in the preowned section below.

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Smartwatch Market Statistics: A Real Reversal

2024 marked the first annual decline in global smartwatch shipments since the category’s inception, down 7% year over year according to Counterpoint Research. Apple, which had led the category since 2017, saw shipments fall 19% that year as post pandemic demand normalized and upgrade cycles weakened.

That story has genuinely reversed. Counterpoint’s Q1 2026 report, published June 18, 2026, shows global smartwatch shipments up 4% year over year, with analyst Anshika Jain stating plainly that “the smartwatch market regained momentum in 2025 after a slowdown in 2024.” Apple led the quarter with 23% share and 21% year over year growth, the fastest of any top 10 brand, while China’s domestic market grew 15%.

Average selling price also rose, up 6% year over year in Q1 2026, meaning the recovery is coming from richer configurations, not just unit volume. Counterpoint projects a more modest 3% CAGR through 2030 though, flagging component memory shortages as a real headwind, the same DRAM and NAND pressure covered in our smartphone market statistics and laptop market statistics that has been pushing up prices across other electronics categories through 2026.

Counterpoint Research Q1 2026 global smartwatch shipment data, published June 18, 2026.

Statista projects global smartwatch users reaching approximately 640 million in 2026, up from 563 million the year before. Health and fitness monitoring remains the leading acquisition reason, cited by over 65% of purchasers, with fall detection, ECG monitoring, and sleep tracking among the most valued active features.

Statista smartwatch user estimates by year, compiled August 2026.

Health applications are becoming the category’s real product differentiator. Fall detection with emergency SOS triggered over 230,000 medical interventions in the United States between 2024 and 2025 alone. Seven of the top 10 US health insurers offered smartwatch related discounts or incentives in 2025 for members meeting activity targets.

Compiled from Statista and industry survey data through 2025.

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Preowned and Secondary Watch Market Statistics

The global preowned luxury watch market reached approximately $28.99 billion in 2026, up from $26.8 billion in 2024, and is projected to reach $59.9 billion by 2035 at a 9.3% CAGR. That growth trajectory sits ahead of the primary luxury watch market’s own projected pace.

Secondary prices went through a genuinely rough correction after the pandemic bubble, with 12 consecutive quarters of decline documented by WatchCharts and Morgan Stanley. Full year 2025 prices grew 4.9% across tracked brands, a real reversal from declines of 10.7% in 2023 and 6.1% in 2024.

The recovery kept broadening into 2026. Morgan Stanley’s Q1 2026 report puts 25 of the 35 brands WatchCharts tracks in positive territory, up meaningfully from the narrower, marque specific recovery seen through most of 2025. Automatic watches remain the most commercially dominant category in this market, combining traditional watchmaking value with everyday wearability for both first time buyers and longtime collectors.

WatchCharts and Morgan Stanley secondary market data, full year 2025.

Rolex’s Certified Preowned program, launched in late 2022, reached an estimated $590 million in inventory value by the end of 2025, up 204% from 2024. That program fundamentally altered secondary market dynamics by introducing brand level authentication at the retail level, pulling in buyers who had previously avoided preowned purchases over authenticity concerns.

Generational demand is reshaping which watches actually move on the secondary market. Around 20% of buyers aged 18 to 24 expressed intent to buy a luxury watch within the next year, against an 11% average across all age groups. Neo vintage watches were the fastest growing secondary segment through 2025, with sales up 123% since 2023.

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Watch Market Segment Statistics

Quartz movements held roughly 71% of global market share by units in 2025 according to IMARC Group. Their dominance persists for structural reasons: lower production cost, strong everyday accuracy, and broad accessibility across price tiers. The quartz segment generated $38.3 billion in 2024 revenue and is projected to grow at a 4.3% CAGR through 2034.

Mechanical watches, automatic and manual wind combined, were valued at $61.9 billion in 2024, with automatic movements specifically accounting for $42.3 billion of that. Mechanical watches occupy the luxury and collector tier almost exclusively, where a self winding movement functions as a status signal more than a timekeeping advantage.

IMARC Group and GM Insights segment data, most recently reported figures.

Specialty stores still held 55.64% of watch retail revenue as of 2025, reflecting how much tactile evaluation and salesfloor expertise still drive conversion in this category. Online retail is smaller but growing faster, forecast at an 8.66% CAGR through 2031 as direct to consumer brands and online first luxury platforms expand.

Men represented 45.4% of the total watch market in 2024, and hold a 74% share of the preowned segment specifically. Women’s watch purchasing is the fastest growing demographic segment, with Cartier, Rolex, and Audemars Piguet all investing in product lines and marketing aimed at female collectors specifically.

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Regional Watch Market Statistics

Compiled from Statista, FHS, and regional market research, checked August 2026.

China’s reversal from the dominant growth engine of the 2010s to a shrinking export market has not been a single year correction. Swiss exports to China fell 25.8% in 2024 and a further 12.1% in 2025, decelerating but still firmly negative, rooted in property sector stress and weakened consumer confidence that has reached even aspirational luxury spending.

India remains one of the fastest growing watch markets globally, with the highest share of wearable users worldwide as of early 2024, ahead of China and the United Kingdom. Brands including Fire Boltt, boAt, and Noise built internationally scalable businesses from that domestic base, while established names like Titan and Timex India anchor the mid tier with retail trust that pure digital entrants have not replicated at scale.

India’s smartwatch market did contract 28.4% year over year in Q2 2025 as initial saturation set in. That pattern typically precedes a quality upgrade cycle rather than a structural collapse, and premium and Swiss segments in India remain underpenetrated relative to income distribution.

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Watch Auction Records and Investment Performance

Auction data gives the most granular pricing intelligence in the watch industry, since it shows exactly which references command a collector premium. The November 2025 Geneva auction season showed real polarization: F.P. Journe watches averaged 176% of their high estimates, while most major group owned brands landed below 80% of high estimate.

Transactions exceeding $1 million reached 79 in 2025, up 25.4% from 63 in 2024, mostly concentrated in the $1.2 million to $3.5 million range.

Francis Ford Coppola’s personal F.P. Journe FFC prototype sold for $10.8 million in December 2025, and an F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance Souscription no. 2 sold for more than CHF 3 million that same November.

Compiled from WatchCharts, Morgan Stanley, and EveryWatch reporting through Q1 2026.

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Additional Watch Industry Data Points

The table below consolidates additional figures across market structure, distribution, and demographics that support the sections above without needing their own dedicated section.

Compiled from Grand View Research, IMARC, Chrono24, McKinsey, and industry survey data, checked August 2026.

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Structural Trends Reshaping the Watch Industry

Smartwatch demand is now tied to preventive health policy

The WHO estimates 1.8 billion people were physically inactive in 2022 and projects inactivity will reach 35% of the population by 2030. That creates sustained consumer and policy incentive for biometric monitoring devices, and a smartwatch platform that clears regulatory approval for ECG, fall detection, and blood pressure monitoring captures a healthcare adjacent revenue stream entirely separate from fashion driven watch spending.

Certified preowned is becoming a primary brand revenue stream

Rolex’s certified preowned program alone generated $590 million in 2025 inventory value. As more brands accelerate their own certified preowned investment, the secondary market is developing institutional characteristics, standardized authentication and structured resale guarantees, that reduce buyer friction and expand who is willing to buy secondhand.

China’s decoupling is real, and Gulf demand is filling part of the gap

China’s export decline forced Swiss watchmakers to diversify toward the Gulf and Southeast Asia faster than planned. Saudi Arabia’s 8.9% growth and the UAE’s 3.5% growth in 2025 are not large enough to fully replace what China once contributed, but they represent a genuinely different geographic mix than the China led decade that preceded it.

Younger collectors are moving away from sports reference scarcity

Gen Z buyers are reshaping secondary demand toward slimmer, design led, dress oriented pieces. Cartier’s fourfold secondary market gain among this cohort in H1 2025 is the clearest evidence yet that the pandemic era premium on sports references is eroding as younger collectors prioritize legibility and provenance over raw specifications.

Swiss manufacturing is deliberately trading volume for value

Swiss export units fell 4.8% in 2025 against a 1.7% value decline, meaning the industry is shrinking in volume faster than in revenue for a second straight year. That is a deliberate strategy, not a failure: fewer, more expensive watches protect margin and reinforce the exclusivity signals that underpin Swiss pricing power.

Smartwatch competition is shifting from sensors to software

Apple’s fastest ever quarterly growth rate in Q1 2026 came from a refreshed lineup, not a new sensor category. The competitive edge is moving from raw sensor count to which platform delivers the most useful, clinically credible insight from data it already collects, with subscriptions and health analytics forming the next real revenue layer for every major smartwatch maker.

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What the 2026 Numbers Actually Reveal

The watch industry operates as 3 structurally linked but genuinely different businesses. Swiss mechanical watchmaking is a luxury goods business trading volume for price. The smartwatch category is a consumer technology business that just proved its 2024 decline was a cycle, not a ceiling.

The preowned market is increasingly a financial market of its own, with institutional authentication accelerating its formalization.

All 3 faced the same structural test through 2025 and into 2026: the China slowdown removed the single demand engine that had inflated headline growth for the entire sector through the 2010s. The redistribution of that demand toward the United States, the Gulf, India, and Southeast Asia is producing a more geographically balanced industry, but one that grows more slowly and needs more market specific strategy than the previous decade required.

The clearest signal in this dataset is the smartwatch reversal. A category written off as maturing out of its growth phase in 2024 posted its fastest vendor growth rate in years by Q1 2026. Anyone reading watch market data as static, unchanging numbers is missing exactly the kind of turn that just happened here.

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Frequently Asked Questions