The Swiss watch industry significantly expanded its exports last year.
It reached a record with exports worth 24.8 billion Swiss francs, as announced by the Swiss Watch Industry Association (FH) on Tuesday.
That was 11.4 percent more than in 2021 and 46.1 percent more than in the first Corona year 2020, when travel collapsed and shops remained closed.
The USA, China and Hong Kong remained the most important export markets.
However, sales to China and Hong Kong declined.
Germany remained in 7th place. The number of units, which had been declining for years, stabilized at a comparatively low level.
While 25.4 million wristwatches were exported in 2016, last year - like 2020 and 2021 - there were around 15.8 million.
The association has been fighting counterfeit watches, especially from China, for years.
Up to three million are confiscated each year, but experts say this is just the tip of the iceberg.
The Swatch Group, with brands such as Swatch, Omega and Glashütte Original, increased sales to 7.5 billion francs in 2022, an increase of 2.5 percent, as reported on Tuesday.
Adjusted for currency effects, sales grew by 4.6 percent.
The Moonswatch series, which was launched nine months ago, developed into a bestseller.
More than a million pieces have been sold.
In China, Swatch sales fell by a good 700 million francs due to the lockdown.
In January, however, things went up: "The sales increases in China in January further reinforce the group's expectation that 2023 can be a record year," the company said.