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Swiss watch exports grew on volume in the first half of 2026, nearly all cheap mechanicals
More watches left Switzerland in the first half of 2026 for slightly less money, and almost all the extra volume was cheap mechanicals.
Hen & Mills Editorial · 2 min read · 7 August 2026
Mechanical watches leaving Switzerland at under 500 francs were up 23.8%. That one line in the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry's half-year figures does most of the work in explaining the rest of them.
The two headline numbers pull against each other. Just over seven million watches left the country in the six months to June, 162,000 more than the same stretch in 2025, up 2.3%. Those watches were worth 12.8 billion francs, which is 0.7% down on last year. More stock out the door, slightly less money coming back.
Where the extra 162,000 came from
The growth is all in one corner. Nobody was buying more expensive watches. They were buying a lot more cheap mechanical ones, which lifts the unit count and barely touches the value total.
That is how the two headline figures can disagree without either of them being wrong. Volume and value stopped tracking each other because the mix changed underneath.
Tariffs, and a region worth a tenth of exports
The FH names two things pressing on the value side. First is the United States, which it calls highly volatile after another round of tariffs. It is also awkward to measure: the tariffs first landed in the second quarter of 2025, so the base effect skews the year-on-year comparison in both directions and nothing read off it is clean.
Second is the conflict that has run in the Middle East since the end of February. By the FH's own reckoning that region accounts for 10% of Swiss watch exports, which is not a share you can wave away.
Volume at the bottom, quiet at the top
The FH's own line is that exports have held up well on average and slipped only slightly given the conditions. Fair enough, on the face of it. The part worth sitting with is what that sub-500-franc jump actually is.
Read it generously and the entry level is doing its job, pulling people into mechanical watches who trade up later and turn up in the value column a few years down the track. Read it the other way and brands are pushing volume through cheaper references because the top of the market has gone quiet.
Six months of data cannot separate those two, and anyone who says it can is guessing. What the figures do say is that this half grew at the bottom of the market, not the top.
