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Swiss watch exports are selling more watches for less money

Volumes are up 2.3% in the first half of 2026 while value slipped 0.7%. Almost all of the growth came from mechanical watches under 500 francs.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 2 min read · 7 August 2026

The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry has published its figures for the first half of 2026, and they tell two different stories depending on which column you read.

Just over seven million watches left Switzerland in the six months to June, an increase of 162,000 units on the same period in 2025, or 2.3%. Those watches were worth 12.8 billion francs, which is 0.7% down on the first half of 2025.

More watches. Slightly less money.

Where the growth came from

Almost all of it came from one place. Mechanical watches with an export price below 500 francs were up 23.8%.

That single number explains the whole shape of the half. The industry did not sell more expensive watches. It sold considerably more cheap mechanical ones, and that lifted the unit count while doing very little for the value total.

The two headwinds

The FH names two.

The first is the United States, which it describes as highly volatile following the imposition of further tariffs, complicated by a base effect from their introduction in the second quarter of 2025. Comparisons against that period are distorted in both directions.

The second is the conflict that has run in the Middle East since the end of February. The FH puts that region at 10% of Swiss watch exports, which is not a rounding error.

Our read

The FH’s own framing is that exports have held up well on average and only fallen back slightly given the conditions. That is fair.

The more interesting question is what the sub-500-franc surge represents. It could be the entry level doing its job and bringing new buyers into mechanical watches, which would be good news that shows up in the value column in a few years. It could equally be brands pushing volume through cheaper references because the top of the market has gone quiet.

Half-year figures cannot separate those two, and anyone telling you otherwise is guessing. What is not in doubt is that the growth in this half was at the bottom of the market, not the top.