The watch market is also turning negative under the impact of the pandemic. The confirmation of the minus sign comes from the traditional research on the watch market in Italy carried out by Assorologi with GfK, based on surveys on retail and consumer.
2020 closed with an estimated turnover of 1.51 billion euros, -28% compared to 2.09 billion in 2019. An important methodological premise: in addition to the monthly Gfk survey on sales in stores, sources include also cross the annual consumer research, export numbers of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry and those of Istat on imports of watches into Italy. The decline, which considers both the offline and online channels, was influenced by the impact that Covid-19 has had on the sector.
Shops closed: 100 days of stop & go
The panel retail (Large-scale distribution, chains and independent showcases) confirms a trend conditioned by the many stop & go, between closures (in the order of 100 days in a year) and reopening, and by the lack of both international and business tourism, marking a -33.1% by quantity (4 million pieces between traditional watches and smartwatches against 5.9 in 2019) and -35% by value. In stores, the average spending dropped slightly, from 243 to 236 euros.
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Turning, instead, to the panel consumer on a sample of about 8 thousand Italian families, it emerges that the watches purchased were in total about 5.7 million (-12.6%) in quantity for 1.23 billion in value (-7.5%) with 4.8 million buyers who are worth 8% of the total (-1.3% on 2019) and an average expenditure of 214 euros. Among the reasons for the purchase, the cornerstones remain design (33%), trust in the brand (29%) and price (25.5%).
Physical jewelers and watches are worth 41% in quantity and 51% in value (in 2019 they were 47% and 52% respectively).
Boom of purchases on Amazon (+ 85%)
Online sales in 2020 grow by 25% on 2019 and are now worth 39.5% by quantity and 30.4% by value. Among the digital showcases, in addition to the official websites of the brands or specialized e-commerce platforms, all of them are growing, with 19.6% (it was 13.9%), the performance of watch purchases on Amazon increases (+ 85% in value).
With a look at the current year as well, the research gives a certain optimism by noting already in the purchase intentions in 2021 about 3.9 million people oriented to buy a timepiece (+ 36% on 2019).