Struggling Swiss Watchmakers Warm to Direct Online Sales
- Online resellers seen most important for first time since 2012
- 82% of watch executives say they’re pessimistic on prospects
A master horologist holds a completed TAG Tourbillion S wristwatch, produced by TAG Heuer, a luxury timepiece unit of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, at the company's plant in La Chaux-de-Fonds, near Neuchatel, Switzerland, on Friday, Jan. 16, 2015. LVMH, which is considering whether to join the race to develop a smartwatch, figures its TAG Heuer is the best -- and only -- brand in its portfolio for such a product.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/BloombergThe proportion of Swiss watchmaker executives saying they’re pessimistic about the industry’s prospects has doubled, prompting a shift online to try and find buyers, a Deloitte LLP report showed.
Half of the watch executives surveyed considered specialty e-commerce resellers as the most important sales channel in the next year, according to the Deloitte study released Tuesday. The share of respondents who are pessimistic about the about the industry rose to 82 percent from 41 percent a year earlier.