Luxury watches made biggest market impact in 2012

Despite 2012 being another tough year for retailers and watch sales volumes declining 9.4 per cent, luxury watches defied the downward trend, increasing their market segment to 47.5 per cent, up 1.8 per cent on 2011.

Increases in the average sale price of watches, up 11.1 per cent on 2011, have been blamed for the overall decline in unit sales. However, despite the significant volume decline, this high increase in pricing resulted in the market’s value growing 0.7 per cent.

Besides luxury timepieces, watches priced between £100 and £500 saw a volume sales growth of 1.2 per cent, with a number of leading fashion brands performing particularly well.