CaratPlus 11.2%: June hands Swiss watchmaking its month back
Exports reached CHF 2.4 billion in June on 1.3 million pieces — the strongest month of the year. America added 12.7%, France more than doubled, and the CHF 200–500 segment grew 54.1%. The half still reads −0.7%.
§1The month arrives.
The number the trade circled on its calendar arrived Tuesday, and it was better than almost anyone had penciled in. Swiss watch exports rose 11.2% in June to CHF 2.4 billion, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry reported, on 1.3 million timepieces — volume up 11.7%, running slightly ahead of value. After April's 16.6% drop and May's barely-there 0.4% gain, June is the first month of 2026 that reads like growth rather than stabilization, and it lands three days after a week in which the industry's news was mostly about who might buy whom.
§2France doubles; America compounds.
The geography of the rebound is the story inside the story. The United States, the industry's largest market, took CHF 349 million of watches in June, up 12.7% — steady, broad, and consistent with the American strength Richemont reported for its own quarter last week. Britain added 12.2% to CHF 175 million, Japan 8.8%, Hong Kong 6.9%, Singapore 6.7%. And then there is France: CHF 250 million, up 103.5% — a doubling that vaulted it to second place among all markets and dragged the top six to 53% of everything Switzerland shipped.
One month does not repair a half.
§3The barbell is official.
Price bands tell the sharper truth. Watches priced between CHF 200 and 500 at export grew 54.1%, the entry segment under CHF 200 rose 9.9%, and pieces above CHF 3,000 gained 14.2%. The middle — CHF 500 to 3,000, the traditional home of the aspirational Swiss watch — fell 4.7%. The barbell that retailers have described all year is now printed in the federation's own table: the customer is either buying an affordable Swiss name or a serious one, and the segment in between keeps paying for the clarity.
One month does not repair a half. January through June exports total CHF 12.8 billion, still 0.7% below last year, and the federation's spring was ugly enough that June's double-digit print only pulls the year back toward flat. But direction matters in an industry that plans in decades, and the June table rhymes with everything else on this week's tape — Richemont's jewelry-led quarter, Watches of Switzerland's American year, and an auction market paying records for the top of the pyramid while the middle waits.
Volume up 11.7% against value up 11.2% means this is a real recovery in units, not a mix trick — Switzerland sold more watches, not merely dearer ones. The France number deserves suspicion and attention in equal measure; doublings of that size usually say as much about logistics and tourist flows as about French wrists.
One good month is a data point. Two would be a direction.
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