When I am out chatting to jewellers, they inform me Rolex is the top selling Swiss watch with Omega coming second, Cartier third, Longines fourth, Patek Phillipe fifth, Tissot sixth, TAG Heuer coming in at around about seventh, Swatch eighth, IWC ninth and Breguet tenth. This was a surprise to me as Rolex is relatively expensive, so I expected high margins and low volumes to dominate the Rolex brand. The artificial scarcity they have created certainly works maintaining their price and creating demand.

Naturally, a couple of places change from year to year with Cartier sometimes getting over Omega in terms of sales volumes. This should change with dedicated Omega boutiques taking on Cartier boutiques in luxury areas. This, I assume doesn’t take into account either the lower end tier with Japanese owned Citizen and Seiko timepieces or American inspired Timex and Hamilton brands that aren’t Swiss manufactured.

We all know the Apple watch outsold the entire Swiss watch industry, they are horrible electronic gadgets that are strapped to the wrist. That being said, smartwatches have their role, plenty of people love technology. Even though Hamilton is now owned by the Swatch Group or the high end A. Lange & Söhne from Germany and the aviation inspired Bremont from England is owned by the Richemont Group they fall within the scope of premium watch sales.

Then there are the serious Swiss watchmakers of Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Breguet, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Blancpain that don\’t move a large number of units but are highly prized examples of horology excellence. Advertising counts and the large brands spend plenty in advertising and although some of these fine manufacturers are not household names – they are excellent editions to any timepiece collections.