To the MoonSwatch and Back
The unprecedented success and market resurgence of Swatch and Omega
With the MoonSwatch, Swatch and Omega have realized a project that has been beneficial to both brands. As for the Swatch brand, about 50,000 MoonSwatches were sold at the time of launch and 100,000 units since then in the first months until July 2022. According to estimates at that time, Swatch could have reached 500,000 units sold by the end of 2022 and total sales of about 125 million Swiss francs (not counting the opening of sales in China, which at the time was still an uncertain event). These figures seemed absolutely excellent when compared with those prior to the release of the MoonSwatch. According to Morgan Stanley's report on the Swiss watch industry, Swatch's sales in 2021 had fallen to 27th place with 214 million Swiss francs and 3.2 million units sold. Priced at 250 Swiss francs, 178% higher than the average Swatch sale (89 Swiss francs), the MoonSwatch would independently generate an estimated 58% of Swatch's total sales recorded in the previous year.
Even at the time, these figures were absolutely excellent, but the market reality for this collection exceeded all kinds of expectations. In an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) newspaper, Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek said that more than 1 million MoonSwatches had been sold by the end of November 2022, doubling previous estimates even before the end of the year. With an unchanged rate through March 2023, the result would be 1.5 million MoonSwatches produced and sold in the first year of the release. At a price of 250 Swiss francs, the MoonSwatch independently generated more than 250 million Swiss francs, a figure 16% higher than Swatch's total sales in 2021.
The benefits of this transaction also affected Omega's market. The CEO of Swatch Group AG stated in an interview at the company's headquarters the achievements of the MoonSwatch project, announcing a more than 50% increase in sales of the original Speedmaster in Omega stores since the beginning of March 2022. The launch of the MoonSwatch adds to many other factors that are strongly supporting the traditional Moonwatch market. Its value, stable around the retail price, is a sign of easy availability and thus high supply from the primary market.
In 2021, after four consecutive years behind Rolex, Omega dropped to third place in Morgan Stanley's report on sales and revenues of Swiss brands. The MoonSwatch project was certainly among the strategies to regain this position, and statements by the Swatch Group CEO reveal this intention quite explicitly.
Although this hypothesis did not materialize, with MoonSwatch Swatch Group regained its number one position as the largest volume contributor to the Swiss watch industry in 2022, with the group selling about 4.9 million last year through its many brands that include Omega, Longines, Tissot, and Swatch.
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