Watch Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends and Forecast (2027 - 2032)

Market Trends and Insights

Rising Demand for Smartwatches with Health Features

In Ipsos’s April 2025 survey commissioned by Huawei, 85% of European smartwatch users in 8 surveyed countries said health-related features were important when purchasing smartwatches. The survey covered the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Poland, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Because respondents rated health features at the point of purchase, models with defined health functions compete on a criterion that most surveyed users weighed when buying.

Technological Advancements and Innovation

Software innovation can increase a watch’s usefulness while making regulatory eligibility part of its product differentiation. The FDA cleared Apple Inc.’s Apple Watch Hypertension Notification Feature for over-the-counter use on September 11, 2025.^[1] Apple released notifications on Apple Watch Series 9 and later and Apple Watch Ultra 2 and later on September 15, 2025, subject to regional availability. The feature analyzes watch sensor data for possible hypertension notifications. It is intended for people aged 22 or older without a prior hypertension diagnosis, excludes pregnancy, and is not intended to replace diagnosis, monitor treatment effects, or provide blood-pressure surveillance. Cleared health notifications add a purchase reason on supported models for eligible buyers seeking that function alongside timekeeping.

Increasing Demand For Luxury Watches

Luxury-watch demand can expand manufacturers’ commercial opportunities through retailers that already convert interest into category revenue. Watches of Switzerland Group plc reported 10% year-over-year growth in luxury-watch revenue for the 53 weeks ended May 3, 2026. Its comparison period comprised 52 weeks ended April 27, 2025. The result covered the retailer’s luxury-watch category across its operations in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. Higher spending through this channel supports demand for branded timepieces. For watchmakers, the result shows luxury-watch demand reaching consumers through a retailer that operates across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.

Brand Heritage and Craftsmanship

Craftsmanship can sustain demand for mechanical timepieces by giving buyers a production-based reason to value a branded watch beyond time display. Porsche Design Timepieces, whose parent company is Porsche AG, opened its Grenchen, Switzerland, manufactory in March 2026 with 10 watchmaking stations for precision mechanical production.^[2] On March 11, 2025, the Dresden Chamber of Industry and Commerce recognized A. Lange & Söhne’s training at its Glashütte, Germany, manufactory, which had 48 apprentices across 6 occupations. The facility and training program address different parts of craft-led supply, with workstations providing the production setting and apprenticeships developing the people who can sustain it. Porsche Design’s new workstations and Lange’s apprentice cohort give the craft claim a physical basis that brands can show buyers weighing a mechanical watch against a digital one.

Availability of Counterfeit Products

Counterfeit availability creates demand leakage when buyers would otherwise consider purchasing a genuine branded watch. In the UK Intellectual Property Office’s 2025 survey, 30% of knowing counterfeit-watch buyers said they would buy from the brand if counterfeits were unavailable.^[3] The watch category included smartwatches, and the survey base comprised 85 people who had knowingly purchased counterfeit watches. Another 27% said they would choose a cheaper alternative, revealing a different commercial problem within the same buyer population. For legitimate brands, the responses distinguish potential recovered demand from purchases that would migrate toward lower-priced substitutes. Counterfeit removal alone therefore leaves a price-sensitive group that genuine brands cannot assume will convert at their existing price points.

Surge in Demand For Smart Wearables

Smart wearables create a substitution risk for quartz and mechanical watchmakers when a buyer wants digital functions from the device worn on the wrist. The constraint is the choice of wrist-worn product, since a purchase directed toward a smartwatch can displace a separate traditional-watch purchase. For a traditional-watch supplier, that choice makes functional relevance part of the commercial challenge even when the product competes on design or craftsmanship. Distinctive mechanical or design positioning can give a buyer a reason to retain a separate watch. The remaining exposure is deferred traditional-watch demand whenever the buyer treats the smart wearable as sufficient for the same wrist-worn role.

*Our forecasts treat driver/restraint impacts as directional, not additive. The impact forecasts reflect baseline growth, mix effects, and variable interactions.

Watch Market Segment Analysis

Quartz/mechanical watches accounted for a 67.89% share of the watch market size in 2026, making them the largest product-type segment. The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry reported 5.21 million mechanical wristwatches exported from Switzerland in 2025. Mechanical wristwatches shipped abroad in that volume show that Swiss producers’ output reaches overseas distribution and does not depend on domestic demand alone.

Digital watches are forecast to be the fastest-growing product segment, with a 6.85% CAGR during 2027-2032. In February 2026, 37% of U.S. adults reported owning a smartwatch. Ownership was 44% among both adults ages 18 to 29 and those ages 30 to 49, compared with 35% among adults ages 50 to 64. Lower ownership among adults ages 50 to 64 leaves proportionally more headroom to add owners than in either surveyed cohort under 50.

Mass watches represented a 69.76% watch market share in 2026, making them the largest category segment. Casio reported higher Timepiece Business sales in the year ended March 31, 2026, and strong CASIO WATCH sales worldwide. Sales of its G-SHOCK 5000, 5600, and 2100 series remained firm under a strategy focused on standard, entry-level models. This connects mass-category demand with defined core lines, giving the producer a specific commercial focus within the entry-level part of its range. Higher timepiece sales alongside firm core-series sales show that Casio’s expansion was compatible with maintaining a standard, entry-level proposition.

Premium watches are forecast to be the fastest-growing category segment, with a 6.88% CAGR during 2027-2032. In the year ended March 31, 2026, Richemont’s Specialist Watchmakers recorded 1% sales growth at constant exchange rates. Sales fell 4% at actual exchange rates over the same period. Strong growth in the Americas compensated for declines in Richemont’s Asia-Pacific and Japan business areas. Regional mix therefore set the direction of the division’s constant-rate result, with the Americas offsetting Asia-Pacific and Japan.

Men were the largest end-user segment, accounting for 40.44% of market revenue in 2026. Roseberys reported that men represented 69% of its private watch buyers across its December 2024 to August 2026 auctions. Men also accounted for 71% of all watch buyers at the auction house, including its trade-dealer clientele. The male majority persisted in the private-buyer population, showing that Roseberys’ male skew extended beyond its trade-dealer clientele.

Unisex watches are forecast to be the fastest-growing end-user segment, with a 7.05% CAGR during 2027-2032. Timex and Dimepiece’s gender-neutral Intrepid 1995 reissue sold out shortly after its spring 2025 release. Dimepiece proposed the rerelease to Timex, which produced the collaboration.

Specialty stores were the largest distribution-channel segment, with a 55.51% share of market revenue in 2026. In Deloitte’s 2025 survey of consumers in Switzerland and top Swiss watch export markets, 38% preferred multi-brand stores for watch purchases, compared with 23% favoring mono-brand boutiques. The multi-brand format creates a route to selling across different watchmakers within a specialist retail environment. Mono-brand boutiques concentrate the watch proposition on a single brand, creating a different retail identity within the broader specialist channel. The preference balance gives multi-brand operators a reason to preserve cross-brand choice as a specific advantage when developing their store experience.

Online retail stores are forecast to be the fastest-growing distribution segment, with an 8.3% CAGR during 2027-2032. Among watch brands and retailers surveyed by Deloitte in 2025, two thirds reported that online channels represented around 10% of their sales. Watches of Switzerland Group launched an updated Hodinkee app enabling direct online purchases toward the end of FY26, which ended May 3, 2026. Online therefore starts from a modest base in surveyed brands’ and retailers’ sales, so a purchase route in an enthusiast app offers a way to develop that channel. The opportunity includes making existing engagement transactional, giving the retailer a way to present a purchase path to an established watch audience.

Geography Analysis

Asia-Pacific Watch Market

Asia-Pacific held a 39.49% watch market share in 2026, making it the largest regional market. Within the region, Japan’s estimated finished-watch market totaled 17.7 million units in 2025, down 9% from 2024, according to the Japan Clock & Watch Association. For watchmakers entering Japan, that 2025 volume represents a substantial addressable flow of finished-watch purchases, even though the national unit market contracted that year. Asia-Pacific’s 2026 revenue leadership sits alongside Japan’s earlier unit contraction, distinguishing regional revenue scale from growth in a particular national unit market.

South America Watch Market

South America is forecast to be the fastest-growing region, with a 7.2% CAGR during 2027-2032. In Brazil, Grupo Technos sold 679,000 watches in the second quarter of 2026, up 11.4% from the second quarter of 2025. Its average selling price fell 4.8% over the same comparison as its product mix shifted. Increasing unit sales alongside a lower average price makes assortment choices consequential for the revenue generated by each additional watch sold. For suppliers targeting Brazil, expanding physical sales therefore creates a different commercial opportunity from moving customers into more expensive collections, with the mix between those approaches determining revenue per watch.

In North America, Swiss watch exports to the United States fell 14.8% in the first half of 2026 against a high comparison base following the surge after additional tariffs were announced in April 2025. In Europe, first-half 2026 Swiss watch exports rose 5.8% to the United Kingdom and fell 10.5% to Germany, while French routing reflected re-exports elsewhere on the continent. Within the Middle East and Africa, Swiss watch exports to the Middle East fell 2% in that period, while the United Arab Emirates gained 1.6%. In South Africa, Shemer opened a combined fine-watch and jewelry flagship boutique at Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton in 2025. These differences favor country-specific distribution choices because destination shipments, re-export routing, and specialist retail openings create different routes to serving watch buyers.

Regulatory Framework and Outlook

This comparison examines selected jurisdictions from the perspective of watch manufacturers facing product standards, battery obligations, and connected-device market access. The United States’ Consumer Product Safety Commission is assessing UL 4200A-2026 following a September 2026 consultation, while the operative rule incorporates UL 4200A-2023. China’s recommended standard for analog quartz watches, GB/T 6044-2025, took effect on May 1, 2026, replacing the 2016 edition. The commercial distinction is between a voluntary product benchmark and mandatory procedures that apply when a watch falls within a battery or telecom rule’s scope.

The United States’ operative safety rule supports Medium attractiveness and continuity, while China’s implemented voluntary benchmark supports High attractiveness for the selected analog-quartz standard. The EU Batteries Regulation’s removal and replacement duty, which applies from February 18, 2027 to products incorporating portable batteries placed on the German market and is subject to exceptions, supports Hardening, while the European Commission’s July 2026 adopted wearable derogation awaits entry into force. The exemption would allow batteries replaceable only by independent professionals in wearables too small for safe user replacement or requiring sealed construction if user access may compromise safety, durability, or water resistance. Brazil’s commercial homologation route and Saudi Arabia’s approval and applicant-funded testing create upfront compliance work, supporting Medium ratings and continuity in these operative access procedures.

Value Chain Stages

Value capture differs across movement supply, finished-watch manufacturing, and watch retail, reflecting the capability each stage contributes. ETA produces quartz and mechanical movements, while Sellita supplies mechanical movements and Citizen Watch Co., Ltd.’s MIYOTA business makes movements in Japan for watch brands worldwide. This separation lets movement expertise support multiple finished-watch businesses while leaving product development, brand execution, and customer relationships as distinct commercial responsibilities.

Watches of Switzerland offers movement servicing, strap replacement, and bracelet adjustment for branded watches. These services extend the retailer’s role into the use and upkeep of a watch after its sale. Linking watch sales with that ownership support gives retailers a way to sustain the customer relationship beyond the initial purchase and makes service execution part of their commercial differentiation.

Key Opportunities for Market Participants

The opportunities compare expanded access to luxury watches with product and retail responses to older adults’ smartwatch usability barriers. In September 2026, Watches of Switzerland Group plc said Rolex Glasgow, Betteridge Greenwich, Watches of Switzerland Marlton, and Mayors Marlton showrooms were expected to open before Christmas 2026. In February 2026, 24% of adults ages 65 and older in the United States reported smartwatch ownership. A 2025 IEEE Access study identified small screens and complex smartwatch interfaces as usability barriers for older adults.

The central opening is to make a smartwatch easier for older buyers to evaluate and use through a coherent product and sales experience. A demonstration can reveal whether essential watch tasks are manageable before the buyer commits, while simpler controls address the same difficulty during ownership. Product accessibility and assisted selling therefore reinforce each other, with commercial value depending on whether the watch resolves the interaction problem in everyday use.