Luxury timepieces sold like hot cakes in Singapore last month as Swiss exports surged 90 percent to the city-state.
Shipments to Singapore jumped to CHF 179.2 million last month from CHF 94.5 million in September 2016 , figures released by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry showed.
"The value of watch exports to Singapore practically doubled (+89.6%) because of the delivery of highly priced watches", the federation said.
The Swiss watch export data represents wholesale - not retail - sales, shipments from watch companies to distributors and retail agents.
Hong Kong remained the biggest market (CHF1.78 billion), followed by the U.S. (CHF1.51 billion), China (CHF1.07 billion) and the UK (CHF946.8 million).
Overall exports of Swiss watches rose 3.7 percent in September 2017 - the fifth straight monthly increase and the sixth in the last seven months.
Among the main categories in value terms, watches in precious metal and steel continued to advance, while bimetal timepieces which have
been declining significantly for some months now posted a sharp downturn, the federation said.
But the number of timepieces sent overseas decline 11.6 percent, dragged down mainly by steel watches and those in "other materials" category.
