There now are eight brands selling more than $1 billion each year. Experts say it means big brands are getting bigger and their products are getting pricier.
In 2017, the Swiss watch industry had just five brands that sold more than $1 billion at retail every year: Rolex, Omega, Cartier, Patek Philippe and Longines.
Today, that exclusive club has grown to eight with the addition of Audemars Piguet, Richard Mille and Vacheron Constantin, out of a watch universe estimated to include 400 Swiss brands.
What does that elite grouping say about changes since the pivotal year of 2017, when growing demand for luxury mechanical watches triggered the rise of the secondary market and a boom in independent watchmaking?
In short: The Swiss watch trade is becoming more concentrated, with the big brands getting bigger and their products getting pricier — and it all is happening against the backdrop of the industry’s continuing slowdown. “We see very few brands capable of scaling their businesses over time and keeping that positive dynamic,” said Oliver R. Müller, the founder of LuxeConsult, a watch consultancy near Lausanne, Switzerland.
Charles Tian, the founder of WatchCharts, a company in Austin, Texas, that specializes in data about the secondary watch market, said he was not surprised to learn the number of billion-dollar brands had grown.
“A lot of brands are raising retail prices to keep up with inflation and rising costs,” Mr. Tian said on a recent video call. “A billion dollars of sales in 2017 is very different from a billion dollars of sales in 2025 or 2024. There’s been nearly 30 percent inflation since then based on Consumer Price Index reports” from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.