Big Survey

Jewelers Increasingly Less Likely to Stock Watches

More than 50 percent of jewelers continue to stock watches, but the trend is down amid surging Apple Watch sales and Rolex supply-chain shortages, according to the INSTORE 2021 Big Survey.

Published

4 years ago

November 1, 2021

Chris Taylor

Jewelers Increasingly Less Likely to Stock Watches

Products that jewelers responding to the Big Survey carry.

WHEN REMINDED THAT in 2019 Apple Watch sales surpassed those of all Swiss watch makers, 26 percent of respondents to the Big Survey said they thought that the Apple Watch was “killing traditional watch sales,” while 30 percent said that the Apple product was having a “moderate negative impact.”

Just 1 percent said that Smartwatches had become “a nice little earner.”

The number of jewelers stocking watches has dropped by some 10 percent over the past decade, the Big Survey has found.

The 2021 Big Survey was carried out between August and September, attracting more than 600 anonymous responses from owners of independent jewelry stores across the United States and Canada. The full results will be published in the upcoming November issue of INSTORE.

How Howes Diamond Jewelers Closed a Location — and Opened the Door to What's Next

Dan Howes grew up in his family's jewelry business, eventually taking the helm of two locations his father launched in 1964. When it came time to consolidate, he turned to Wilkerson. "It was a pretty easy decision," Howes says, citing the company's strong reputation and a friend's successful experience. Wilkerson's proven sales roadmap delivered — meeting projected financial goals and guiding the process every step of the way. "This is their profession. They have it dialed in."