Jewelers Increasingly Less Likely to Stock Watches

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.