On a tear: the British watch industry has grown 65% in 3 years

Russell Sheldrake

The latest bellwether report from the Alliance of British Watch and Clock Makers has just been released, and it offers figures that suggest the British watch industry has grown by a staggering 65% from 2021, which is when the first bellwether report took place. This is an astonishing, headline-grabbing figure that gives a lot of hope to those who work in the sector, and shows that it has bucked a lot of trends that have taken place over that time period. But what more can we learn from this report?

The report

This latest bellwether report has been conducted by Skolorr, a once independent watch boutique that has transformed into a research centre for the watch industry. (The previous report was carried out by KPMG, one of the world’s largest business and management consulting firms). Skolorr conducted an independent and anonymous survey of 105 of the Alliance’s members, with 53 completing it, so the following results come from a data set that represents just over 50% of the Alliance members: still short of the entire industry here in the UK, but it is without a doubt a significant data set.

When I asked Alistair Audsley, CEO of the Alliance, why he switched from the recognisable and multi-billion dollar name of KPMG to Skolorr, he had this to say: “We chose Skolorr, as the research has been led by Sky Sit, who is an experienced researcher with a deeper knowledge and understanding of the sector. In essence, we went for ‘big knowledge’ rather than a big name.”

The numbers

Let’s give you some of the stats that this report has thrown out. As we mentioned at the top, there has been a 65% increase in revenue across the industry from 2021. The initial report put the industry at being worth around £125 million; now it sits at £206 million, or roughly the same as the GDP of the Marshall Islands! This incredible growth equals an 18% compound annual growth rate over a three-year period. Remember, this report is only measuring up to April 2024.

What happens when you break that number down? You have 75.5% of all companies that responded to the survey reporting revenue growth, with 42% reporting double-digit growth, and 30% showing growth between 300 and 400%. If you look at the company that now sits atop the British industry, Christopher Ward, they achieved just shy of £30 million in sales for the financial year 2023-2024 – if we use the report’s data, that suggests that Ward held a 14% market share. Conveniently, the Anglo-Swiss brand has also just released its financial report for 2024-2025 and announced it achieved sales of £45.5 million, a 49% increase. Or, if you want to look at a smaller, but no less impressive brand, Studio Underd0g, a brand known for its transparency as well as tasty dials, went from £4.4 million in revenue in 23-24, and then nearly doubled that in 24-25 with £8.1 million.

Another astonishing figure that has come out of this report has confirmed just how young the industry here in the UK is. While we have brands that date back to the 1800s, and we can trace the roots of modern watchmaking to these shores, 67% of the watch and clock brands that are currently operating in the UK were founded in the last 10 years – an incredible majority for the young microbrands, start-ups and disruptors that today fill the halls of British Watchmakers’ Day. The study identified 141 companies across the sector, and of those, 82.3% were micro-businesses, meaning they had 10 or fewer employees. This is no big surprise when you consider the majority of these companies were founded in the last decade.

Something that has plagued the British industry for years now has been the lack of in-house production capability we have at home, and this report suggests that just 35% of watchmakers surveyed have some degree of in-house production. This is no surprise when you consider how many of these watch brands are still under 10 years old. But the clock making arm of this industry tells a different story, with 90-100% of the brands spoken to having in-house production, showing that clock making is still a craft we are more than capable of here.

How British are British watches?

This then begs the question: where are British brands sourcing parts from, then? The report answers that by giving us this list of countries of origin and the percentage of parts found in British watches: China, 35%, Switzerland, 33%, British Isles, 13%, Hong Kong, 8%, Japan, 5%, Taiwan, 4%, Germany, 1.5%. This includes movement components, cases, dials, and hands, with a smattering of other countries, including Italy and India, making up 1.5%. One key part of the development process of a watch is the prototyping phase, and currently, 63% of British brands either wholly or partially carry this out in the UK.

For those worried that these numbers mean they might be buying a Chinese movement, rest assured that 68% of the mechanical movements and 77% of quartz used in British watches remain Swiss, while only 7.3% mechanical and 1.3% quartz are coming from China. Swiss ebauche makers still reign supreme when it comes to producing mechanical movements, at least for British brands.

So we know where these watches are being made, but where are they being sold? According to the report, 53% are staying in the UK, being sold domestically, with the next biggest market naturally being America at 28% with a big step down to the next export market, Europe, which represents just 8% and the Gulf Confederation Council countries making up 4%. Curiously, this split between domestic and exported sales has stayed the same between 2021 and 2024. This means British brands have been less exposed to the downturn in China that has affected so many Swiss brands. Whenever I’ve been speaking to brand CEOs, they are all listing the Middle East and India as the next big target markets for growth in sales.

Pound for pound

It was worked out that of the companies surveyed, a total of 110,716 watches were made in the last year, and 108,516 were sold. This represents an impressive sell-through rate of 98%. Something that won’t surprise those who work in the industry is how that production is distributed across the various brands. Just 4.3% of the companies that responded produced 51.3% of the total output. This shows how small and specialised many of the brands in this sector are, making only a handful of watches every year, with 71.8% of companies producing just 10% of the watches.

But what price are all of these watches selling for? The majority of these watches fall firmly into the accessible or mid-market range, an area that many Swiss brands are moving up and out of, between £601 and £5,000. Obviously, this is a massive gap, and there is also a significant number that are being sold between £201 and £600, but it shows that this premiumisation by the Swiss is being taken advantage of by us Brits. Of course, there are still makers such as Roger Smith and Frodsham that continue to make watches in the UK for six figures and up, but these are made in the low to mid-teens a year. However, British brands are not immune to rising prices, as 44% of those asked said they have increased their prices in the last year, some by up to 25%.

It is estimated by the report that the watch and clock making industry in the UK supports around 1,600 jobs, which is up 3.6 times since 2021, and of those, roughly 33% are in technical positions. Obviously, it takes more than watchmakers to run a watch brand, but this share is encouraging as it means the key skills of making, testing, servicing, and developing watches are remaining in the UK.

What does all of this mean?

Obviously, growth in this industry is only a good thing. More money flowing in means more watches, more jobs, and a bigger community that can form around it. Seeing growth on these levels during the same period the Swiss industry has been visibly struggling with export numbers decreasing and a serious issue with the Chinese market is incredibly encouraging. However, we are still an incredibly small fish in this pond. The £206 million that the British industry brought in during one year is roughly the same as the Swiss market exported to Austria in the same time frame, which is only their 23rd biggest market. So, while that growth deserves celebrating and building upon, there is certainly still room to grow. The question remains for me whether we will continue to buck this trend or if we are about to reach our heads above the parapet and feel the full force of those headwinds.

Drilling down deep, I think we can expect to see further separation in our market, as a few brands outstrip the majority of others when it comes to both revenue and growth. Christopher Ward, with its latest results of £45 million in revenue, surpasses all others; it even places itself above the heights that Bremont reached, which, according to the data I can find, is only £22.1 million. If the market continues to grow at its current rate, it should reach £243 million in the financial year 24-25. This means that Christopher Ward’s market share would increase to roughly 18.5%, and while that is still massively dominant, it still sits a way off Rolex’s dominance of the Swiss market, which many estimate to be around 32%.

But does the domination of one brand mean good things for the industry at large? The philosophy of a high tide rises all ships would suggest so, and it can certainly open a lot of doors if Ward continues to invest and play an active role in the industry. For example, Mike France, CEO of Christopher Ward, is a major player in the British Alliance and in that role helps to develop the industry as a whole, whether it be in education, representation on the international stage, or just hosting the biggest watch fair on UK soil. However, there is the theory that a bigger player squeezes out the smaller ones as it dominates resources and customers.

I personally still fall into the former camp, as I’ve had a front row seat to what Christopher Ward has been doing the last few years, and I believe it has been a net positive gain for the rest of the industry. Just to take a small scale example and risk extrapolating it out to the wider market, when we introduced Ward into our Discovery Studios, we saw a massive increase in the number of people that came in just wanting to see them, but once they were in they were exposed to so much more, with Studio Underd0g, Fears, and Farer all on display from the UK, not to mention all the other brands we carry. And that is just one example of what impact having a halo brand like Ward in our industry can have on the others around it.

I’m not the only one who remains optimistic about the future of the British watch industry. 80% of those surveyed are forecasting growth in the next three years, with 15% of watchmakers believing they will hit over 100% growth in that period. As new product continues to excite consumers, and new markets are unlocked for these brands, allowing more people to discover them for the first time, there could be a lot of good news down the line.

Of course, there will still be challenges ahead, with shifting geopolitical concerns making international trade tricky, uncertain economic outlooks causing concern and supply chains remaining fragile, there will be factors that trip up brands and may cause some to suffer difficulties. But it is thanks to the Alliance that a lot of these will be softened with the work that Alistair and his team are doing to better represent these brands on a global stage. But it will always ultimately come down to how good the product is and how well the companies are run, which will determine their success.

It is also very important to point out that while the British industry is estimated at around 141 businesses, only 53 completed the survey that informed a lot of the data presented above. So it is still an incomplete data set, and there will be margins of error on all of it. But this is the most comprehensive assessment of the British watch industry we have ever had, and it is fantastic to see it in such rude health.