China's wearable device shipments drops

  According to IDC's Quarterly Tracker Report on China's Wearable Device Market, Q1 2022, China's wearable device market shipments in the first quarter of 2022 were 25.84 million units, down 7.5% year-on-year. Among them, the headset market will ship 15.96 million units in the first quarter of 2022, a year-on-year increase of 3.5%. Among them, only true wireless earphones maintained a year-on-year growth of 3.2%, but due to the overdraft of demand in the promotional season at the end of last year, limited product function upgrades and the epidemic in some regions, the market growth rate slowed down significantly.

The watch market shipped 7.16 million units in the first quarter of 2022, down 15.3% year-on-year. Among them, 3.86 million units of adult watches were shipped, down 1.7% year-on-year; 3.3 million units of children’s watches were shipped, down 27.2% year-on-year. In this quarter, the watch market focused on optimizing channel inventory to prepare for the "618" promotion this quarter. At the same time, the restrictions on outdoor activities and the impact of the epidemic on consumer sentiment have caused a decline in shipments in the first quarter to a certain extent.

The wristband market shipped 2.63 million units in the first quarter of 2022, a year-on-year decrease of 33.6%. The wristband market is affected by the competition of product forms, the epidemic situation at home and the upcoming launch of new products, and the continuous downward trend is obvious.

How to compete with Apple Watch?

 The mid-to-low-end demand is squeezed by smart wearable devices, and the Swiss watch industry has shifted its focus to high-end products.

According to data from the Swiss Watch Industry Federation, the Swiss watch industry will achieve its best record in 2021, with revenue reaching 21.2 billion Swiss francs (about 21.5 billion US dollars), an increase of about one-third year-on-year. Sales in the U.S. market rose 28 percent.

Meanwhile, sales are falling. Swiss watchmakers sold 15.7 million watches last year, half of what they were a decade ago. The association said the decline in sales was mainly due to the direct competition between budget watches and smartwatches made by Apple.

An overall boom in luxury goods has fueled a recovery in demand for high-end watches as the pandemic subsides.

As for smart wearables on the rise, the association said that while some analysts predict that classic mechanical watches will soon be "swept out" by smartwatches, demand for higher-priced models shows that consumers' interest in traditional watches is enduring. decline.

Georges Kern, chief executive of Breitling SA, believes that an expensive watch is more like a collectible jewelry, and the traditional low functionality is not a hindrance, but the core of its appeal:

"People want to balance the overkill of the digital age."