China's Swiss watch imports decrease in Q1

China's import of Swiss high-end watches may decrease over the next few quarters, Tina Zhou, dean of the Fortune Character Institute predicted in the China Watch Report.

China imported 77,771 watches from Switzerland in 2012, down from 87,894 units in 2011, according to the report released Tuesday. However, as the average price increased, the import value in 2012 was about 1.65 billion Swiss francs ($1.79 billion), slightly higher than the 1.64 billion Swiss francs the previous year.

But the declining trend was quite obvious in the first quarter of this year as the import value amounted to 323.2 million Swiss francs, down by 25.6 percent year-on-year.

According to the report, rich Chinese people regard watches with a price tag of more than 30,000 yuan to be high-end watches. An average rich Chinese person owns six high-end watches.

However, their willingness to buy high-end watches is not falling as 64 percent of 417 people surveyed said they would keep buying these watches. To compile the report, the Fortune Character Institute surveyed 417 rich people, each of whom has a net worth of more than 10 million yuan.

77 percent of rich female people and 80 percent of rich males surveyed said they wear high-end watches mainly to match their clothes.