Shops selling luxury watches expect to strike gold during 'golden week' as mainlanders flock to buy name brands at prices up to 40 per cent lower than at home.
Recent consumption tax changes on the mainland pushed the levy on luxury watches up 20 per cent this month.
Retailers said watches priced between $50,000 and $150,000 have always been on mainland tourists' Hong Kong shopping lists. They said that after the tax adjustment, the difference between the price in Hong Kong and the mainland could be as large as 40 per cent.
Elegant Watch and Jewellery's managing director, Samuel Lee Wing-on, estimated a 15 per cent growth in business.
'The increase will be more significant for the expensive ones,' he said.
Mainlanders also prefer shopping in Hong Kong 'because there are just too many fakes on the mainland', a spokesman for Oriental Watch Group said.
