NewHong Kong and China to drive global demand for smartwatches

Hong Kong and mainland China, two of the top markets for Swiss watches, could be poised to drive global demand for smartwatches. .

“There is a huge pool of customers in mainland China and Hong Kong who like wrist-based gadgets or jewellery, like smartwatches,” Neil Mawston, the executive director for global wireless practice at technology consultancy Strategy Analytics, told the South China Morning Post.

Without providing sales estimates, Mawston declared that “mainland China and Hong Kong combined will become the world’s largest smartwatch market by 2017”.

His prediction followed Strategy Analytics’ report on Friday that global smartwatch shipments grew about 315 per cent to reach 8.1 million units in the fourth quarter last year, up from 1.9 million a year ago.

In comparison, global Swiss watch shipments last quarter were estimated to have declined about 5 per cent to 7.9 million units from 8.3 million units in the fourth quarter previous year.

“The Swiss watch industry has been sticking its head in the sand and hoping smartwatches will go away,” Mawston said. “They are way behind Apple, Samsung and other leaders in the high-growth smartwatch category.”