Swiss luxury watch industry smart enough to face down challenges

The Beyer watch shop on Zürich's prestigious Bahnhofstrasse has sold timepieces since 1760. It will take more than a strong Swiss franc, turmoil in Asian financial markets and the rise of the Apple smartwatch to ruffle its immaculately dressed shop assistants. "Once the economic outlook improves, it will be 'business as usual' again," says Markus Baumgartner, sales director. "Smartwatches are absolutely not a threat for us." This week, however, came signs that the Swiss watch industry was not ticking as it should. A report by Deloitte showed that pessimism about the economic outlook was at its highest since at least 2012, when the consultancy's annual surveys were launched. Top of executives' worry lists were weak foreign demand and the Swiss currency's strength. The Swiss franc has risen 10 per cent against the euro since the start of the year, when the Swiss National Bank abandoned attempts to cap its value. But despite the calm on Zürich's Bahnhofstrasse, ...