Swiss Watches Plunge In Popularity As Omega Gains On Rolex

Put Swiss watches on the list of products hurt by the global recession. Exports of Swiss watches dropped 22 percent last year, "the biggest drop since the Great Depression," says BusinessWeek. The United States had the biggest decline of any importing country.

The sub-text to the story might be even more interesting. Rolex, long considered the gold standard in Swiss watches, depends on the US for about one-third of its sales, so it was particularly battered.

Its competitor Omega, however, gets over one-third of its sales from China and only about 10 percent from the US. This fact, combined with the widely held perception that Omega is trendier, "helped Swatch Group AG's Omega snatch market share from Rolex..." This is a reversal of the trend in 2008, when Rolex "gained market share faster than Swatch Group," according to one analyst.

While consumer buying trends have been unkind to Swiss watch brands, Omega is on a modest upward trend. Omega saw a 10 percent increase in revenue last year from its own boutiques, and it does seem to have appeal with a younger market. One reason may be that Omega was associated with more recent James Bond movies (worn by Pierce Brosnan in 1995 and Daniel Craig in 2006). Rolex, on the other hand, was favored in earlier Bond movies starring Sean Connery.

But don't count Rolex out just yet. In 2008, the brand had estimated sales that were three times the size of Omega's, and the Rolex brand still has a cachet that's hard to beat.