The shaky state of the Chinese property market and faltering economic growth is causing the country’s investors to turn towards luxury watches as a better store of value than property, reports the Financial Times. Multiple high-end watch resellers told the FT that business had taken off in recent months as wealthy individuals stopped buying additional homes and instead spent their extra cash on luxury timepieces such as Rolex and Patek Philippe.
The shopping spree, said experts, has contributed to a 40% surge in China’s imports of Swiss watches in the first 10 months of this year even as the broader economy cooled off.
Camille Gaujacq, an analyst at Daxue Consulting, a Shanghai-based market research firm, said a downturn in the real estate industry, once the “go-to investment” for China’s wealthy class, had prompted many to look for alternatives.
You must log in to post a comment.