Apple is making a dent in the high-end watch industry
Apple
Exports shrank by more than 3.3% to around $21.1 billion (£14.7 billion) in 2015, down on all previous years since the financial crash.
The Apple Watch, however, had a good holiday quarter.
Apple does not break out sales specifically, but the revenues generated by the "Other" group of devices - made up of the Watch and Apple TV - grew by more than 40%.
Bloomberg notes that other factors may have contributed - macroeconomic uncertainty, for example - but the Apple Watch is certainly a part of the reason Swiss watch sales are falling.
The Watch comes in three variants: A Sport model, which starts at £249 ($349); the Watch, which starts at £479 ($549); and the Edition model, which starts at £8,000 ($10,000).
REUTERS/Robert Galbraith
According to market research, the Apple Watch currently makes up around half of all smartwatch sales, with the rest going to a diverse group of manufacturers, such as Pebble and Samsung.
Swiss watch makers have been very skeptical of the Apple Watch, opening mocking it. One watch executive described it as a "toy" while another brand made a video mocking Apple-style product launches.
The second generation version of the Apple Watch is rumoured to be pegged for a September announcement, with a smaller update - reportedly the addition of a FaceTime camera - coming in March.
Apple also recently made the Hermès edition of the Watch, which comes with the iconic strap and costs $1,500 (£999), available online rather than in a select few Apple Stores.
NOW WATCH: Hidden Facebook tricks you need to know
- Colon cancer rates are rising in young people. If you have two symptoms you should get a colonoscopy, a GI oncologist says.
- I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.
- An Ambani disruption in OTT: At just ₹1 per day, you can now enjoy ad-free content on JioCinema
- In second consecutive week of decline, forex kitty drops $2.28 bn to $640.33 bn
- SBI Life Q4 profit rises 4% to ₹811 crore
- IMD predicts severe heatwave conditions over East, South Peninsular India for next five days
- COVID lockdown-related school disruptions will continue to worsen students’ exam results into the 2030s: study
- India legend Yuvraj Singh named ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 ambassador