U.S. Jewelry and Watch Rise More Moderately in December
February 25, 20
(IDEX Online) - Sales of fine jewelry and fine watches continued to rise in December 2019, increasing 4.7 percent compared to December 2018, as seen in the graph below. This marks the sixth successive month of positive sales and was also one of the strongest months of the year, with only September showing better performance. Specialty Market Bounces Back Total watch and jewelry sales during December outpaced sales at specialty jewelers, but only just - 4.7 percent compared to 4.3 percent. This also marks one of the strongest months for specialty retailers in the past year, and is a huge relief for jewelers given the poor result of just 0.6-percent growth the previous month.
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The graph below summarizes sales trends for specialty jewelers since 2017. Looking at the bigger picture, the results for December 2019 were especially strong coming off the back of robust trade for November 2018.
Specialty Jewelers Gaining Market Share
Sales at specialty jewelers continue to lag compared to overall jewelry and watch sales. Despite this, they performed far better than last month and had one of their best months in the past year with only September 2019 seeing better results.
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Watch Sales Outpace Jewelry Sales
Fine watch sales have been outperforming fine jewelry since the start of the year, and December was no exception. By category, fine jewelry sales were up 4.4 percent while fine watch sales rose by a strong 6.1 percent. This pattern continues to mark a change from 2018 when jewelry sales outpaced watch sales throughout almost the entire 12 months of the year.
Outlook
While December's figures were a big improvement over the previous month, events worldwide mean that a continued upturn may no longer be likely.
Although hopes were high for a positive Valentine's Day in the United States with the National Retail Federation (NRF) predicting a $5.8 billion spend on jewelry this year. However, worldwide sales of jewelry and watches could be affected by the continuing spread of the coronavirus.
While the outbreak hasn't hit the U.S. yet, it could just be a matter of time and it seems that although the diamond and jewelry industry was beginning to see the green shoots of recovery, external forces could conspire to stop it in its tracks.
This is one time when we really will have to wait and see what happens.