The female wrist as a growth driver for the Swiss watch industry: this was the message of the 2024 edition of the Deloitte Swiss Watch Industry Insights. The second report in Deloitte’s Spotlight series on watches, “Deloitte Swiss Watch Industry Insights 2024: Spotlight on the female market,” produced in collaboration with the Swiss association Watch Femme--the first international platform dedicated to women in the watchmaking world, created in 2021--and on 8 November 2024, outlines the avenues that the industry must follow to take advantage of the growing appeal of watchmaking to women.

Key questions

“Some of the most persistently unanswered questions in the horological landscape relate to the female watch consumer. This is despite the increasing attention in recent years from watch brands attempting to grow their number of female clients,” reads the Deloitte report.

The key questions are: why are women significantly less visible and less active in the luxury watch market than their male counterparts, despite comprising a majority of luxury consumers in other product sectors? Why are luxury watches still largely considered to be a masculine preserve, when women are the primary consumers of successful models such as the Cartier Tank, the Patek Philippe Twenty~4 and the Rolex Datejust? Why are the most prestigious examples of modern watchmaking virtuosity almost without exception reserved for the male wrist?

And above all, the major strategic question: how can we unlock the door that separates women from haute horlogerie?

Connected watches still dominate

The report provides some answers. First observation: for the time being, the battle of the wrist is turning in favour of the connected watch.

In 2024, more than 50% of the women surveyed said that they wore a smartwatch exclusively or alternated between a smartwatch and a traditional watch. Only 22% said they exclusively wore a traditional watch, while 21% said they did not wear watches at all. For traditional watches, this represents a significant decline, with the proportion of women wearing them having almost halved since 2020. In contrast, the percentage of women who only wear smartwatches has risen from 18% in 2020 to 33% in 2024. The proportion of women wearing both types of watch has remained relatively stable.

The study reveals a paradox here: in the United States, Japan and Switzerland, the majority of women said they did not wear watches at all. The dominance of smartwatches could fade, however, as the appeal of these objects lies more in the health and wellness aspects than in the qualities of traditional watches. The development of connected objects other than watches targeting the health and wellness aspects--in particular rings--could have a positive impact on mechanical watches.

A growing female customer base

The second finding is the rise of women in the market. “The emergence of female buyers in the watch industry, particularly in the luxury segment, marks a significant shift in market dynamics. Traditionally, watches and jewellery were often gifted to women by partners or family members. However, as women gain financial independence and more brands focus on the female market, the landscape is changing. Women are increasingly purchasing watches themselves. In 2024, just 12% of the women surveyed said they would not buy a watch, compared to 17% in 2023,” the report notes. The budget allocated to these purchases is also growing, with 40% of women now saying they are prepared to spend between $501 and $5,000, compared with “only” 30% a year earlier.

Vintage and gender-neutral

What do they choose? “When it comes to purchasing a watch, women are increasingly looking beyond traditional gender-specific designs, favouring pieces that reflect personal taste and style. In 2022, 44% of female consumers stated that they prefer watches designed specifically for women but a significant 26% opt for gender-free models,” notes the study. This trend is particularly strong in markets such as Hong Kong (42%), Japan and Italy (30% each), where gender-free models have a notable appeal. In contrast, over 50% of women in the United Arab Emirates, China and France prefer female-specific designs, demonstrating regional differences in style preferences. In addition, considerations such as the size of the watch are more important to women in the UK and the US, where 32% of women in each country cited this as a key factor. Women are also very sensitive to vintage arguments.

Poorly targeted marketing

Above all, this trend is poorly appreciated by brand marketing: 85% of those surveyed believe that the watches shown in advertisements do not reflect the watches they actually wear. This lack of targeting inevitably has repercussions for consumers’ in-store experience. Between 2020 and 2024, trends in women’s watch purchasing preferences have reversed: 48% now prefer to buy online, compared to 36% four years ago. In addition to the overall trend towards digital retailing, Watch Femme reports that 80% of female consumers believe that “the shopping experience differs for men and women in shops, highlighting differences in treatment that make in-store shopping less enjoyable.”

For the authors of the study, it is more than urgent to “encourage the watch industry to engage in effective dialogue with its female public.”

This article was originally published in .