What Rolex Shortage? The Top 10 Swiss Watch Brands Revealed

By Jacob Osborn - News

Published: 18 Feb 2026

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Readtime: 4 min

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Investment bank Vontobel has released its annual report on the Swiss watch industry, revealing a decline in global exports from 2024 to 2025. Total exports amounted to CHF 25,552 million ($AUD84.85m) in 2025, representing a 1.7% decrease over the previous year. But despite the decline, Rolex remains the undisputed apex player in the industry.

Contributing factors included economic uncertainties in key regions such as China and Japan, where Swiss watch sales nosedived relative to other markets around the globe.

In the USA—the world’s largest importer of Swiss watches by a wide margin—unpredictable tariffs became a predictable disruptor. As an anticipatory measure, exports to the USA surged just before the tariffs were issued, and wavered thereafter. By the end of 2025, exports of Swiss watches to the USA decreased by 0.5% overall, with a strong December counterbalancing some of the weaker months.

Upon closer inspection, Vontobel’s report revealed that watches with an export price of CHF 3,000 or above declined 1.9%, while watches with an export price between CHF 500 and 3,000 went more or less unchanged. The biggest drop was for watches with an export price below CHF 500, which decreased by 4.5% overall.

Meanwhile, leading watchmaker Rolex is still king of the jungle, and it’s not even close. Despite a notable decrease in production (aka the purported Rolex shortage), the brand outpaced the competition on every possible front. In fact, Rolex sales roughly amounted to the next four competitors combined. The watchmaker’s Certified Pre-Owned program – which contributes greatly to overall sales – was likewise a juggernaut, to the point that it almost made the top ten as its own respective entity.

Top 10 Swiss Watch Brands in 2025

The Swiss watch industry might be down at large, but things are looking up for Rolex. With the brand’s continuing reign over the luxury market comes an increasingly larger slice of the global pie. According to reports, the Big Crown accounted for approximately 61% of global sales for watches with an export price over CHF 3,000 in 2025.

Rolex’s dominance also makes up part of a broader industry trend, whereby the top luxury brands are creating a bottleneck. Or, to quote Vontobel, “The industry is becoming increasingly oligopolistic.” Specifically, the top ten Swiss brands accounted for 80% of export volumes for watches valued at CHF 3,000 or higher in 2025.

Vontobel analysts also pointed to Rolex’s decrease in production for two years in a row as a matter of calculation over supply constraints, concluding that the drop in units is “most likely by design, as the brand prioritises scarcity and pricing power over incremental unit growth.” Whatever the reasons, the move is clearly paying off, as Rolex retains the lion’s share of the global market both through new releases and the Certified Pre-Owned program.

Here’s a list of the top ten Swiss Watch brands that were exported in 2025:

It’s also worth noting that the Rolex Certified Pre-Owned program reported export sales of around CHF 500 million, placing it just outside of the Top 10.

Swiss Watch Exports by Market in 2025

Each of the four largest markets – the USA, Japan, China, and Hong Kong – imported fewer Swiss watches in 2025 than in 2024. However, smaller markets such as Spain, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia increased the number of imports. The overall export volume of CHF 25,552.4 million represented a decrease of 1.7% from 2024 to 2025.

Here’s a closer look at the top Swiss watch exports by market in 2025:

1. USA – CHF 4,352.9 million (-0.5%)
2. Japan – CHF 1,850.9 million (-5.8%)
3. China – CHF 1804.4 million (-12.1%)
4. Hong Kong – CHF 1,790.8 million (-6.5%)
5. United Kingdom – CHF 1,718.9 million (+0.1%)
6. Singapore – CHF 1,632.7 million (+0.7%)
7. France – CHF 1,329.1 million (+1.3%)
8. UAE – CHF 1,316.2 million (+3.5%)
9. Germany – CHF 1,217.4 million (-6.8%)
10. Italy – CHF 1,044.4 million (-0.5%)
11. South Korea – CHF 792.3 million (+2.4%)
12. Spain – CHF 509.5 million (+5.3%)
13. Australia – CHF 424.9 million (+3.5%)
14. Taiwan – CHF 403.7 million (-0.6%)
15. Saudi Arabia – CHF 352.1 million (+8.9%)

Should certain trends continue, 2026 may see another decline in overall Swiss watch sales around the world. Some of the lesser-known brands may find it increasingly difficult to penetrate the global market as power players consolidate their grip on the luxury sector.

Even the best-known brands, however, must kneel before Rolex as the watchmaker expands upon its empire, churning out fewer products at higher price points while simultaneously crushing it through their secondhand program. The times they are a-changing, but a Rolex is still a Rolex.