Telling time for luxury industry selling it

Even although it is considered to be one of the sectors largely benefiting from the China-Swiss free trade agreement, Swiss watches are suffering shrinking sales in the Chinese market, its third-largest export destination in the world.

Latest data from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry show that Swiss watch exports to China reflected a clear decrease for the first three quarters of the year, contracting 14.7 percent to 1.03 billion Swiss francs ($1.05 billion), compared with the same period last year.

China is the third-biggest export market of Swiss watches, accounting for 7.7 percent of the country's total watch exports last year. The United States is the second-largest buyer of Swiss products, where sales accounted for 10.2 percent of the total in 2012.