According to Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH, Swiss watch exports recorded a very steep rise in March, as expected. The marked decline in watch exports in March 2020 (-21.7%) due to the almost universal lockdown resulted inevitably in a low basis for comparison. Last month, performance increased by 37.2% compared with March 2020, to 1.9 billion Swiss francs. Compared with the 2019 baseline, the month-on-month change was +7.4%. The first quarter saw growth of 6.6% compared with 2020 and a very slight decline (-1.3%) compared with 2019. The month’s performance was supported by all groups of materials, particularly steel and precious metals, which together generated over 80% of the growth in value. The number of watches exported logically followed the same trend, increasing by +33.7%, to 1.2 million items. This was the first increase in over 30 months. The Steel and Other metals categories grew most strongly, while the other materials group declined.