Report: Apple shipped 30.7M Watches worldwide in 2019, up 36% YoY, outselling the entire Swiss watch industry, which shipped 21.1M units, down 13% YoY
The Apple Watch continues to dominate the market — The Apple Watch wasn't just the best-selling smartwatch last year …
The VergeNick Statt
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the annual milestone in a five-year arc: smartwatches first outsold Swiss watches in a single quarter back in Q4 2015, Apple was already beating the Swiss industry on a quarterly basis by Q4 2017, and Strategy Analytics had Apple at 22.5M units for full-year 2018. The new data closes the loop — for the first time Apple's full-year volume (30.7M, up 36%) exceeds the entire Swiss industry's (21.1M, down 13%) on an annual basis.
First-order effects
Apple extends its lead as the world's largest watchmaker by unit volume, growing 36% while every Swiss brand collectively shrinks — the crossover is no longer quarterly but structural.
Second-order effects
Swiss brands face a shrinking base where their premium pricing depends on scarcity of a category consumers are abandoning in volume terms, pressuring them toward their own connected offerings or deeper retreat into luxury niches.
Third-order effects
If the divergence holds, wrist-worn computing consolidates around one platform vendor while traditional horology narrows to a heritage/luxury segment — the watch industry's center of gravity has moved from Switzerland to Cupertino.
The trend: Wristwear is completing its shift from a Swiss mechanical monopoly to a software-defined accessory market dominated by a single platform vendor.
Reminder to anyone still beating the “Apple Watch is a failure/disappointing” drum: Apple is the largest watch manufacturer in the world by revenue, shipped 45% more watches than the entire Swiss watch industry combined in 2019. https://twitter.com/...
Remember that time, so long ago, when @asymco and I argued so heavily that Apple Watch was a big deal, not a flop, and took so much heat! If only we did a @GlanceConf conference today it would be much more highly attended! https://twitter.com/...
Where did most of Twitter's $1.5B profit come from last year? “Income tax benefit from the establishment of deferred tax assets related to intra-entity transfers of intangible assets of $1.21 billion.” https://www.bloomberg.com/...
You seemed skeptical about the positive Apple Watch numbers 4 years ago, and asked how it would look just 3 years later. I replied (to the date), but rather vaguely. Now, a year later, it seems Apple outsells the *entire Swiss watch industry* (by units!) https://www.strategyanaly…
2014: Ive “gleefully said Switzerland is in trouble — though he chose a much bolder term for “trouble” to express how he thought the watchmaking nation might be in a tough predicament when Apple's watch comes out.” 2019: https://twitter.com/...
“Time may be running out for Swatch, Tissot, TAG Heuer, and others.” Worldwide sales 2019 Entire Swiss watch industry: 21.1 million, down 13% from 2018 Apple (est): 30.7 million, up 36% from 2018 https://www.macrumors.com/...