Chinese buy a third of world's Swiss watches

Beijing, June 4 (IANS) Chinese love Swiss watches, so much so that they purchased a third of what the Swiss produced last year.

Consumers in Hong Kong and China spent over 5.72 billion Swiss francs ($5.90 billion) on Swiss watches in 2011, which makes it 29.7 percent of the total exports of Swiss watches, show Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry statistics.

The Chinese market recorded the highest rate of growth with a 48.7 percent rise in 2011.

Hong Kong shot past the US to be the largest market for Swiss watch exports in 2008, reported China Daily.

High-end watches are a hot favourite with Chinese consumers and 34 percent of them chose watches for investment and as collectibles.