Watch Market East vs. West: Favorite Brands and Models in Asia and the US

Let’s zoom out for a moment and discuss global watch preferences. It’s a big world out there, and not everyone has the same tastes when it comes to watches. We’ve rounded up the data from 123 countries to see which watches buyers prefer in the East vs. the West.  

The US and Europe tend to have similar buying preferences, but there are key differences when you compare the US to Asia. For clarity, our analysis of Asia includes major markets like Japan, Hong Kong, China, and Singapore.  

Watch Market East vs. West: Brands 

Let’s start by looking at which brands are hottest where. Here’s a breakdown of market share by brand based on Chrono24 data. You’ll see a clear preference for dress watches across the Asian market. Let me give you a few examples:  

• Breguet has a 111% greater market share among Asian buyers than US buyers.  
• Piaget has a 147% advantage.  
• Richard Mille is at 186%.  
• Chanel is at 190%.  
• Bulgari comes in 194% ahead.  
• Roger Dubuis is up by 234% in Asia.  
• Parmigiani Fleurier has a 254% advantage.  
• And F.P. Journe has a whopping 287% greater market share among Asian buyers than US buyers on Chrono24.  

Dress watch brands such as F.P. Journe are more popular in Asia than in the US and Europe.

Watch Sellers East vs. West: Preference for Home 

Let’s move on to market share by seller region. Here, we see that buyers tend to shop on their home turf. EU buyers purchase 90% of their watches from EU sellers. US buyers purchase 77% of their watches from the US. In Asia, it’s more evenly spread, but there’s still a large percentage of Asian buyers purchasing from Asian sellers, with a market share of roughly 40%.   

Watch Market East vs. West: Case Material 

Now on to metal vs. metal. As you might expect, a preference for dress watches among Asian buyers translates to a preference for precious metals. Looking at the top three, we see a 158% greater market share for white gold, 163% for platinum, and 274% for rose gold in Asia. However, Americans and Europeans have been increasingly discovering the beauty of gold watches, whether at Geneva Watch Days or Watches & Wonders.  

Asian buyers purchase 275% more rose gold watches such as this JLC Reverso.

For the final few trends, we see a slight preference for watches under 40 mm in diameter among Asian buyers. And price-wise, the higher price segments are increasingly dominated by Asian markets. Chrono24 is seeing 142% more Asian buyers in the $50-100k segment, 139% more in the $100-200k segment, and 255% more above $200k. Must be nice…