U.S. Jewelry and Watch Rise More Moderately in November

(IDEX Online) - Sales of fine jewelry and fine watches continued to rise in November 2019, increasing 3 percent compared to November 2018, as seen in the graph below. This marks the fifth successive month of positive sales. If the results are down slightly over October - just 0.2 of a percent - it's still evidence that there is some momentum in the market.

Specialty Market Continues Slow Growth

Total watch and jewelry sales during the month outpaced sales at specialty jewelers quite noticeably - 3 percent compared to growth of just 0.6 percent. This marks the lowest increase for specialty jewelers in the past five months, but hopefully it's just a blip and sales results will continue to strengthen when the December figures become available next month. Given how well jewelers did during the holiday season, this result shouldn't be a cause for alarm.

The graph below summarizes sales trends for specialty jewelers since 2017. Looking at the bigger picture, the results for November 2018 were also weak compared to the mostly strong figures for the rest of the year.  

Specialty Jewelers Lose Market Share

In something of a reversal of fortune,jewelry and watch sales outperformed specialty jewelry sales on a year-over-year basis. That's something we haven't seen since June when sales of all jewelry and watches just couldn't outperform the strong results seen for most of 2018. 

Watch Sales Outpace Jewelry Sales

Fine watch sales have been outperforming fine jewelry since the start of the year, and once again, November was no exception. By category, fine jewelry sales were up 2.8 percent in the month - almost on par with October's results of 3 percent - while fine watch sales rose by 3.8 percent. This pattern marks something of a change from 2018 when jewelry sales outpaced watch sales throughout almost the entire 12 months of the year.

Outlook

While many jewelry retailers still haven't released their holiday results, Signet Jewelers Limited, the world's largest retailer of diamond jewelry, reported that same store sales were up 1.6 percent, with North American same store sales up 2 percent, which was ahead of its guidance. The retailer's ecommerce sales rose 13.5 percent. 

Holiday spending in general matched expectations with sales in the U.S. growing 4.1 percent year-over-year to $730.2 billion, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). Online sales outperformed predictions, climbing 14.6 percent over 2018 to $167.8 billion. 

The 2019 growth rate was nearly double the weak 2.1 percent seen in 2018, leading Matthew Shay, NRF president and CEO to say that the results were a "positive indicator of what's ahead." 

With the continuing sales slump in Hong Kong leading to store closures and the outbreak of coronavirus in China affecting Chinese New Year buying, let's hope the positive U.S. holiday season figures can hold their own.