The Hour Glass rises on bullish data, but Chew’s calls off sale to third party

(Oct 30): The market is warming up to luxury watch retailer The Hour Glass, which we added to our Singapore Market Portfolio on Oct 10. During the week to Oct 24, the stock rallied 6.2%, on reports that Swiss watch exports to Singapore saw a 90% y-o-y surge in September to CHF179.2 million ($246 million).

Exports of Swiss watches to Singapore have improved significantly this past year, according to data from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. With the latest data for September, exports of Swiss watches to Singapore for the first nine months of the year now stand at CHF824.9 million, up 11.5% y-o-y. That makes Singapore the seventh- largest buyer of Swiss timepieces in the world. Last year, Switch watch exports to Singapore were down 10.4%.

It is not just Singapore that is buying more Swiss watches, though. Notably, shipments to Hong Kong — the biggest buyer of Swiss timepieces — rose 13.7% y-o-y in September. In fact, exports to Hong Kong have increased every month since May.

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