Japan: after record tourism, watchmaking must turn traffic into lasting clientele

Japan welcomed 42.68 million international visitors in 2025, 15.8% more than in 2024 and a new record according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. Watchmaking had already benefited strongly from this dynamic the previous year: the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry notably attributed the 7.8% increase in exports to Japan in 2024 to tourist purchases.

The reversal in 2025 is therefore instructive. Despite even greater visitor numbers, Swiss watch exports to Japan declined by 5.8% within an Asian market down 3.8%. These statistics measure export flows, not final sales, but their contrast with tourism exposes a vulnerability: traffic and exchange rates can lift one year without building durable demand.

Separate the opportunity sale from the long-term relationship

A tourist purchase may be triggered by a reference's availability, a price difference, tax-free shopping or the memory of a journey. These motivations are powerful but reversible. A currency move, restored availability at home or a new tax rule can shift the transaction elsewhere. Immediate revenue therefore does not reveal whether the house has gained a client.

The point of sale must identify what can outlive the trip: interest in a complication, collection, craft or service. With the client's consent, the relationship record should capture language, country of residence, reference tried, purchase project and preferred channel. Follow-up is valuable only when it extends the advice received in store, rather than reducing the experience to an automated sales reminder.

Organise genuinely international after-sales service

The watch leaves with its owner; the house's responsibility crosses borders. A premium promise requires the client to know where to leave the piece, who can access its history, which lead time is realistic and how warranty, quotation and transport will be handled. When the Japanese network and the network in the country of residence do not share information, the experience fractures at the first service.

An international service architecture should assign a common identifier to the piece and its file, define the data available to each entity and make intervention stages visible. The most useful metrics are straightforward: promised versus actual lead time, return rate, number of team handovers and satisfaction after delivery. Watchmaking loyalty is often decided years after the sale, when the watch returns to the workshop.

Adapt clienteling to Japanese service standards

Japan is a market where precision of gesture, product knowledge and consistency of service are immediately noticed. Clienteling cannot rely on forced familiarity or message frequency. It must deliver exact attention: relevant information about a reference, a prepared appointment, a known history and no repetition across channels.

This standard requires giving advisers a small number of high-quality indicators. Contact rate does not mean contact quality. A house gains more from measuring useful appointments, resolved requests, continuity between boutiques and repeat purchasing than from counting messages sent. For foreign visitors, handover to a local team should be offered as a service, with explicit consent and a named contact.

Manage the market beyond export volume

The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry stresses that its data cover declared exports rather than consumer sales. That distinction should guide management: a shipment may feed inventory, a sale may be made to a tourist and a highly visited boutique may lose advisory quality. No single indicator is enough.

Robust management connects deliveries, sell-through, aged inventory, client origin, margin, service requests and repeat purchase. It reveals whether growth comes from residents, travellers or an availability effect, then allows the assortment and resources to be adapted. Japan remains a major watch market; the next step is to turn its power of attraction into relationship continuity, independently of the next tourism or currency cycle.

Back to the journal