Apple Watch Pushes Smartwatch Shipments Past Swiss Watches

New statistics from Strategy Analytics show that smartwatch shipments passed those of traditional Swiss watches for the first time in history in the last quarter of 2015, with the Apple Watch leading with the most shipped.

According to the estimates, smartwatch shipments rose roughly 8.1 million units worldwide, beating the 7.9 million Swiss watches sold and growing over 300 percent from the year ago quarter.

Smartwatches are growing rapidly in North America, Western Europe and Asia,” said Strategy Analytics Director Cliff Raskind. “Apple Watch captured an impressive 63 percent share of the global smartwatch market in Q4 2015, followed by Samsung with 16 percent. Apple and Samsung together account for a commanding 8 in 10 of all smartwatches shipped worldwide.

The Swiss market saw a decline of about 5 percent year-over-year of watch sales with Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, blaming it mostly on the rise of the smartwatch.

The Swiss watch industry has been sticking its head in the sand and hoping smartwatches will go away,” Mawston said. “Swiss brands, like TAG Heuer, accounted for a tiny 1 percent of all smartwatches shipped globally during Q4 2015, and they are long way behind Apple, Samsung and other leaders in the high-growth smartwatch category.

Today’s estimates match statistics that was reported by research firm Juniper Research, which also said that the Apple Watch accounted for more than half of all smartwatches shipped in 2015.

It is expected that Apple will introduce a second-generation Apple Watch later this year, but also has plans to show some new first-generation models at the rumored March event.

But hey, the Apple Watch is a flop, right?