Jewelry and watch sales from all retail channels increased nearly 5 percent in August as compared to the same month in 2013. While the consumer price index (CPI) for watches increased 4.5 percent, the CPI for jewelry fell 4.7 percent.
Excluding watches, jewelry sales increased 5 percent year to year in July, and 4.8% to $4.94 billion year to year in August. This has contributed to the 2.8% increase (to $40.198 billion) in sales for the first eight months of the year.
Watch sales in August increased 5.8% (to $673.6 million) from last year, boosting the total to $5.476 billion so far this year, a 3.7% increase. Overall, sales of jewelry and watches improved 2.9 percent between January and August, with a total of $45.68 billion.
Courtesy of Rapaport