The production of wristwatches, wall clocks, cuckoo clocks or alarm clocks has declined significantly in recent years, as the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden announced with a view to the time change at the weekend. Especially cuckoo clocks and wristwatches have sales problems.
According to the statisticians, around 385,200 watches worth 287 million euros were produced in Germany in 2021. That was 16.3 percent less than ten years earlier. In 2011, 460,500 watches worth 275.1 million euros were made. Wristwatches, wall clocks, cuckoo clocks or alarm clocks are included here – whether with pointers or with digital displays.
There was growth in wall clocks (excluding cuckoo clocks). Their production volume increased from 2011 to 2021 by 46.3 percent to 44,000 units. The production of cuckoo clocks (minus 56.4 percent) and wristwatches (minus 54 percent), on the other hand, has more than halved in a ten-year comparison. In 2021, 24,500 cuckoo clocks and 129,000 wristwatches were produced in Germany.
Watchmakers are still needed. In 2021, around 200 trainees were in dual training to become watchmakers. The proportion of male trainees was around three quarters (74 percent). In addition, in 2021 a total of around 200 schoolchildren completed full-time training as watchmakers at a vocational school.