ROLEX sales crested US$10 billion for the first time as the top Swiss watch brand gained market share, according to a report by Morgan Stanley.

The dominant Swiss luxury watch brand produced an estimated 1.24 million watches in 2023 with sales of 10.1 billion Swiss francs (S$15.5 billion). That’s a gain of 11 per cent from 2022, analysts at Morgan Stanley and Swiss firm LuxeConsult said on Wednesday (Feb 28), adding Rolex’s current level of market share is “unprecedented”.

The maker of the Daytona, Submariner and Datejust models grew its retail market share to just over 30 per cent as well-heeled buyers clamoured for watches made by the Geneva-based entity, which is controlled by a charitable trust named for Hans Wilsdorf, who co-founded the brand in 1908.

The lower priced Tudor watch brand, which is owned by the same foundation as Rolex, had sales of about 545 million francs in 2023, according to Morgan Stanley estimates.

“No other luxury brand can claim such a dominant position in its respective sector,” analysts led by Morgan Stanley’s Edouard Aubin and LuxeConsult’s Oliver Müller wrote in the report.

Louis Vuitton, for example, had about a 19 per cent share of the luxury handbag market last year, the analysts said.

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The Rolex brand remains the “unchallenged No 1 within the luxury watches industry” with greater sales than that of the five following brands – Cartier, Omega, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe and Richard Mille – combined”, they said.

The report showed that Swiss luxury watch sales continued to be ruled by a handful of brands with more than one billion francs in annual sales. Vacheron Constantin, the historic marque controlled by Richemont, joined the elite one billion franc sales club for the first time in 2023.

At the other end of the spectrum, Swatch Group’s namesake brand sold more than two million MoonSwatches in 2023 and about 5.8 million watches in total at an average price of 141 francs, the analysts said.

Largely due to the success of the MoonSwatch, a collaboration with Omega, Swatch was the fastest-growing watch brand for the second year in a row.

The Morgan Stanley and LuxeConsult figures are estimates, as Swiss watch brands including Rolex do not disclose their individual annual sales. BLOOMBERG