SWISS watchmaker Swatch is not worried by economic and market turbulence in China, chief executive Nick Hayek told a Sunday newspaper, noting its sales to Chinese customers will rise when stripping out exchange rate swings.

    “This year as well we will sell the Chinese in China and outside of China more than last year in local currencies,” he said in an interview with Schweiz am Sonntag.

    The Swatch brand alone is generating 15 percent growth on the Chinese mainland and other brands single-digit growth when measured in local currencies and units, he said.

    Despite the strong Swiss franc, watch sales in the Swiss cities of Lucerne and Interlaken, popular with tourists, were in some cases up by half or more in July and August.

    “We never had such good numbers, and that of course has to do with the Chinese who are on holiday here,” he said. (SD-Agencies)