IDEX Online Research: US Jewelry Sales Rose 6.4% in December

The full analysis of the US jewelry sales is available to IDEX Online Research subscribers and IDEX Online members here.

The rise in December was at the lower end of monthly increases seen throughout 2013 of the 6+% range.

Total fine jewelry and watch sales in the U.S. market rose to a record $79.5 billion in 2013, an increase of 7.8 percent over 2012 levels, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Fine jewelry sales, excluding watches, were $70.0 billion in 2013, a gain of 7.6 percent over 2012.

US jewelry retailers’ sales edged up just 1.6 percent on the year-earlier figure to $6.55 billion.

The changes in percentage terms in overall jewelry and watch sales can be seen in this graph.

The rise in December on a year before was far below the rise in December 2012 on the year-earlier figure.

Total Jewelry Sales +7.0%

Jewelry sales alone, excluding watches, totaled $6.09 billion in November, up 7.0 percent year-over-year, based on US Department of Commerce data.

Fine Watch Sales +9.4%

Fine watch sales rose by a very strong 9.4 percent in 2013 to $9.4 billion.

In 2013, fine watch sales were 11.9 percent of total fine jewelry and fine watch sales.

Jewelry & Watch Spending

As has been the case for the past year-and-a-half, rises in retail jewelry and watch sales are still far ahead of those for retail sales in general.

Outlook

With a rise of almost 8 percent on the year in jewelry sales in the United States in 2013, Americans are clearly still in love with jewelry.

But was that rise caused by the fact that producer prices were very low due to falling gold and silver prices and polished diamond prices that stood still or increased very modestly? As a result, American consumers were happy to be able to buy jewelry at prices that retailers failed to increase significantly. In other words the amount of jewelry items bought is likely to have risen compared to the overall dollar figure for sales.