There are 630,000 online searches every day for 62 luxury watch brands, according to a new report issued by Digital Luxury Group on the eve of the BaselWorld 2015.  The activity translates to about 230 million searches annually. If one considers that the luxury watch industry is approximately $30 billion, that is 130 searches for each dollar of sales.

Makers of high-end mechanical watches are hot, so says World Watch Report, at least in terms of being searched for. Brands classifed as Haute Horlogerie saw 23 percent growth in online searches, the metric used in World Watch Report. Data is based on searches from Google, Bing, Baidu, Yandex and covered over 11,000 models.

Brands are divided into five categories:

o Haute Horlogerie: A. Lange & Söhne, Audemars Piguet, Blancpain, Bovet, Breguet, De Bethune, Franck Muller, Girard-Perregaux, Glashütte Original, Greubel Forsey, Jaeger- LeCoultre, Jaquet Droz, Parmigiani, Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, Roger Dubuis, Ulysse Nardin, Vacheron Constantin

o Watch & Jewlery: Bulgari, Cartier, Chaumet, Chopard, Harry Winston, Jacob & Co., Piaget, Tiffany & Co., Van Cleef & Arpels

o Couture: Chanel, Dior, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren

o Prestige: Breitling, Corum, Hublot, IWC, Omega, Panerai, Rolex, Tag Heuer, Zenith

o High Range: Baume & Mercier, Bell & Ross, Bremont, Carl F. Bucherer, Concord, Ebel, Eberhard, Frédérique Constant, Graham, Longines, Louis Erard, Maurice Lacroix, Montblanc, Perrelet, Rado, Raymond Weil, Romain Jerome, Sinn, Technomarine, Tudor, Vulcain

Some other highlights:

–          Asia is the biggest market for Haute Horlogerie in terms of searches, and saw 34 percent increase year over year

–          Patek Philippe entered the Top 5 most searched luxury watch brand thanks to the booming interest in China. The brand overtook Breitling.

–          Share of interest for models between $37,000-$100,000 and $100,000 + is low compared to all other price ranges (4 percent each among 10 price ranges)

–          In the $100,000 + price range, consumers seem to be mostly interest by recent models launched after January 2013.

–          Interest for models between $24,000-$37,000 and $100,000 + is growing the fastest among all price ranges (23% and 25% respectively ; A

–          The share of interest for models priced between $24,000-$37,000.

–     $37,000-$100,000 and $100,000 + searches are increasing compared to all price ranges.

“Despite the turbulence of the past months – the increase of the Swiss Franc, rumors of overstock and the announcement of the Apple Watch – worldwide consumer interest for luxury watches keeps growing.” comments David Sadigh, Founder & CEO at Digital Luxury Group.

Portions of the report released to the media do not deal with how consumers are using search, so it is hard to discern where in the sales cycle search comes in? Are consumers searching for more information after admiring a friend’s timepiece or reading a magazine article? Or are they going online to compare pricing and points of sale once they have decided what they want to buy? What percentage of searchers actually end up buying?

A DLG spokesperson said more in-depth analysis is available for purchase. Visit Digitalluxurygroup.com.