After four record years, the Swiss watchmaking sector is expected to slow down as from the second half of this year; Asia will undoubtedly be unable to compensate the decline forecast for Japan, the United States, and Europe.

As the recent Intellectual Property Day at Geneva University's School of Law clearly spelled out, counterfeiting is a global scourge and the weapons with which to fight it still lack bite. The first in a three-part file.

With exports growing 16% last year to almost CHF 16 billion and a further 23% in January 2008, the Swiss watch industry, if we needed reminding, is hot property. Were we to look only at Fine Watches, the market goes from hot to boiling-point, gaining 25.3% in value terms over the twelve months of 2007 to reach CHF 7.83 billion (up 16.7% in volume terms), and almost 40% for the first month of 2008 (+45% in volume), according to statistics published by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.