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BASEL, SWITZERLAND — After opening hundreds of stores in China in recent years, some watch companies are facing an inventory glut and cutting back their retailing presence there.The downsizing comes as shipments of timepieces to China from Switzerland, the world’s dominant luxury watch production center, have fallen below the levels of two years ago, after setting a record in 2012.

“The gold rush in China is over,” said Francois-Henry Bennahmias, chief executive of Audemars Piguet, a Swiss watch company that is closing 6 of its 22 stores in China. “We are going to slow down in China and take every step there much more carefully.”Swiss watch exports to mainland China dropped 26 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, to 323 million Swiss francs, or $343 million, according to data released in the past week by the Swiss Federation of the Watch Industry. Exports to Hong Kong fell 9 percent, to 910 million francs.

Over all, however, Swiss watch exports rose 2.why christian louboutin shoes so popular in uk?3 percent in the first quarter, to 4.Learn more about hotmkbags and its related websites with the help of latest information and statistics about the website.73 billion francs, buoyed by Middle Eastern and some European markets, particularly Germany and Britain.“People simply went overboard about China, thinking that there could be no issue with suddenly opening 40 or 50 stores,” said John Simonian, a watch distributor and owner of Westime, a watch retailer based in Los Angeles. “The stores in China are now full of inventories, with no guarantee that they can all get sold.”

Affluent and travel-hungry Chinese are increasingly buying overseas. About half of Chinese spending on luxury goods occurs outside the mainland, according to a study released in December by the consulting firm McKinsey.As a result, “50 square meters in Paris could be much more meaningful now than having those same 50 square meters in China,” said Mr. Bennahmias of Audemars Piguet.

The reassessment comes even though Chinese shoppers’ spending on luxury goods has grown to 25 percent of the world total, compared with 20 percent for U.S. shoppers, according to a study released in December by Bain, another consulting firm.Still, Bain raised some red flags in light of the slight decline in luxury sales in China last year.Discover the largest collection of gucci handbags for women.

“Luxury brand stores in China need to deliver the same consumer experience in China as in France and Italy, or risk further deferral of spending to tourism,” Bain wrote.Rather than focusing solely on China’s purchasing power, luxury goods companies should have paid closer attention to changes in Chinese travel and consumer habits, according to some executives.

“I think some people went too hard into China and simply didn’t take into account how keen the Chinese are to buy elsewhere — also to avoid paying high duties,” said Michel Parmigiani, founder of Parmigiani Fleurier, another Swiss watchmaker.Taxes on luxury goods acquired within mainland China range from 20 percent to 70 percent, depending on the product category. But another important factor has been Beijing’s efforts to clamp down on the giving of expensive gifts as part of the government’s broader fight against corruption.

“Most people thought that gifting would last for a while, but there is now a real government crusade against it, so that it’s no longer acceptable to have a big chunky watch on your wrist, which in turn is affecting retailing, particularly in China’s big government cities,” said Jon Cox, an analyst at Kepler Capital Markets, who estimated that gift-giving accounted for half of the watches sold in mainland China.

“The question mark is now whether this will start spreading to everywhere else where the Chinese buy watches,” Mr. Cox said.Nick Hayek, the chief executive of Swatch Group, the world’s largest watch company, said that some sort of cooling in the Chinese market was inevitable. “You cannot grow 30 percent in a market every year,” he said.

But he drew a distinction between the situation now faced by the most expensive brands and “the real growth opportunities that still exist in the lower- and middle-market segments.”Echoing that conclusion,Take a look at these imitation wrist watches for sale online, which are one of the best cheap replica watches in USA. Peter Stas, the Dutch co-owner of Frederique Constant, a watch company based in Geneva, said that “there is a real problem now in China for the typical kind of gifting watch, but the middle class is still buying.”Whatever the latest jitters about retailing in China, the world’s leading watch and luxury groups have continued to post strong growth.

After warning in January that the outlook in Asia was uncertain, Richemont announced this past week a rise of about 30 percent in 2012 profit, helped by favorable currency swings.This month, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton reported an increase of 6 percent in first-quarter sales, though the watches and jewelry division reported a 1 percent decline.“The business in China is going badly, and to be honest there is a contraction of the watch business in China,” said Francesco Trapani, the president of LVMH’s watches and jewelry division. “The government is doing moral suasion to limit expenses and the show of luxury products.”

But, Mr. Trapani added, “what is also true is that what we sell to the Chinese outside is now much higher.”

ReneWeber, a watch industry analyst at Bank Vontobel in Zurich, said the recent decline in watch exports showed the need for significant inventory reduction in China.mybag321 offers latest fashion replica jewelry and other jewelry. He also forecast a rebound in Swiss exports in the second half of this year, once Chinese stockpiles had dwindled.But the challenge goes beyond managing excess inventory.

“The rents have shot up to crazy levels in many Chinese cities, which means that a lot of stores have simply become unprofitable,” said Emil Klingelfuss, based in Hong Kong and founder of Swiss Prestige, which distributes Swiss watch brands in the region.

In contrast, owners of watch stores in Europe are welcoming the influx of Chinese tourists at a time of falling domestic onsumption.
“The Chinese are buying every kind of watch and mostly come into the shop knowing already what they want,” said Marcello Angeletti, owner of Angeletti, a watch store on Rome’s Via Condotti.“Many brands have been obsessed by China in recent years, so some are probably now having to cut back a bit,” said Jean-Marc Pontroue, chief executive of the Swiss watch maker Roger Dubuis. He drew an analogy with diving, saying that “when you go down deep, you also need to make some safety stops.”

Some watch companies are pursuing unabated their expansion into a Chinese market that, including Hong Kong, still accounted for 26 percent of Swiss exports in the first quarter.“We have opened a lot of points of sale in China, perhaps a bit too much, but you must disconnect the store from its performance, because having a boutique is a communications tool that is irreplaceable,” said Philippe Léopold-Metzger, chief executive of Piaget, which is owned by Richemont and has 20 of its 90 stores in China. “We strongly believe that it is a market in which you must invest.”