Bloomberg says mainland Chinese are increasing their luxury buying. They offer the high-end watch market in Hong Kong as evidence:
The spending power of Chinese consumers is amazingly strong and the rising yuan helped a lot,” Emperor Watch Executive Director Henry Chan said in an interview. “What they pursue in jewelries and watches are no longer middle-priced pieces, but the expensive, sophisticated and limited items.” […]
“Mainland Chinese spending more than HK$1 million on watches today is not something unusual,” Emperor’s Chan said. “We sold one or two every day during the Golden Week.” The company’s same-store revenue advanced as much as 70 percent in the first four days of the holiday, he said.
Hong Kong is the biggest market for Swiss watchmakers, purchasing 199.5 million Swiss francs ($209 million) worth of timepieces in August, almost double the amount sold to the U.S., according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry.
Chinese Splurge on $130,000 Watches to Boost Hong Kong Retail (Bloomberg)