【Spain】The Jewelry and Watchmaking Sector Takes a Step Forward in Current Regulations

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Editor’s Note

This article highlights a significant step for the jewelry and watchmaking industry, detailing a recent meeting aimed at regulatory reform. We welcome this collaborative push toward modernization and standardization within the sector.

The Jewelry and Watchmaking Sector Advances in its Improvements

The jewelry and watchmaking sector is advancing in its improvements. On March 1st, the Ministry of Industry received a delegation from the Confederation of Jewelry of Spain, with the goal of promoting the reform of the regulation of the law on objects manufactured with precious metals. This step forward also represents progress for associations, confederations, companies, and all professionals in the sector to move hand in hand towards a common goal and future.

What Does the Confederation of Jewelry of Spain Demand?

From the Confederation,

“we believe it is necessary to establish measures aimed at strengthening the sector, improving innovation and competitiveness of companies, maintaining employment, consolidating jobs, and creating skilled employment in line with the needs of the sector.”
Analysis of the Jewelry and Watchmaking Sector

According to a study by the DBK Sectoral Observatory, the main jewelry and watchmaking retailers in Spain ended the 2022 fiscal year with a combined turnover of 1.6 billion euros, representing a growth of 7% compared to the previous year. Jewelry and watchmaking continues its recovery, reversing the situation experienced due to the pandemic, increasing its revenue by 28.8%, to 1.5 billion euros. This magnitude experienced a very positive evolution in a context of recovery in private consumption and reactivation of tourism activity.

At the same time, the watchmaking and jewelry sector was the one that increased its online sales the most in the second quarter of the year, with a rise of 15%, to 33.1 million euros, increasing the number of transactions by up to 7% in the period.

Adaptation of Current Regulations

The adaptation of the current regulation for the manufacture of objects with precious metals was already a felt need, as well as adapting this legal and regulatory framework to the needs of the current market.

“All jewelry professionals are aware of the difficulties that the hallmarking of large-volume pieces with few microns of thickness or very small size generates for manufacturers, importers, and laboratories, and therefore of the need to explore and authorize other more efficient techniques to make guarantee or origin contrast marks (such as the use of laser, or other available technologies, etc.).”

At the same time, it is necessary to understand that the consumer is the central subject, the recipient of these guarantees. Therefore, in an increasingly globalized market, it is an imperative need to guarantee, for both the consumer and the professional, easy and transparent access to information about these objects, their composition, their origin, and their traceability. To this is added the problem generated for all consumers and sector operators by the lack of terminological precision in the current regulation, which can lead to confusion or error.

Therefore, it is essential to take the necessary steps to solve this situation, in particular to facilitate access for users, the ultimate recipients of this information and guarantees.

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⏰ Published on: March 02, 2023