A reliable annual industry report shows that Audemars Piguet has overtaken Patek Philippe over the past year in sales. This pushes Audemars Piguet to become the fourth largest watch brand globally.

The report was compiled by investment bank Morgan Stanley and Genevan consultancy, LuxeConsult. According to it, Audemars Piguet approximately turned over an estimate of $1.7B in 2020 in net sales, compared to Patek Philippe, with $1.65B.

Although customers spent more on Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet held on to more of its proceeds. This is because Audemars Piguet retails most of its pieces directly to customers, while Patek Philippe shares more of its sales with its retailer partners. As a result, Patek Philippe's estimated average retail price dropped from $37,965 in 2020 to $32,200 last year. Within that same period, Audemars Piguet impressively grew its average sales by almost $5,390.

As if not enough, Patek Philippe fell further in the ranking from 4th in 2020 to 6th in 2021. This is courtesy of Longines moving from producing 1.5M watches in 2020 to 1.8M last year, which provided net sales of $1.66B.

Cartier also made some impressive moves that got it to second place (displacing Omega) and increased its net sales. Asides increase in net sales, Cartier also increased its production by 22%, while Omega managed a meager 14% increase.

However, the most outstanding success story remains that of Van Cleef and Arpels, achieving a 75% net sales increase and a 38% production increase. The company's average sales increased from $37,500 to almost twice the previous net sales - it increased to $65,400.

The full rankings of the top 20 brands in the report are Rolex, Cartier, Omega, Audemars Piguet, Longines, Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, Tissot, IWC, TAG Heuer, Breitling: Hublot, Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Tudor, Panerai, Van Cleef & Arpels (moving from 26th to 17th!), Chopard, Hermes, and Bulgari.