Luxury goods company LVMH has seen its watch sales decline in China due to the economic slowdown and the crackdown on gift-giving.

“Sales are down but they are compensated by sales to Chinese outside the country,” said Francesco Trapani, LVMH president of watch and jewellery division, who declined to put a figure on the scale of the drop.

However, LVMH, whose watch and jewellery sales accounted for 10 per cent of its total revenue last year, is seeing spending on luxury goods rising in other parts of Asia.

“Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam are progressing well. It’s not a boom, but certainly these are countries that are growing and becoming more important and more interesting than they used to be to us,” says Trapani.

According to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, Swiss watch exports to China dropped 19 per cent in May.

LVMH’s watch and jewellery brands include Tag Heuer, Zenith, Hublot, Bulgari, De Beers and Chaumet.