Typically, the luxury watch market has been supported by men and other luxury accessories like handbags are kept afloat by female buyers. Well, that’s still pretty much true but not totally. Women making their own money continue to spend it as they please.

It seems that job uncertainty and a slumping economy have slowed men down on purchasing fine watches, whereas women may buy things like handbags and watches to “cheer themselves up.”

Diana Jaffe, a gender marketing expert explains: “Women are also worried about their jobs, but not to the extent that they feel their mere existence is being threatened and so they are in the mood to buy despite the crisis.”

Men, whose self-confidence is strongly identified with their jobs and how much money they make may be “suffering from a huge loss of status; many feel under an enormous amount of pressure. They just don’t have the resources to think about buying luxury goods,” says Jaffe.

All fine watches are made in Switzerland and when exports dropped 26% in the first half of this year, it resulted in the “sharpest drop in demand in some 20 years.”

One of the other issues affecting luxury watch sales could be that many depend on third party retailers which are ordering fewer watches because sales are down and they don’t want to end up with too much inventory. And although luxury watches can cost up to $50,000 that doesn’t mean you have to spend anywhere near that to own the brand name watch you’ve always wanted.

According to analysts at Credit Suisse that monitor the watch industry, Omega, IWC and Cartier watcheswere mentioned by retailers as brands which have held up well in the last few months.

People are still willing to pay for brand name goods and watches are an investment, especially if you know where to go. In this case, you mustn’t travel far, a few clicks away and you’re shopping at the largest online selection of luxury watches, including Omega, Cartier and IWC, available for prices that won’t make you think twice.