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Gold watches and precious jewellery featured in more vacation gift boxes last year, aiding the luxury goods industry rebound more powerful than anticipated in 2010 to surpass pre-crisis levels.

The worldwide luxurious market was really worth €172 billion (NZ$319 billion) in 2010, according to a survey by Bain & Company released Tuesday by an association of Italian luxurious producers.

That’s a 12 percent increase from 2009’s disastrous €153 billion (NZ$284 billion), and higher than the €168 billion (NZ$312 billion) mark Bain had forecast in October – just two months before the ever-important getaway period.

“It went better than expected across the board, but in particular in the United States and Europe,” Bain partner and high end products expert Claudia D’Arpizio said. “The market place is back to pre-recession ranges, so there has been a complete recovery from the crisis in 2008 and 2009.”

The best previous mark was €170 billion (NZ$315.6 billion) well worth of fashion items sold in 2007.

Bain is anticipated the pickup to continue, forecasting sales of designer apparel, leather, jewellery, watches and cosmetics to grow to €185 billion (NZ$343 billion) this yr.

The strongest surge in 2010 was in hard luxurious items like watches and jewellery, which suffered most from the crisis. The value of sales of branded watches and jewellery rose by 21 percent final 12 months, followed by accessories with 17-percent growth and apparel with 10 percent.

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami forced high-end retailers in Tokyo to close for 10 days. But Bain is forecasting a recovery by the end of the yr, and that some of the money earned during the extensive reconstruction be spent on high end items.

The Japanese market, the second largest in the world at €18 billion (NZ$33 billion), is expected to contract by just 5 percent, and the long-term impact is not expected to be significant, Bain said.

The study noted that the Kobe earthquake in 1995 had a low impact on high end.

China continued to grow, and D’Arpizio projected that within five years it will become the third-largest luxury market place in the world behind Japan. Chinese consumers purchased €9.2 billion (NZ$17 billion) really worth of indulgences at home last year.

But take into account purchases made abroad by globe-trotting Chinese, and D’Arpizio says they are already the second-biggest spending consumer group, behind U.S. shoppers who collectively spent €48 billion (NZ$ 89 billion) previous year on high end.

Bain presented the semiannual survey at a conference sponsored by Italy’s Fondazione Altagamma association of luxury producers.