China's immense economic growth during the past decades lifted over 800 million people out of poverty and promoted a significant development of the nation's digital infrastructure. The COVID-19 pandemic further pushed the digitalization trend, which resulted in an e-commerce user base of 812 million individuals spending over USD 950 billion in the first half of 2021. A perfect example of this economic growth is the luxury goods market, as it will be the largest in the world by 2025, according

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... a Bain and Company report. The combination of economic growth, a rapidly increasing digitalization trend and the COVID-19 pandemic are of great significance for the Swiss watch industry. Due to the sudden travel restrictions, Chinese luxury goods tourism declined drastically, and instead, an upsurge in Chinese luxury spending occurred domestically. As a result, exports of Swiss watches to mainland China have recorded an incline of 20.1% year on year, in 2020, translating to a total amount of roughly USD 2.6 billion. Every other of the industry's top ten export market regions, including the United States and Hong Kong, recorded severe export declines during the same time period. To react to this rapidly transforming market, the Swiss watch industry needs to adapt to China's immense digital landscape. With China's changes to an ever more digital market, a new opportunity arises. The popularity of social media has led to more and more brands working with microcelebrities known as social media influencers. Through these influencers marketing professionals are able to have an impact on their audience. The influencers showcase and promote a specific brand or product and, in return, receive benefits from a company. In summary, social media influencers are the key to reaching vast amounts of potential consumers online. In order to provide the Swiss watch industry with recommendations on collaborating with the right social media influencer, this study analyzed the impact of six influencer attributes on consumers' buying intention. After conducting a survey with Chinese participants interested in Swiss watches, the findings show that the social media content characteristics of information and entertainment value, as well as the personal influencer attributes consisting of expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness, and perceived similarity, positively affect the consumer's buying intention.