BASEL--The Swiss watch industry looks to be firmly on the mend with exports up for a second straight month in February and order books filling up nicely, watch executives said at the industry's biggest annual gathering.

Watch brands Hublot, Tag Heuer and Zenith, all part of the world's leading luxury group LVMH, said at the fair in Basel, Switzerland, the year had started strongly and they expected double-digit revenue growth for 2010.

Meanwhile, Tissot, one of the biggest watch brands at Swatch Group in terms of sales, said it had enjoyed a 20 percent increase in revenue since the beginning of the year and aimed to end the year with growth "in double-digit terms."

Vertime, a unit of Timex and watchmaker for Italian fashion house Versace, said that for the first time ever, half of its order book for the year was full. "We reached the bottom and things are picking up again, the atmosphere (at Baselworld) is more positive this year," Jean-Daniel Pasche, President of the Swiss Watch Industry Federation, told Reuters.

Swiss watch exports rose 14.2 percent in February to 1.2 billion Swiss francs ($1.13 billion) after rising for the first time in over a year last month, the industry federation said.

Swatch Group is the world's largest watchmaker which makes up about 20-25 percent of Swiss watch sales. It competes alongside Richemont and Swiss independents Rolex and Patek Philippe.

The industry is one of the pillars of the global luxury goods market but saw exports drop 22.3 percent last year, down to 2006 levels. While executives drew comfort from the recovery, Tissot President Francois Thiebaud noted that part of the pick-up was driven by retailers replenishing depleted stocks. "This improvement is also technical, because stocks have gone down so much and need to be replenished again," Thiebaud told Reuters on the fringes of the Baselworld fair.

Department stores and multi-brand stores were left with much unsold stock in 2009 and were waiting for the economic environment to improve before ordering again. U.S. consultancy Bain & Co estimates that global luxury sales fell 8 percent to 153 billion euros ($209 billion) last year and predicts growth of 1 percent for 2010.