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Business News: Richemont Sales Halve in First Quarter of 2020 SJX Watches
Panerai suffered from widespread store Jul 16, 2020

Business News: Richemont Sales Halve in First Quarter of 2020

Just days after the Swatch Group posted dismal half-year results, Richemont reported predictably poor sales for its first quarter, with revenue falling 47% to €1.99 billion compared to a year earlier. Like its rival the Swatch Group, Richemont was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The owner of almost two dozen watch and jewellery brands, including Cartier, IWC and Panerai, suffered from widespread store and distribution centre closures, a worldwide halt in tourism, and dampened consumer interest in many of markets, although China was a bright spot. Degrees of resilience The group’s business across the world was affected to varying degrees from region to region, depending on a combination of factors, namely the duration of closures, tourist spending, and spending of the domestic buyers. Although Richemont reported double-digit sales declines across all regions, distribution channels and business areas, the decreases were less pronounced in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific – the latter benefitted from a 47% year-on-year growth in sales in China, which exited its lockdown earlier than the rest of the world. China’s performance helped keep sales in the Asia Pacific resilient, to a degree. Sales in the region decreased by 29% at actual exchange rates to €277m, declining in all Asian markets, except China. Amongst the hardest hit were Japan and the Americas, where sales dropped 62% and 60% respectively due to widespread closure. The 2020 Cartier Privé Tank...

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Business News: Swatch Group Sales Plunge on Pandemic Closures SJX Watches
Longines had Jul 14, 2020

Business News: Swatch Group Sales Plunge on Pandemic Closures

Swiss watchmaking conglomerate Swatch Group just announced its half-year 2020 results and unsurprisingly, it took a huge hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the group, which owns brands like Omega and Longines, had a good start in January with an operating margin of 17.3% – with the watch and jewellery brands performing a bit better than movement- and component-production division – the lockdown progressively imposed across the world since February severely impacted sales, leading to a steep declines in revenue and half-year operating loss, a first for the group. Group sales for the first half plunged 43.4% at constant exchange rates from a year earlier, resulting in an operating loss of CHF327m, compared to a profit of CHF547m for the same period in 2019. Most of the drop in sales was attributed to the lockdowns in most countries, resulting in widespread store closures. The Swatch Group saw up to 80% of both its own boutiques and third-party retailers close, meaning it had to rely on partially “partially feasible” e-commerce. And even after lockdowns were lifted, the group permanently vacated some of its retail space, as evidenced by disputes with its former landlord in Hong Kong, which has sued the Swatch Group for several million in allegedly unpaid rent. Due to its swiftly-streamlining retail network, the group’s employee count was trimmed by 6.5% since December 2019 to approximately 33,700 employees. This was also confirmed by anecdotal evidence fro...

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Business News: James Murdoch to Become Major Shareholder in Baselworld Owner SJX Watches
Jul 10, 2020

Business News: James Murdoch to Become Major Shareholder in Baselworld Owner

Having been pummelled by the COVID-19 pandemic and the implosion of Baselworld, the watch fair’s owner MCH Group has just announced a CHF104.5m rescue led by the canton of Basel and James Murdoch. But the crown jewel is not the Baselworld watch and jewellery fair, but Art Basel, which is undoubtedly the prize Mr Murdoch is after. As part of the rescue, the canton of Basel will convert its CHF30m loan to MCH into equity, with the balance being made up of a rights issue priced at a 25% discount to the 30-day average for MCH shares, which hit a peak of CHF80 in 2017 and traded around CHF17 in recent weeks. Through his family investment office Lupa Systems, Mr Murdoch will underwrite the rights issue, subscribing to all rights not taken up by other shareholders. At the same time, the canton of Basel and its regional bank have extended the repayment period for outstanding loans to MCH, while a bond offering is planned in the near future. Beyond shoring up the finances of MCH, the exercise will leaving Mr Murdoch with 30-44% of MCH Group, along with three board seats. Restrictions on shareholder voting rights will also be abolished, removing the outsized voting power of the cantons of Basel and Zurich, once the dominant influences in MCH. A long-term investment Mr Murdoch is the younger son of Rupert Murdoch, perhaps the most powerful figure in the broadcast and news business in the Western world. Recent newspaper reports have said the younger Murdoch was negotiating with MC...

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Business News: Frédéric Arnault Appointed Chief Executive of TAG Heuer SJX Watches
TAG Heuer Having joined TAG Heuer Jun 4, 2020

Business News: Frédéric Arnault Appointed Chief Executive of TAG Heuer

Having joined TAG Heuer in 2017, Frédéric Arnault has just been named the watchmaker’s boss, effective July 1. He succeeds Stephane Bianchi, who will then be elevated to head the newly-formed LVMH Watch and Jewellery division – a job that Mr Arnault is perhaps being groomed for – which encompasses the group’s three watch brands, which include Hublot and Zenith, as well as its smaller jewellery brands, Chaumet and Fred. The biggest LVMH jewellery brand, Bulgari, retains its standalone status. Bulgari chief executive Jean-Christophe Babin, who industry sources say enjoys a competitive rivalry with Mr Bianchi, will report only to the number two man in LVMH, Group Managing Director Antonio Belloni. Presumably Tiffany & Co., the American jeweller that LVMH is in the process of acquiring, will enjoy similar independence. A digital leader While Mr Arnault is the fourth son of Bernard Arnault, the founder and controlling shareholder of LVMH, the younger Arnault arrived in the watch business with an impressive résumé. The 25-year old graduated from France’s prestigious Ecole Polytechnique with a degree in Computational and Applied Mathematics, notching up internships at McKinsey and Facebook along the way. He started at TAG Heuer as head of connected watches, just as the brand was ramping up its push into smartwatches, before being promoted to Strategy and Digital Director in 2018, where he led the design of the latest-generation Connected watch. The recently launch...

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Business News: Richemont Fortifies Balance Sheet with €2 Billion Bond Sale SJX Watches
Panerai which make up about May 19, 2020

Business News: Richemont Fortifies Balance Sheet with €2 Billion Bond Sale

Having just announced its full-year results while predicting a gloomy outlook for the business, Richemont has successful placed €2 billion of bonds, with coupon ranging from 0.75% for the 8-year note to 1.625% for the 20-year note. The bond placement boosts the Swiss luxury group’s robust balance sheet, which had a gross cash position of €6.34 billion and a net cash position of €2.40 billion at the end of March 31, 2020. The notes received an A+ rating from credit ratings agency S&P;, which also lowered its outlook for Richemont from stable to negative, “citing the possibility of a downgrade if the coronavirus pandemic causes the company’s credit metrics to worsen”. Widely regarded as a savvy investor who transformed his family’s tobaccco-and-banking empire into an even larger one focused the “hard” luxury of watches and jewellery, Mr Rupert’s belief in the severity of the pandemic-induced recession is obvious. That, in turn, does not bode well for the luxury watch business. Richemont’s biggest earner is Cartier – the jewellery division is half the group’s turnover – it also owns a host of luxury watch brands, including A. Lange & Söhne, IWC, and Panerai, which make up about 20% of its sales. During Richemont’s earning conference call on May 15, Mr Rupert explained the bond issue: “We have always believed in protecting our balance sheet… For years, a lot of investment banks questioned us about that it’s a lazy balance sheet. But h...

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Business News: Baselworld 2021 Cancelled and Exhibitors Get Refunds [Updated] SJX Watches
Patek Philippe Chanel Chopard May 7, 2020

Business News: Baselworld 2021 Cancelled and Exhibitors Get Refunds [Updated]

This year’s Baselworld saga has finally arrived at its epilogue and the inevitable outcome has been made official: MCH Group just announced that Baselworld 2021 has been cancelled. Simultaneously, the event’s organisers also announced that an “agreement on the settlement for the cancelled Baselworld 2020” – presumably with more substantial refunds – was reached with exhibiting brands. That settles the brief-but-intense circumstances surrounding Baselworld 2020, which began when this year’s fair was cancelled and then “postponed” to January 2021. Along with the “postponement”, exhibitors for the 2020 fair were only offered partial refunds of the event fees. Both moves, which were regarded as unilateral and unfair by watch brands, led to a stinging response from the exhibitors, led by their committee chairman, a senior executive of Rolex, the world’s largest luxury watch brand. A week later, Baselworld suffered its death blow when the fair’s biggest exhibitors – Rolex, Patek Philippe, Chanel, Chopard, and Tudor – pulled out of the event and decamped to Geneva, where they will join Watches & Wonders in a brand-new event that’ll take place in April 2021. They were followed shortly after by the brands owned by LVMH, which include Hublot and Bulgari. With that, the cancellation of Baselworld 2021 was fait accompli, even though Baselworld responded by insinuating the exhibitors had long been conspiring to exit the event. The cavernous Rolex booth...

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Geneva Watch Days 2020 Is On: Good News Or *Covid-19 Cough* Desperate, Short-Sighted, Money Grab? Quill & Pad
Mar 3, 2020

Geneva Watch Days 2020 Is On: Good News Or *Covid-19 Cough* Desperate, Short-Sighted, Money Grab?

Ian Skellern's feelings regarding the rapid series of announcements of watch events like the cancellation of Watches & Wonders and Baselworld as well as the full-steam-ahead project Geneva Watch Days have been equally quickly undulating: from initially being enthusiastically for, Ian ended feeling against Geneva Watch Days. Why put anyone’s health at risk, especially with perhaps little in return but a few photos and a persistent cough? But it is a tough call.

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Business News: Watchmakers Announce Geneva Watch Days [Postponed] SJX Watches
Girard-Perregaux Gerald Genta Ulysse Nardin Mar 3, 2020

Business News: Watchmakers Announce Geneva Watch Days [Postponed]

Following the cancellation of both the year’s biggest watch fairs – Baselworld and Watches & Wonders Geneva (WWG) – due to the COVID-19 coronavirus, a consortium of watch brands have come together to show their wares come April. The event, dubbed Geneva Watch Days, was the brainchild of Bulgari and its chief executive Jean-Christophe Babin – one of the first brands to pull out of Baselworld – and conceived with European press and retailers in mind. [Update March 24, 2020: GWD will now take place August 26-29, 2020 instead.] WWG to GWD Taking place when WWG was due to happen, April 26 to 29, Geneva Watch Days now has a line-up of brands big and small: Girard-Perregaux, Gerald Genta, Ulysse Nardin, Breitling, MB&F;, De Bethune and Urwerk. A handful more might sign on, including H. Moser & Cie. and Chopard. However, at present, none of the brands belonging to the major watchmaking conglomerates, Richemont or Swatch Group, or either of the Geneva giants, namely Rolex and Patek Philippe, has announced their participation – and are unlikely to due to the complexities of the industry. Crucially, Geneva Watch Days is not a fair per se, rather it is a series of events organised by brands in separate venues, including boutiques and hotels, but happening during the same period. Because the individual events during Geneva Watch Days are small-scale and discrete, none of them will run counter to the Swiss government’s temporary ban on events with over 1,000 people. ...

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Breaking News: Baselworld 2020 Cancelled, Becomes Baselworld 2021 [Updated] SJX Watches
Rolex Feb 28, 2020

Breaking News: Baselworld 2020 Cancelled, Becomes Baselworld 2021 [Updated]

On a fast-moving Friday that started with the first case of the COVID-19 coronavirus in the city of Basel being diagnosed according to Swiss newspaper Le Temps, the day culminated in the organisers of Baselworld 2020 announcing its postponement to January 2021, essentially cancelling this year’s trade fair. This comes a day after the organisers of Geneva watch fair Watches & Wonders announced it was cancelled, which wipes out the entire year’s calendar for the major watch industry events. Though the Baselworld organisers had initially planned to meet on Monday, March 2, according to an announcement by Hubert J. du Plessix, the president of the event’s exhibitors committee (and also the director of investments and logistics at Rolex), events got ahead of them. The primary catalyst Baselworld’s cancellation was the Swiss government declaring a ban on all gatherings of over 1,000 people, until at least March 15 – which instantly made the Geneva Motor Show, one of the automotive industry’s most important events, a non-starter. Now Baselworld 2021 will take place from January 28 to February 2, with press day happening on January 27. Baselworld managing director Michel Loris-Melikoff, commenting in the announcement of the event’s cancellation, stated “We have found a solution that enables the industry and all our customers to avoid losing a full year and at the same time reset their calendars for the beginning of the year, a period that is conductive to the...

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Business News: RJ-Romain Jerome Declares Bankruptcy SJX Watches
Hublot manager Mr Arpa was Feb 27, 2020

Business News: RJ-Romain Jerome Declares Bankruptcy

RJ Watches, better known as Romain Jerome, has just gone bankrupt. Announced almost exactly a month after De Grisogono met the same fate, the bankruptcy of RJ Watches SA is the consequence of its majority shareholder, a company controlled by a member of the Saudi royal family, deciding to “stop investing in the company”. Though RJ was never a major watchmaker – its peak revenue was around 20 million Swiss francs – the brand was often in the headlines thanks to its shrewd and occasionally ridiculous marketing. Founded in 2004 and named after the two sons of its founder, Alain Bajulaz, RJ started out making mechanical golf-counter watches, but swiftly took a drastic new direction after Yvan Arpa was appointed chief executive in 2006. By then owned by the Saudi investor, RJ enjoyed a brief period of turbocharged, and in hindsight unsustainable, growth under Mr Arpa. A former Hublot manager, Mr Arpa was a fervent marketer of the most preposterous ideas that were somehow weirdly compelling. Amongst his creations were the rusty-looking Titanic DNA watches and timepieces sprinkled with actual Moon dust. Perhaps the masterpiece was a rusty-Titanic double tourbillon that had no hands and did not tell the time. The 2008 collaboration between Romain Jerome and Cabestan producing the Titanic DNA tourbillon – and now both brands are no more The case has a stabilised and protected rusty-look finish Mr Arpa and the company parted ways in 2009 amidst a lawsuit, and he went o...

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Breaking News: Watches & Wonders Geneva Cancelled SJX Watches
Citizen have already pulled out Feb 27, 2020

Breaking News: Watches & Wonders Geneva Cancelled

Watches & Wonders Geneva (WWG), the trade show formerly known as SIHH, has just announced its cancellation. Scheduled to take place in Geneva from April 25 to 29, the event was canned due to “the latest developments concerning the worldwide spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus”. Organising body Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FIHH) said in a statement that the decision was made “to protect the health and wellbeing of all our guests, press, partners and teams.” Its announcement comes not long after Switzerland confirmed its first patient with the coronavirus on Tuesday, alongside a sudden spike in cases in Italy. A scene from SIHH 2019 WWG is the second major Swiss event to be cancelled, following the Swatch Group’s decision to call off Time to Move in Zurich, a launch exhibition of its new watches, which was scheduled to take place from February 28 to March 2. Industry insiders now expect Baselworld 2020, slated to take place right after WWG, to follow suit. Several exhibitors at Baselworld, including Bulgari and Citizen, have already pulled out of the fair. But as of February 20, the world’s biggest watch and jewellery trade show is still going ahead.

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Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic: Enchanting Ultra-Thin In Titanium, Gold, Ceramic And Now In Steel Quill & Pad
Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic: Enchanting Ultra-Thin Jan 30, 2020

Bulgari Octo Finissimo Automatic: Enchanting Ultra-Thin In Titanium, Gold, Ceramic And Now In Steel

Ever since the Bulgari Octo Finissimo premiered in 2017 George Cramer has been very attracted to the model, but was also afraid that the case would be too large for his wrist. But in Paris one day, he tried an Octo Finissimo on in the Bulgari boutique and was immediately convinced that it was perfect and also very comfortable. But he then had to decide which version was his favorite.

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Business News: Swatch Group Annual Profit Falls with Hong Kong Slowdown SJX Watches
Longines just announced Jan 30, 2020

Business News: Swatch Group Annual Profit Falls with Hong Kong Slowdown

Hong Kong’s political unrest has resulted in the first fall in annual profits at the Swatch Group since 2018. The world’s biggest watchmaking group, which owns brands like Omega and Longines, just announced its 2019 results, showing declines in both sales and profits. Net profit fell 13.7%, while sales declined 1.8% at constant exchange rates, or 2.7% at current rates, to 8.24 billion francs. The drops in profit and sales were primarily due to a drastic contraction of its business in Hong Kong – a city with a population of just 7.4 million – where Swatch Group owns over 90 retail stores, largely catering to shoppers from the China. Sales in Hong Kong for the second half of 2019 fell by 200 million francs. While Hong Kong was the key driver of the decline, it was not the only one. The luxury watch business in general is suffering from anaemic growth, which is also evidenced by the watch division results at diversified luxury groups like LVMH and Kering. On a more positive note, Swatch Group has managed to fulfil its stated aims of reducing operating expenditure and thinning inventory. Operating expenses dipped about 6%, while operating cash flow rose 30% in 2019. And after several consecutive years of growth, the group’s inventories declined by 1% in 2019, to a still-substantial 6.85 billion francs at cost. It’ll be a slow 2020… With Swatch Group predicting the situation in Hong Kong will continue to be “challenging” in 2020, it is in a weaker positio...

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