Results for NOS (New Old Stock)

Business News: Trump Pauses Reciprocal Tariffs For 90 Days Giving Swiss Watch Industry More Time For A Deal

Swiss watchmakers get 90-day reprieve even as a 10% tariff stays in place.

Business News: Smaller Watch Brands Are Already Raising Prices In Response To US Tariffs

Christopher Ward says US consumers will have to absorb the 31% tariff on Swiss watches.

Business News: Swiss Watch CEOs Expect To Make Fewer Watches This Year As Economic Instability Roils Consumer Confidence

Brands from Parmigiani to Ulysse Nardin, Hermès, and Oris see few reasons to raise volumes.

Business News: TAG Heuer CEO Vows Cautious Production Despite Expected F1 Sponsorship Boost

Antoine Pin says TAG won't ratchet up production even as F1 sponsorship raises brand profile.

Business News: Swiss Watch Industry Shocked By Trump’s 31% Tariff Threat

US President vows 31% tariffs on imported goods from Switzerland in 'Liberation Day' speech that would sideswipe Swiss watch sector.

Introducing – The A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus Honeygold, Now with Solid Gold Case & Bracelet

The Odysseus disembarked at A. Lange & Söhne in 2019, the Saxon brand’s interpretation of a luxury steel sports watch with a personality all its own. Not only was it the first steel model for the brand, but it was also the first model with 120m water-resistance, the first model with a metallic integrated bracelet, […]

Business News: Jean-Christophe Babin is CEO of LVMH Watches

Bulgari’s longtime boss Jean-Christophe Babin has just been appointed named chief executive of LVMH Watches, effective April 1. He succeeds Frédéric Arnault, who was recently named to lead Loro Piana. Mr Babin will lead the watch division in addition to being chief of Bulgari, the Italian jeweller he has led in 2013. With a dozen years at the helm, Mr Babin is one of the longest-serving bosses in luxury. His successor at Bulgari, however, is already in place; Laura Burdese was named deputy chief executive last year. In his new role, Mr Babin will oversee the three brands that make up the watch division: TAG Heuer, Hublot, and Bulgari.

Business News: Breitling Adds Gallet to Portfolio

One of the badly kept secrets in Swiss watchmaking has just come true: Breitling has acquired Gallet. Backed by Swiss private equity firm Partners Group, Breitling has been slowly building itself into a group of brands. The Gallet acquisition comes a little over a year after Breitling took over Universal Genève. According to Breitling chief executive Georges Kern speaking to Fratello Watches, Gallet will be positioned in the sub-CHF3,000 range, topping out at CHF5,000. This puts its squarely in the segment of established brands like Tudor and Longines, which enjoy unparalleled economies of scale, as well as online-only micro brands that lack the overhead of established brands. The rationale of acquiring Gallet is clear. As Mr Kern mentions in his Fratello interview, it gives Breitling a stronger position vis a vis third-party retailers since the brand can now offer products across the price spectrum, with Universal Genève at the very top. This is particularly relevant as many brands owned by luxury groups like Richemont continue to withdraw from third-party retailers. Another factor that is left unsaid in the interview is the enlarged group presumably improves the odds of an exit for Breitling’s private-equity backers. Partners Group bought a majority stake in Breitling at end 2022 from CVC Capital, another private equity firm that bought Breitling in 2017. According to news reports at the time, CVC divested part of its Breitling stake at over five times the 2017 valua...

Business News: Jean-Marc Pontroué Departs Panerai, Emmanuel Perrin Takes Over

Panerai chief executive Jean-Marc Pontroué has just revealed he’s stepping down in a post on his personal Instagram account. He took up the job almost exactly seven years ago, after six years as chief executive of Roger Dubuis and over a decade at Montblanc, where most notably he led the brand’s high-end watchmaking efforts (that were dialled back under subsequent managers). Mr Pontroué’s successor, effective April 1, will be Emmanuel Perrin, currently head of Specialist Watchmakers (SWM), essentially the watch division of Richemont, the Swiss luxury group that also owns Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. According to insiders, SWM will continue to exist, but at a regional level, rather than the group-level entity it is now. Emmanuel Perrin Mr Pontroué landed at Panerai with big shoes to fill: his predecessor, Angelo Bonati, led the brand for over two decades, taking it from essentially nothing to one of the hottest brands in the 2000s. Panerai’s impressive momentum had begun to slow towards the end of Mr Bonati’s tenure, and despite his best efforts Mr Pontroué never managed to recapture the magic. Amongst the initiatives launched by Mr Pontroué at Panerai was sustainability in watchmaking materials and packaging, as well as a renewed engagement with Paneristi, the community of dedicated Panerai fans – underlined by historically inspired new launches coming in 2024. The brand’s direction will now be determined by Mr Perrin. During his spell leading SWM, Mr...

Industry News – Swiss Watch Exports down 3% to 25.9 billion Swiss Francs in 2024

The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry has just released their export statistic for 2024 – December ended the year on a negative note with exports down 5.4%. For the year as a whole, the Swiss watch industry exports recorded a decrease of 2.8% compared to 2023. Following two years of robust growth and all-time […]

Industry News – Swatch Group Revenues and Profit Down in 2024

It’s the time of year when businesses announce their financial performance. Following Richemont and LVMH, Swatch Group has just released its 2024 results. In a challenging environment for the watch industry, the sales of Swatch Group – the Swiss powerhouse and owner of Omega, Longines or Tissot – were CHF 6,735 million, down 12.2% at […]

Industry News – Moderate Growth for LVMH in 2024 in a Challenging Environment, Watches barely Impacted

In the context of a global decline of the luxury goods demand, LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods group, reported revenues of EUR 84.7 billion for 2024, +1% on an organic basis, after a record performance in 2023. In the fourth quarter, organic revenue growth came to 1%, accelerating with respect to the third quarter. […]

Industry News – Richemont Reports Sales Up 10% for its Third Quarter of 2024, a Surprise in a Slow Market

It is widely known that the watch market, and most luxury markers for that matter, are facing a relatively difficult situation. According to Bain & Company Luxury Study, the global personal luxury goods market is likely to dip by 2% in 2024 – not a dramatic situation, but not a positive one nevertheless. While jewellery was […]

My Year in Watches: A No “New Watch Alert” Year

My year in watches this year has been…unique in the time since I started collecting watches oh so many years ago. What’s different this year? I didn’t purchase a single watch! For the first time in over 20 years I went the whole year without adding any watches to my collection. For over two decades I’ve always bought some, sold some, or traded some so that I end up at the end of each year with a more refined collection that is usually in the plus column. I have to say that I didn’t even realize this year was different until our illustrious editor Zach gave us this assignment. I’m still always looking at and for watches though, especially for a few specific models. My bi-weekly eBay Finds column keeps me poring through the eBay listings on a regular basis, and I do still see lots of great pieces on Instagram. But how did I end up in this rarest of predicaments, finishing the year without any new additions to the collection? Like most things in life, the reasons are myriad. I would have to say the biggest factors would be that I’m pretty darn happy with the state of my collection as it currently stands, and there are few watches (that I can afford to buy) that I’m still searching for. I mean, I’m always on the lookout for a nice vintage Squale, and there are some pieces that I would still love to add to the Seiko stable, but the models I’m looking for are quite hard to find for sale in the condition I desire. So it’s not that I didn’t want to add any ...

Breaking News: Swiss Court Finds John Lennon's Patek Philippe 2499 Belongs To Yoko Ono

A bombshell decision on the hotly contested ownership of a seriously special Patek Philippe.

Business News: Jérôme Lambert Returns to Jaeger-LeCoultre as CEO

In an unexpected twist, Jérôme Lambert will return to the top job at Jaeger-LeCoultre (JLC), some 11 years after he left the same role. Mr Lambert’s first spell as chief executive of JLC, which lasted from 2002 to 2013, was a major success. During the 11 years, the brand developed into a contender in haute horlogerie while maintaining its affordable appeal in simpler watches. He then moved on to run Montblanc for almost four years until early 2017, before rising to a series of senior jobs in Richemont, the luxury group that owns JLC. In 2018 Mr Lambert was named chief executive of the group, but in June 2024 he was reassigned. Mr Lambert became chief operating officer, while Nicolas Bos succeeded him as chief executive. In some ways, Mr Lambert is a JLC lifer – he began his professional career in 1996 in the finance department of JLC. When he was tapped to lead JLC in 2002, he was one of the youngest chief executives in watchmaking.  The two chief executives who ran JLC after Mr Lambert never quite led the brand to the same heights, so many will be hoping his comeback also signals a return to earlier glory.  

Industry News – Opening of Applications for the Second Edition of the Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Independent Creatives

In late 2022, luxury powerhouse Louis Vuitton announced a rather surprising but promising concept, the Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Independent Creatives. A biennial prize organized by its Swiss-based watch manufacture, La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton, its mission is “to recognize a passion for watchmaking savoir-faire, creativity, and innovation in the pursuit of excellence, […]

News: Casio To Release Its First Functional Ring Watch

Seizing the final months of the 2024 trend cycle, Casio joins the ranks of watch brands looking to expand their product possibilities beyond the wrist. Close on the heels of the recent Timex and Maison Margiela MM6 collaboration, which included a watch ring, Casio has shrunken down its own legacy design, ready to chart the next frontier of watch-wearing real estate: the finger.  Though the Casio legacy extends all the way back to 1946, the watch branch of the business has been celebrating its 50th birthday with a number of special-edition designs. The brand’s latest commemorative design shrinks down its familiar octagonal case shape to just below an inch stature, and is crafted entirely of stainless steel. According to the brand’s website, the ability to create this tiny, functioning timepiece is thanks to novel innovations in advanced metal molding technology.  This process utilizes Metal Injection Molding to re-create the familiar and nostalgia-inducing Casio design in ring form. The caveat with this process is that the case, back cover, and ring are all molded in one continuous form, and the ring size is set to 10.5 U.S. sizing. This is something of a blow to my fellow small-ring-size friends, though the brand details that each ring will ship with adjustment spacers to accommodate more sizes.  Unlike the initial set of watch rings released by Casio last year, which were essentially toy replicas of the brand’s most iconic models, the CRW-001-1JR is a fully funct...

News – Universal Genève Teases its 2026 Return, with Three 70th Anniversary Polerouter SAS Tribute Watches

The Polerouter is, without a doubt, one of the most emblematic watches ever created by Universal Genève. Not only was it designed by young Gérald Genta, but it was powered by an important micro-rotor movement and was a purpose-built watch created by request of SAS, asking Universal Genève to create a watch that could support […]

Business News: All Of The 2024 GPHG Winners And Our Quick Reactions

Live from Geneva! It's the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève.

Breaking News – The IWC Portugieser Eternal Calendar Wins the GPHG 2024 Aiguille d’Or (And All Prize Winners)

The 2024 edition of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève has just unveiled the grand winner of this year’s awards ceremony! Often regarded as the Oscars of Watchmaking, the GPHG stands for a celebration of all things surrounding mechanical watchmaking. A specially selected jury, which included our founder and editor-in-chief Frank Geelen, has narrowed down […]

Industry News – Richemont Reports Stable Sales for the First Semester 2024, Results Down for Watches

Switzerland-based luxury conglomerate Richemont Group has just issued its trading update for the six months ended 30 September 2024. The Group delivered an overall stable performance with flat sales at constant exchange rates and -1% at actual rates, at EUR 10.1 billion. At EUR 2.2 billion, profit is down 12% at constant rates and down 17% […]

Breaking News: Patek Philippe's Ref. 5711 Nautilus Is Back As A Unique Piece For Charity

The hand-engraved reference 5711/1500A will be sold on November 25, 2024, to benefit Children Action.

Industry News – Vacheron Constantin Launches its Certified Pre-Owned Programme

Certified Pre-Owned, also known as CPO, has gained great traction over the past few years, with more and more brands exploring the concept. The second-hand market for watches is growing steadily, with a current value in the region of CHF 20 billion and consulting firm Deloitte saying it could be worth CHF 35 billion by 2030. […]

The Raymond Weil Millesime Now Comes In A New 35mm Size