News

The Swatch Group has reported a significant decline in revenue across the first six months of the financial year, which was attributed to economic challenges in Asia. | Source: Gear Patrol

Swatch revenue decline highlights retail challenges in Asia

Posted July 16, 2024 | By Samuel Ord

The Swatch Group has reported a significant decline in revenue across the first six months of the financial year, which was attributed to economic challenges in Asia.

Swatch, which oversees brands such as Blancpain, Harry Winston, Longines, Omega, and Tissot, reported a 10.7 per cent decline in revenue in the first half of the year.

Comparatively, sales outside of China, Hong Kong, and Macau increased by 5.6 per cent between January and June on a two-year comparison.

In a statement, the company said that the challenging economic climate particularly impacted luxury brands such as Blancpain and Omega.

Conversely, the Swatch, Tissot, and Longines brands were resilient. The excitement around the latest addition to the MoonSwatch collection was also identified as a positive.

“While the Greater Chinese market is set to remain challenging for luxury, Swatch Group felt the region’s potential ‘remains intact,’ with ‘excellent opportunities for further growth and market share gains’ for its lower-priced brands,” writes Lily Templeton of WWD.

“It deemed prospects in European countries ‘promising’ and predicted Omega would benefit from global media exposure as the official timekeeper of the 2024 Paris Olympics.”

She continued: “A cost-cutting program introduced in early 2024 was also expected to have a positive impact, particularly in the production segment.”

The statement also highlighted the challenges of surpassing a record-breaking year in 2023.