Geneva’s new Superwatch award goes to first-ever time display with no hands, numbers, disks
Swatch says 2010 was record sales year
The new Ladymatic from Omega, shown here, Gent from Swatch, and the Type XXII 10 Hz chronograph from Breguet, introduced in 2010, pulled up Swatch sales
Geneva and Biel/Bienne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swatch Group, based in Biel/Bienne reported 2010 financial results Wednesday morning 19 January, showing record sales of CHF6.44 billion, up 21.8 percent compared to 2009, and 12.7 percent over its previous record year in 2008, using constant exchange rates.
The watch segment of the company saw sales climb by more than 28 percent compared to 2009.
Strong franc dampened sales slightly
The strong franc in relation to the dollar and the euro hurt sales: CHF164 million or –3 percent compared to 2009 and CHF285m, or –4.7 percent compared to 2008.
The company says the outlook remains optimistic for the entire year of 2011.
The Asian luxury market and new markets offered by its Breguet and Omega brands in particular led the strong showing.
The watch group’s shares gained 34 percent in 2010, according to Business Week/Bloomberg, and shares in the maker of Jaeger-LeCoultre watches, Cie. Richemont Financiere, have risen 45 percent during the same period, two good indications of the watch industry’s strength despite the strong franc. “Swatch Group bearer shares rose as much as 8 francs, or 2 percent, to 401 francs and were up 1.3 percent as of 9:17 a.m. in Zurich” reports Bloomberg Wednesday morning.
Small, independent, highly innovative: Geneva Time Exhibition, year 2
The financial results of Switzerland’s top-selling watchmaker comes as Geneva enjoys watches from the other end of the Swiss watch spectrum.
Sixty exhibitors, mostly small independent companies, are taking part in the second annual Geneva Time Exhibition 16-21 January at the city’s International Conference Centre.
Swiss watch industry leads steady rise in exports
Positive October trade balance of CHF2.1 billion
Nick Hayek, chairman, Swatch Group
Biel/Bienne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Nick Hayek, president of the executive group management board of the Swatch Group, showed off the new line of Ladymatic watches by Omega, one of the group’s brands, and was upbeat about the company’s performance when he met with a group of foreign journalists at Omega’s offices in Biel/Bienne.
“How many people are there in Vietnam?” he asked a Vietnam News Agency journalist. More than 80 million, Hayek quickly answered himself. “Our plan is to sell a watch every one of those 80 million” because of the market’s good potential.
Omega's new Ladymatic line breaks the mould: watches are chunky and heavy and "beautiful" says Hayek
Swatch shares closed 2.6 percent higher Thursday 18 October.
They were part of a strong upswing that saw Swiss prices at their highest in 11 weeks when the federal customs office reported that Swiss exports rose 7.8 percent (corrected for one working day less than in 2009) in October, over the same period a year earlier.
The watch industry led the way, up 18 percent compared to October 2009 and up 20 percent from January to October 2010.
The editor enjoys a too-short trial of a new Ladymatic watch by Omega
Asia and Latin America saw the strongest growth in Swiss exports in October. “We’re certainly going to expand more in China. The Chinese are enormously aware of value, of the substance of a brand,” he notes. “The Chinese understand and are sensitive to history.” Omega, he recalls, supplied the first clocks for the Chinese railways.
Hayek says that the company is doing well since the death in June 2010 of his father, Swatch founder Nicolas Hayek. “We all wish he could have continued working with us for 100 years,” but he prepared the company to continue well once he was gone, says son Nick, because he emphasized teamwork.
Hayek is pleased with the rebound in watch sales, but says he would like to see more competition within the industry, notably for movements, where Swatch’s ETA supplies the industry almost singlehandedly. ETA’s domination has been a subject of heated debate and an announcement by the group in 2008 that it would sell movements only to its own group’s brands caused an outcry. The Swiss Competition Office began to investigate the case in September 2009.
“An industry needs competition to have innovation,” Hayek insists, saying the group’s dominance should change.
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Omega at the Torino Olympics 2006
Omega has a long history with the Olympic Games
Update (link added) Biel-Bienne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Gross sales in 2009 were down 6.3 percent for the Swatch Group, which 9 February published audited figures in advance of its March annual meeting, but it gained significant market share. The group notes that the overall sales figure for the Swiss Watch Federation were down 21.3 percent. The watch segment of the group’s business had “a very convincing operating margin” which contributed to the 17.6 percent increase in operating margin for the year.
The group puts 2009 into perspective against a backdrop of an outstanding 2008, the 2009 global economic crisis and unfavourable exchange rates. But 2010, it says, is off to a good start, with January sales the highest on record for that month, and orders strong. Swatch’s Omega brand as the Vancouver Olympics timekeeper is expected to give group sales a boost.
Groundbreaking ceremony, Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai, 2008
Shanghai, China and Biel/Bienne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Jura-based Swatch Group and Chinese hotel group Jin Jiang Thursday held a groundbreaking ceremony for restoration work on a waterfront Bund building that is designed to serve as an international art centre.
