Rolex has a turnover of more than nine billion francs

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For the first time in the history of the Swiss watch industry, a company has broken the sound barrier of nine billion francs in sales. It’s natural! –Rolex. According to the latest estimates by Morgan Stanley and Luxeconsult, the industry-dominated company had a turnover of CHF 9.3 billion in 2022 (see chart). In 2021 it was still 8.05 billion. Rolex thus increased its sales by 15.5 percent and expanded its lead against its followers, Cartier and Omega. With a good CHF 1.25 billion increase in sales last year, Rolex accounts for about a third of the sales growth of the top 25 watch brands.

If Rolex continues to grow at a similar pace—and there’s no sign of the brand’s momentum weakening—the brand will enter areas that will put itself on par with the world’s biggest luxury brands. For comparison: fashion brand Gucci earned the equivalent of approximately 10.5 billion francs in 2022.

All watch brands in the top five in 2022 increased their sales compared to 2021. Cartier rose 15 percent, Omega 12 percent, Audemars Piguet 30 percent and Patek Philippe about 18 percent.

At the other end of the scale, the three Swatch Group brands lost a lot of sales last year: Longines sold 22 percent less, Tissot 12 percent and Breguet 9 percent less than in 2021.

Moonswatch doubles its sales in Swatch

A consolation for the group: The Swatch brand nearly doubled its sales, up 90 percent. This is the moongazing effect. No brand has grown as dynamically as Swatch, which it launched with Omega last year.

In absolute numbers, things look different: As mentioned, Rolex generated an additional 1.2 billion francs. It is followed by Audemars Piguet with plus 470 million, Cartier with 360 million and Omega and Patek Philippe with 270 million francs.

Losers in the sale, Longines, Tissot and Breguet, writes “Handelzeitung”, lost a total of 457 million Swiss francs.

Almost half of additional sales come from Rolex

In any case, the assessment for a longer period, such as five years, is more relevant than the comparison with the previous year. Here Rolex is even more clearly in a class of its own. The Geneva-based company has made more than four billion francs in additional sales. This is more than Cartier, Audemars Piguet, Richard Mille, Patek Philippe and Breitling put together.

The performance of Cartier, AP and Richard Mille, each with a surplus of approximately 1 billion francs, is quite impressive. The reorientation of Breitling with an increase of CHF 500 million under new owners is clearly very close to the needs of the market.

In the five years since 2018, the Swatch Group has lost nearly 1 billion francs in sales with Longines, Tissot and Breguet.

TAG Heuer lost 250 million

However, the drop in sales of TAG Heuer exceeding 250 million francs is also noteworthy. This raises the question of how long LVMH boss Bernard Arnault will allow his son, Frédéric, to rule as boss, especially since last year’s almost seven percent sales increase only brought TAG Heuer into the lower midfield. Someone like Arnault doesn’t want to sway in this mediocre space.

This can also be seen in relative terms: Breguet lost almost half of its sales in five years, Longines and Tissot about a quarter. The situation is similar at TAG Heuer.

On the other hand, the quadrupling of sales in Richard Mille and strong developments in Van Cleef & Arpels, Hermès and Breitling draw attention.

Source :Blick