Editor’s Note
This report on Hermès’s potential acquisition of a key Swiss watchmaking hub underscores the luxury group’s strategic push to vertically integrate and strengthen its position in the high-end watch market. If finalized, the move could significantly alter the competitive landscape of the industry.
If confirmed, this acquisition could shake up the watchmaking industry. According to information from BFM Business, the French group Hermès is “the frontrunner” to buy the Sandoz Family Foundation, which notably includes Vaucher, Atokalpa, and Elwin, Swiss companies specialized in high watchmaking. This is a unique hub of expertise whose sale was announced last February.
explained a source close to the matter to our colleagues. Especially since the French saddler already has a foothold in the region: since 2006, it has owned 25% of Vaucher, one of the workshops in the hub.
Through this major operation, Hermès could boost its influence in the watch market. Compared to other big names in the sector, the group has long been considered an outsider in this market, which it entered relatively late—in the late 1970s—when its subsidiary La Montre Hermès SA was launched in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. Progress has been slow, but Hermès can now boast double-digit growth, showing +23.6% in the first quarter of 2023 to 166 million euros.
If the group concludes the acquisition, it will need to be mindful of the unstable export context. After months of growth, the Swiss watch industry has announced a 21.1% decline in its exports of Swiss watches to China since January. A gloomy situation also in Hong Kong, where the decline stands at 18.6%. These figures have already led some companies to resort to partial unemployment or even layoffs for the hardest-hit companies, according to the Swiss Employers’ Convention of the Watch Industry.
Overall, the Swiss watchmaking sector remains particularly promising. In 2023, its exports represented 26.7 billion Swiss francs.