Message from the management

Swatch Group, above all, is a watchmaking business, the world’s largest from the standpoint of the number of finished watches available on the market. This creative wealth is expressed through 16 prestigious brands which not only cover all price segments, but which also correspond to all the desires and tastes of a global public and hence, inherently, a public made up of highly diverse consumers.

A watch is a universal object with an obvious function, to tell the time, but it is also a much subtler object: an item of jewellery for some, an expression of a different personality for others, a mysterious and fascinating mechanical object for many, even a work of art. What’s more, as regards jewellery, let me stress that our company also possesses in its brand portfolio one of the most famous of all jewellers, Harry Winston, a brand that I look after personally.

Yet Swatch Group is much more. It is a fantastic industrial production machine, here in Switzerland, using the most advanced robotics and new technologies to give results of the highest precision needed for our products. But it is also a business where craftsmanship has its place, in our Vallée de Joux workshops, where mechanical movements are still handmade and where rare and exceptional professional skills are still taught and know-how protected.

In addition, Swatch Group is an extraordinary machine for training young people in careers with a future, some 500 each year. It is also an employer which retains its personnel, even in more difficult years: we currently have more than 33,500 members of staff worldwide. Swatch Group is also more than 30 subsidiaries which promote our products locally and speak the language of our customers in situ.

Swatch Group is also a philosophy, that of having continued to hold on to the fantasy and the creativity of a six-year-old child, that of having its head in the stars. But it also implies keeping our feet on the ground, here, in Switzerland. Both an attitude and an approach which are very Swiss Made.

Swatch Group is unparalleled

As many people know, Swatch Group is first and foremost the world's leading producer of finished watches. What is perhaps less well known is that Swatch Group is a fully vertical company in the field of watch production, manufacturing all the elements necessary for the production of mechanical and quartz watches. It is an enterprise that allows us to create, produce, and distribute our 16 watch brands’ products independently.

Whether it is movements, hands, crowns, cases, screws, pallets, escapements, electronic circuits, batteries, ceramics and sapphire, to give just a few examples, there is nothing that cannot be produced in-house by our employees in our factories, our workshops, and our laboratories. In fact, the entire Swiss watchmaking industry and part of the global watchmaking industry, in one way or another, depend on Swatch Group.

The Group independently distributes its Swiss Made products throughout the world, thanks to our own network of boutiques, and thanks to our vast network of retailers who continue to ask us for the products they wish to stock. Not to mention e-commerce.

The Group, which files a new patent every two days on average, is also the only company in the world that is present in every market segment with a mass-market product: from the very top of the range to children’s watches, we offer consumers products for every taste, for every budget and, above all, for every dream.

This leadership position and its accompanying success allow us to explore new avenues: jewelry, the world of art, in which we have participated for almost thirty years, and the world of technical innovations that enable us to continue investing in projects that are concerned with the future of our planet. But above all, it places a heavy responsibility on us: as a major employer, we have maintained a policy of massive investments in our production facilities with industry 4.0 characteristics and in innovation, with the objective of maintaining and creating jobs in Switzerland.

Finally, we consider it fundamental to associate our achievements with the emotional values that underpin our brands and, we hope, bring you excitement and pleasure.