By Marleen Kaesebier and Isabel Demetz
(Reuters) -Swatch’s sales fell more than expected in the first half of 2025, the company said on Thursday, as the Swiss watchmaker faced continued weakness in its key market China.
The maker of Omega, Longines and Tissot, along with its plastic Swatch watches, said its half-year sales fell 7.1% at constant exchange rates to 3.06 billion Swiss francs ($3.82 billion), compared to a year earlier.
That missed the 3.2 billion francs expected by analysts polled by LSEG.
Swatch shares were up 2.7% to 140.85 Swiss francs at 0811 GMT after rising as much as 5.4% on Thursday.
Vontobel analyst Jean-Philippe Bertschy said a “bottoming-out” in China and growth in key markets like the U.S. were behind the rise, which still leaves the shares around 15% down so far this year.
With 16 brands, the company sells watches ranging in price from under 100 francs to over 40,000 francs.
Swatch said the sales decline was down to weakness in China and that other regions reached record levels of sales. This included North America, which saw double-digit sales growth.
Thursday’s results were the first since Trump’s tariff announcements, which have driven up the Swiss franc, making the Swiss watch industry’s exports more expensive for foreign buyers.
Swatch flagged a negative currency impact of 113 million Swiss francs in its half-year results, its net sales having fallen 10.4% at current rates.
Half-year operating profit fell nearly 67% from the same period last year to 68 million Swiss francs, while its net result plummeted 88% from last year, now at 17 million francs.
China, Hong Kong and Macau generated 24% of sales. The company said wholesale business in the region declined by more than 30%, partly due to the closure of third-party stores. Its retail business decreased by 15%.
But the group said it expects the market environment in the Greater China region to improve in the second half of the year.
Jefferies analysts say it is possible Swatch’s Chinese business has halved in the last two years.
($1 = 0.8020 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Marleen Kaesebier and Isabel Demetz in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak, Matt Scuffham, Philippa Fletcher)
