Business News: Swatch Group Publishes Open Letter To Morgan Stanley Management Saying Longines Is Profitable And Tissot Sales Grew

In a recently published open letter, the Swatch Group AG criticized the most recent Morgan Stanley “Swiss Watcher” industry report in a letter to the investment bank’s management, calling some of the data presented in the analyst report “erroneous and questionable.” The Swatch Group letter, addressed to Morgan Stanley Investment Management and linked below, says the report rankings and estimates of sales and production figures for the top 50 brands in the Swiss watch industry make “questionable assumptions,” resulting  in “inaccurate findings and questionable conclusions.”

Published earlier this month, the ninth edition of the Swiss Watcher report showed that most Swatch Group brands lost market share amid declining sales. It also reported the group’s flagship Omega brand slipped to 5th place from 3rd in the rankings. Swatch has long criticized the report and questioned the methods used by the investment bank and Oliver Mülller, the Swiss-based analyst and consultant who compiles the estimates for the rankings. Contacted by Hodinkee, Müller said he couldn’t comment on the Swatch Group letter as it was being considered by Morgan Stanley’s management and legal department.

While publicly traded companies, including Swatch Group, must publish financial reports showing total sales and profit, they are not obliged to disclose the individual performance of brands. Morgan Stanley, as well as other banks, including Switzerland’s Vontobel, publish watch industry reports that are based on estimates of annual sales, production, and average sales price or ASP. 

With the majority of the biggest Swiss watch brands, including Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet, closely held or family owned, the industry is notoriously opaque, leaving analysts and investors to estimate production, sales, and profit figures for individual brands.

Morgan Stanley estimated in its report that Swatch Group’s Omega brand posted annual sales of CHF 2.2 billion, with estimated unit sales of 460,000 units, and placed 5th among the top 50 brands. Vontobel, meanwhile, estimates Omega sales declined about 3% in 2025 to CHF 1.7 billion. Vontobel also ranked the Omega brand, known for its Speedmaster and Seamaster models, in fifth place by sales in the industry and said it had lost market share to competitors, including Rolex.

Swatch Group did not disclose specific financial data for Omega in the letter. It did, however, dispute an assertion in the Morgan Stanley report that Longines, its second biggest brand, lost money in 2025.

“In reality, Longines reports a profit of 16.6% on net sales in 2025,” Swatch Group says in the letter.

Swatch also highlighted the performance of its Tissot brand, saying the PRX model maker grew sales by 3% in 2025, in contrast to the estimated 5% contraction published by Morgan Stanley.

For Swatch Group’s Hamilton brand, Morgan Stanley estimated revenue of CHF 125 million on unit sales of 95,000. Swatch Group says Hamilton’s “unit sales are three times higher than stated,” in the Morgan Stanley report, and the average Hamilton retail price of CHF 2,014 estimated in the analyst report was, in fact, CHF 741. For the group’s Mido brand, Morgan Stanley estimated an average price of CHF 2,131. The average retail price of a Mido is CHF 969, Swatch Group says in the letter.

Additional Resources

For the full Swatch Group letter click here.

For Hodinkee’s story on the Morgan Stanley report click here.

For Hodinkee’s story on the Vontobel report click here.

For The Business of Watches podcast with Oliver Müller click here.