Geneva – Tudor, the sister brand of Rolex, suffered one of the steepest sales declines in the Swiss watch industry in 2024, according to Morgan Stanley’s annual market report. The investment bank’s findings reveal a 23% drop in Tudor’s sales, contrasting sharply with Rolex’s 5% growth, which pushed its turnover to CHF 10.6 billion.
Private Watchmakers Dominate as Market Shifts
The report, compiled using financial data from major watch groups and estimates for privately held companies like Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, and Richard Mille, highlights a challenging year for the industry. Only 11 of the top 50 Swiss watch brands recorded sales growth in 2024.
The “big four” independent watchmakers—Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Richard Mille—collectively expanded their market share by 3% year-on-year. However, Tudor’s struggles were particularly severe, with sales plummeting 34% from CHF 545 million in 2023 to CHF 360 million last year.
Industry-Wide Declines with Few Exceptions
Swatch Group, whose CEO Nick Hayek has long criticized Morgan Stanley’s methodology, saw a 10% decline in turnover. Richemont fared slightly worse, with sales down 9%, while LVMH managed a more modest 5% dip, gaining market share over its rivals.
Within LVMH’s portfolio, TAG Heuer rebounded with a 9% sales increase, reclaiming its position as the group’s top-performing brand after being overtaken by Hublot in 2023. Hublot, meanwhile, suffered a 26% drop in sales.
Rolex Defies Market Trends
Despite widespread declines, Rolex’s resilience stood out. The brand’s turnover grew by 5%, adding nearly half a billion Swiss francs to its revenue. Morgan Stanley estimates that Rolex’s retail sales reached CHF 15.5 billion—4.5 times larger than its closest competitor, Omega.
The broader industry saw a 2.3% decline in total sales value among the top 50 brands, aligning with predictions made by Rolex CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour. In an interview with Swiss newspaper NZZ ahead of Watches and Wonders 2024, Dufour warned of a difficult year, particularly for smaller brands.
Dufour’s Forecast Proves Accurate
“The pendulum is now swinging in the other direction, and it is naturally more pronounced for the less established brands,” Dufour stated in his capacity as president of the Watches and Wonders Foundation. “While they may have seen a twenty percent increase in sales during the upswing, they may now experience a fifteen percent decline. For the big brands, the fluctuations are smaller, in the range of plus/minus two to three percent.”
The report’s findings, though often contested by industry executives, underscore the growing divide between established giants and smaller players in an increasingly competitive market.
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