Last week, Breitling announced an acquisition of Universal Genève and a plan to go up against other big watch groups like Swatch and Citizen. Don’t forget to subscribe to the Glossy Podcast for interviews with fashion industry leaders and Week in Review episodes, and the Glossy Beauty Podcast for interviews from the beauty industry. –Danny Parisi, sr. fashion reporter
Breitling aims to compete against the big watchmaking groups
Last week, the Swiss watch company Breitling made its first big acquisition. On Tuesday, it announced that it had purchased another Swiss watch brand, Universal Genève. The latter, despite having a long history dating back to 1894, had mostly fallen by the wayside in the face of competition from other Swiss titans like Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Omega and Patek Phillippe. Breitling hopes to revitalize the brand, bringing back classic watch models from its archive and updating it for the modern watch enthusiast.
Universal Genève will be run separately from Breitling, with a unique team, rather than being folded into the larger company. It’s a sign that Breitling is interested in becoming a larger player in the watch space, evolving from a single brand to a watchmaking group. That puts it on track to compete directly with companies like Citizen Group, which owns six watch brands, or Swatch Group which owns 17.
Breitling’s move comes at a time when we’re seeing more consolidation in the watch space. Rolex, like Breitling, is a watch brand with one other brand under its belt, Tudor, which it has owned since 1936. But earlier this year, it bought Bucherer, one of the largest watch retailers in the world, in a surprise move that had the watch world buzzing about the potential impacts.
Not long after that, Watchbox merged with several established jewelers like Govberg Jewelers to form the new watch retail group the 1916 Company.
For Breitling, the acquisition of Universal Genève is a chance to expand its reach into a new price range. The plan is to price new Universal Genève watches much higher than a standard Breitling watch, which typically sells for around $7,000.
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On a recent episode of the Glossy Week in Review podcast, Quiad Walker, co-founder of watch marketplace Bezel, discussed some of the movements in the watch space, including the push toward consolidation. One focus topic was the influx of new buyers in the watch space over the last few years. Swiss watch exports have grown throughout 2023, with exports to China doubling.
