The saddler is the favorite to buy the watchmaking division of the Sandoz family Foundation, which notably supplies Patek Philippe and Tag Heuer. According to our information, LVMH looked at the file, but it is no longer in the running.
“Vaucher”, “Atokalpa”, “Elwin”… Their names are not known to the general public, but Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, or Tag Heuer owe them the exceptional workings of their watches. These are several factories, in Switzerland, housed in the watchmaking division of a family foundation, the Sandoz Foundation. And since the specialized site Miss Tweed announced the sale of this division last February, they have been at the heart of all the rumors and intense negotiations, in which the titans of the luxury sector come into play.
According to our information, Hermès and LVMH have positioned themselves and Hermès is today the favorite. “It seems to be over for Hermès,” even assures a good connoisseur of the sector. The saddler leaves one step ahead. Since the end of 2006, he has already owned 25% of Vaucher, one of the gems of this watchmaking sector.
Nestled in the town of Fleurier, on the Jura ridge, the factory produces between 50,000 and 60,000 high-end watch movements per year, according to the Swiss press. It notably supplies Audemars Piguet, Richard Mille, Tag Heuer (LVMH subsidiary) and therefore, Hermès. Contacted by BFM Business, the management of Hermès “does not comment”, but in the spring, the vice-president of the group, Guillaume de Seynes, assured our colleagues from Le Temps that he “does not [se désintéresserait] not what [allait] arrive in Vaucher”.
“Hermès reassures more”
Opposite, LVMH. For several months, the group, which owns Tag Heuer, Hublot, Zenith and Bulgari, has not hidden its ambitions in this market. Jean Arnault, who manages the watch business at Vuitton, explained last June to the newspaper Le Temps that he wanted to “establish” his brand “as a strong player in watchmaking”. A few days later, LVMH’s watch division announced the acquisition of Swiza, owner of L’Epée 1839, a prestigious Swiss manufacturer.
But its ambitions for expansion seem to be thwarted by an outcry from players in the watch industry in the country. “We know well that Bernard Arnault is not welcome in Switzerland,” explains a source, for whom “these local players are perhaps afraid of the strength of a house like LVMH, which is very dynamic.” In comparison, continues this source, “Hermès, which maintains good relations with Vaucher, is more reassuring.”
The Swiss watch industry in difficulty
Has this rejection discouraged, this time, the man nicknamed “the wolf in cashmere”, since his aborted raid on Hermès in the early 2010s? Did the bad times the local watch industry is going through push LVMH to turn away from the issue? Still, LVMH “is not one of those who make offers”, assures a good connoisseur of the sector, for whom the world number in luxury “serves as a hare, to raise prices”.
This leaves the way clear for its best enemy, Hermès, to take over this watchmaking pole from the Sandoz Foundation alone or as part of an alliance with the major Swiss watch brands. This hypothesis is also circulating to safeguard this national treasure. Certainly, after having exploded in recent years, exports of Swiss watches to China have plunged by 21.1% since January and they fell by 18.6% to Hong Kong. The Swiss watch federation specified last month that the outlook for these two strategic destinations remained “very unfavorable”. But this industry, which employs more than 65,000 people in Switzerland, also remains strategic for the largest luxury houses, who use it to offer their customers increasingly high-end watches.
