Watches of Switzerland
Company typePublic limited company
IndustryJewelry
Founded1924
HeadquartersBraunstone, England, UK
Key people
Dennis Millard, (chairman)
Brian Duffy, (CEO)
RevenueIncrease £1,238.0 million (2022)[1]
Increase £143.7 million (2022)[1]
Increase £101.0 million (2022)[1]
Websitewww.watches-of-switzerland.co.uk Retail
www.thewosgroupplc.com Corporate

Watches of Switzerland is a British retailer of Swiss watches, with 16 stores in the United Kingdom.[2] The company headquarters is in Braunstone, England.[3] It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

Brompton Road Watches of Switzerland store in London.

Watches of Switzerland was founded in Ludgate Hill in 1924.[4] During the late 1970s Theo Paphitis, the entrepreneur, worked as a sales assistant at the Bond Street Watches of Switzerland store in London.[5]

The business was acquired by Ratners in 1988[6] but then sold on to Asprey in the early 1990s.[7] The company was the subject of a management buyout from Asprey in 1998.[8][9] It was then acquired, along with Mappin & Webb, by Baugur Group in November 2005.[8] It was then bought by Landsbanki in 2009 before coming under the control of Apollo Global Management in 2013.[4] The company was briefly known as Aurum Holdings before re-branding itself as Watches of Switzerland in advance of an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in May 2019.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Annual Report 2022" (PDF). Watches of Switzerland Group. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
  2. ^ "Our Showrooms". Watches-of-switzerland.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
  3. ^ "Contact Us / Watches of Switzerland". Watches-of-switzerland.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
  4. ^ a b c "Watches of Switzerland starts clock on London IPO plan". Evening Standard. 2 May 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  5. ^ "Enter the Dragon of balls, rubber and lingerie". This is London. 24 October 2007. Retrieved 21 July 2008.
  6. ^ Haapalainen, Valérie; Skog, Nan (1 February 2011). "Growth Strategies of Multinational Companies: the Jewelry Industry" (PDF). p. 53. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  7. ^ "Crown jewellers sold off for a princely pounds 250m". The Independent. 4 November 1995. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  8. ^ a b "Baugur buys £30m Mappin & Webb". The Telegraph. 13 November 2005. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  9. ^ "Royal jeweller sells two chains". BBC. 24 December 1998. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
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