Activist Takes On Swatch Maverick As Omega Empire Falters

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) When Nick Hayek was asked last year why Swatch Group did not engage more with the financial community, the watchmaker's maverick chief executive told investors that if they did not like the way the company was managed, they could invest elsewhere. This content was published on May 19, 2025 - 08:42 8 minutes Mercedes Ruehl in Zurich

They appear to have done exactly that.

Shares in Swatch, owner of 16 watch brands including Omega, Longines and Tissot, have dropped 24% in the past 12 months. That has extended a poor run in which the Swiss group's shares have fallen from a peak of nearly CHF600 ($720) in 2014 to CHF147.85, valuing the company at CHF7.7 billion.

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The group's weak performance – net profit tumbled 75% to CHF219 million last year – is partly down to shrinking demand from Chinese consumers, amid a broader slowdown in luxury spending.
But some analysts and investors argue that many of Swatch's problems are homegrown.

Hayek has served as chief executive since 2003 and his sister, Nayla, has chaired the board since 2010. Oliver Müller, founder of LuxeConsult, a consultant to the watch industry, said the Hayeks were running Swatch like a family business rather than a public company.

“In German we say beratungsresistent: resistant to advice. That is the essence of the problem . . . it is a sad story”, he said.

Investors, however, may soon force the family to pay more attention to their wishes.

Steven Wood, founder of US investment firm GreenWood Investors, which owns 0.5% of Swatch shares, is pushing to be elected to the board of directors at Swatch's annual meeting on Wednesday.

Wood told the Financial Times this month that Swatch was“only being run for one shareholder”, a thinly veiled reference to the Hayek family, which owns 25% of Swatch's shares but controls 44% of the voting rights.

Hayek, 70, revels in needling the Swiss business establishment. As well as berating analysts and investors, Swatch's uncompromising chief executive has been known to smoke cigars at press conferences. During his tenure Swatch has occasionally published its annual report in Swiss-German – a dialect incomprehensible to many investors – or in a font so small it requires a magnifying glass to read.

Global symbol

The Swiss watchmaking industry owes a significant debt to Swatch. The Biel/Bienne-based company's embrace of quartz technology in the 1980s helped make Swiss watches accessible to the masses and stave off an existential threat from cheap Asian manufacturers.
Founder Nicolas Hayek, Nick's father who died in 2010, is widely credited with transforming Swatch into a global symbol of Swiss innovation and craftsmanship.

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