Where do these rumors come from?
According to the portal Miss Tweed, the Swiss jewelry and watch conglomerate Richemont is considering selling one of its most successful watch manufactures - Jaeger-LeCoultre. Rumor has it that the current CEO of the brand, Jérôme Lambert, is in talks to purchase the company using his own funds and those of his partners (investors from Management Buy-Out, MBO).
Allegedly, the deal is valued at over CHF 1 billion. If it happens, Jaeger-LeCoultre would be the second brand from Richemont's watch portfolio sold this year. Recall that in January, the unprofitable company Baume & Mercier was sold to the Italian jewelry house Damiani.
According to Morgan Stanley's annual report, in 2024, Jaeger-LeCoultre's turnover amounted to CHF 524 million. However, after 2023, Richemont's watch division, excluding the jewelry-watch houses Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, has shown declining sales.
The picture looks even bleaker when comparing the watch portfolio with the jewelry division. As of the end of March 2025, jewelry sales grew to €15.3 billion (+8%). Operating profit increased to €4.9 billion (+4%), and the operating margin was 31.9%. In the watch division, which includes companies like A. Lange & Söhne, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Piaget, and Vacheron Constantin, profit fell by 13% (to €3.2 billion). Operating profit decreased to €175 million (-69%), with an operating margin of just 5.3%.
Recently, this gap is narrowing. By the end of 2025, Richemont's jewelry houses' sales grew by 14%, and watch companies' sales by 7%. The group's total quarterly sales rose to €6.4 billion (+11%). Of these, jewelry houses contributed €4.8 billion, and watches €872 million.
Jérôme Lambert is one of the most experienced managers within the Richemont Group structure. In January 2025, he returned to the position of CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre, which he held from 2002 to 2013. Shortly before that, in June 2024, the former CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, Nicolas Bos, was appointed to the reinstated position of CEO of Richemont, previously held by Lambert. At that time, Lambert retained the role of the group's chief operating officer.
Insiders believe that Nicolas Bos's appointment as CEO of Richemont could be a sign that the conglomerate's watch portfolio is losing ground to the more profitable jewelry-watch houses Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. This could also be seen as a step toward Jaeger-LeCoultre leaving the Richemont structure and becoming an independent watch company under Lambert's leadership. But for now, these are just rumors.