Watches of Switzerland Group PLC (LSE:WOSG) is really hoping that the bottom is in for fancy watches.
The FTSE 250-listed Rolex merchant has faced plummeting profits in 2024 amid a considerable slowdown in the luxury goods sector as a whole.
WoS’s shares have similarly plummeted by around 42% year to date, although there are more headwinds than simply lower timepiece demand.
A fair chunk of WoS’s share repricing has been to do with the news that Rolex, its cornerstone partner, acquired leading Swiss watch retailer Bucherer.
WoS has downplayed the acquisition as “not strategic” but rather based on a "decades-long relationship" between the two private Swiss companies, but a year on, it could still take some convincing.
This June, chief executive Brian Duffy said the UK market is “starting to show signs of stabilisation” following a prolonged period of reduced consumer confidence.
Now, the WoS needs to prove it in the upcoming trading update on Tuesday, 3 September.