Richemont signals stability, says Jaeger-LeCoultre is not for sale

Jaeger-LeCoultre staying put is the point. Johann Rupert is not treating a hard-to-fake watchmaker like a chip to be cashed in just because the luxury cycle got noisy. In a market where status buyers are reading balance sheets as closely as hemlines, Richemont is drawing a clean line between maisons that carry real heritage and assets that can be trimmed.

The message landed inside a strong year for the group. Richemont posted sales of €21.4 billion for the year ended 31 March 2025, up 4% at actual and constant exchange rates, with operating profit at €4.467 billion and an operating margin of 20.9%. Net cash stood at €8.257 billion, and the board proposed a dividend increase to CHF 3.00 per share. That is not the posture of a group that needs to sell from weakness.

The real split inside the house is classic old-money logic. Jewellery Maisons, led by Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, rose 8% and carried a 31.9% operating margin. Specialist Watchmakers fell 13% and ran at just 5.3%. Fashion and accessories were pressured by inventory provisioning. In plain terms: the categories with the strongest instant-recognition value and the most defensible scarcity are doing the heavy lifting, while watches and fashion require more careful management. That is exactly why Jaeger-LeCoultre matters. Its pedigree is the kind you cannot manufacture with marketing spend.

Richemont has already shown it will prune where needed. It completed the sale of YNAP to Mytheresa in April 2025 and now holds a 33% stake in LuxExperience. On 22 January 2026, it agreed to sell Baume & Mercier to Damiani Group in a private transaction. So when Rupert says Jaeger-LeCoultre is not for sale, the statement is not sentimental. It is strategic. Some names are still treated as long-term trophies, not portfolio clutter.

The geography tells the same story. Asia Pacific was the only region not to post double-digit growth, and Richemont said China, Hong Kong and Macau combined fell 23% in the period. South Korea posted double-digit sales, while the Americas were up 16% for the full year and accounted for 25% of revenue. Rupert has kept pointing to customer loyalty, value for money and patience on China, where the recovery timeline is still unclear. In a luxury market jittery about tariffs, gold prices and weak Chinese demand, keeping Jaeger-LeCoultre inside the fence is Richemont’s way of saying the right heritage still deserves to stay private.