The story
Watches of Switzerland was founded in Ludgate Hill in 1924. During the late 1970s Theo Paphitis, the entrepreneur, worked as a sales assistant at the Bond Street Watches of Switzerland store in London.
The business was acquired by Ratners in 1988 and then sold on to Asprey in 1992. In December 1998, Mappin & Webb managing director, Judith Pilkington, acquired Watches of Switzerland from Asprey, together with Mappin & Webb. Both companies were acquired by Baugur Group in November 2005. Baugur grouped both companies with fellow British jeweller Goldsmiths under the Aurum Group.
Baugur became insolvent and went into administration in early 2009 and the group was under the control of Landsbanki before coming under the control of Apollo Global Management in 2013. The group was briefly known as Aurum Holdings before re-branding itself as Watches of Switzerland Group in advance of an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in May 2019.
The company has expanded through a series of acquisitions including the purchase of Roberto Coin in the U.S. in May 2024, and the purchase of U.S. based retailer Deutsch & Deutsch. The company will continue to operate those stores under the Deutsch & Deutsch brand.
From Wikipedia’s article on Watches of Switzerland, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5