If the Swiss watch industry witnessed a surge in its exports from the beginning of January to the end of June (+15.5% to 7.2 billion francs), the Swatch Group did even better with an increase in turnover of 16.7% to 2.74 billion!

Despite problems of production capacity which it has faced for some time, the Swatch Group posted a record first half-year in 2007 with two-digit increases in turnover (+16.7% to 2.74 billion francs), operating profit (+27.1% to 511 million) and net profit (+39.4% to 460 million).

The engine of growth par excellence was the key sector of watches and jewellery, which includes 18 brands covering all price categories. It further demonstrated its importance to the Biel based group with sales well above the two billion franc mark (2.11 billion, +20.0%) and an operating profit of 353 million (+20.9%). Once again the best performance was recorded by the luxury sector (Breguet, Blancpain and Omega), however other price categories, headed by Longines and Tissot, also registered results of the highest quality, as did the Swatch brand, which posted growth in double figures. The groupA