Apologies in advance if this is well known but was the first time I’d seen a holding update from cousins, I knew they had a dispute with Swatch regarding the free supply of parts for the brands they control, Omega, Breguet, Choppard, Tissot, Longines, Hamilton, Certna etc

The challenge in the Swiss court is competition driven and Swatch are trying to quash any chance of parts and repair via independents only ever being done by the manufacturer

There’s plenty of stuff on the net about it

They have a good case, eta based movements etc quash the argument they are highly specialised and unique, the competition issue won’t go away for Swatch. Who will be next, Rolex?


Swatch v Cousins in the Bern Court only slightly delayed due to Covid-19
Our fight with Swatch over the supply of parts has only been slightly delayed by the Covid-19 outbreak. Because the Swiss judicial system mainly relies on written submissions rather than Court appearances, the impact on our case has been less than might have been expected. The deadlines for submission of documents were extended for an extra four weeks by the Swiss Federal authorities, and an extra two weeks extension was granted by the Judge in Bern.

All the formal submissions by both sides have now been completed. The remainder of the process consists of informal comments by both sides (Swatch are due to submit theirs in the next two weeks and we will reply after that), and then a hearing in the Bern Court. We would expect the written verdict from the Judge around two to four months after that.

The date for the hearing has not yet been set. The summer recess for the Courts runs from mid-July to mid-August and we expect it will be some time after that. A lot will depend on travel restrictions and quarantine issues, but hopefully by the Autumn this will not be a factor.

As we said in our last News update, we were happy that our first submission was a very robust defence. As before, we can’t go into detail, but we can say that we think our second submission is even stronger than the first, and are very confident that the judge will reach the right verdict.

We will keep updating you as matters unfold by email