Harry Winston acquired by Swatch Group

Swatch Group agreed in January 2013 to acquire the whole of HW Holdings, the entity owning Harry Winston, from Harry Winston Diamond Corporation, at an enterprise value of $1–10bn comprising the purchase price and assumed net debt, subject to regulatory approvals. Completion followed in March. Founded in New York in 1932, Harry Winston designs, manufactures and retails high jewellery and watches, working principally with diamonds of exceptional size and quality sold through its own salons. The perimeter covered the brand, its retail operations and its Geneva watch manufacture, together with 535 employees worldwide. The transaction separated the brand from the mines. The seller operated diamond extraction alongside the jewellery house, two activities sharing a name and a raw material but little else, the first requiring capital for exploration and extraction over decades and the second depending on retail execution and brand management. It retained the mining business and renamed itself Dominion Diamond Corporation. High jewellery completed the acquirer’s prestige segment, which comprised watch brands without a jewellery house of comparable standing, and the acquired company’s Geneva manufacture gave the group an established watchmaking operation rather than a name alone.