Watches And Jewelry Prioritize Equity Over Short-Term Sales.

Flat revenues in 2025 highlight how long-term brand equity anchors category resilience.

Numbers As Context

In Q1 2025, LVMH’s Watches & Jewelry division reported flat organic revenue. In financial terms, that looks static. In cultural terms, it shows something else: progress in a category where momentum is measured less in volume and more in longevity.

Watches and jewelry are not seasonal goods. They accumulate meaning across years and generations, which is why “good progress on strategic priorities” carries more weight than a quarterly percentage.

The value here is in equity, not instant growth.

Flagships And Heritage As Strategy

Tiffany’s reinvention demonstrates how physical space can reshape a brand’s role in culture. When The Landmarkreopened on Fifth Avenue in 2023, it was more than a store launch. It was a signal that Tiffany had moved from American classic into the arena of global luxury, with ten floors functioning as a museum, retail theater, and cultural archive. The reopening secured Tiffany’s status in memory, not just in sales.

Bulgari operates with the same logic through its high jewelry launches. The Eternally Reborn collection staged in Rome in 2023 was not only a product reveal but a cultural performance, tying design to the city’s heritage and reinforcing Roman identity as central to Bulgari’s DNA. These events keep the brand in cultural conversation even when revenue stays flat.

TAG Heuer’s approach has been product-led, using anniversaries to turn heritage into news. The Carrera Chronograph “Glassbox,” released in 2023 for the line’s 60th anniversary, reframed a classic design for contemporary collectors. Its impact was not in sales alone but in reinforcing TAG’s authority in sports timekeeping, ensuring relevance in a crowded watch market.

Cultural Permanence

Watches and jewelry differ from categories like fashion or spirits because they are not built on rapid churn. They are tied to permanence: engagements, weddings, generational gifts, heirlooms. A slowdown in sales does not erode the meaning of these objects.

Instead, equity grows when brands deepen associations with heritage, innovation, and cultural memory.

This is why a Tiffany engagement ring retains its resonance or a TAG Heuer chronograph remains a status marker regardless of quarterly performance.

The UAE And GCC Lens

The UAE shows how permanence and modern appetite intersect. Jewelry sales in the country were worth USD 4.66 billion in 2024 and are projected to reach USD 7.65 billion by 2033. Nearly 60 percent of that comes from gold, reflecting gifting traditions that are integral to weddings and family life. Rings represent more than one-third of sales, underscoring the cultural role of jewelry in identity and belonging. Watches carry parallel weight: they are bought not only as status symbols but also as assets that endure across generations.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi provide stages where these traditions meet modern luxury. Flagship boutiques do more than sell products; they stage cultural events where international houses align heritage with local identity. In this context, “progress on strategic priorities” means building infrastructure that resonates with regional consumers who see jewelry and watches as cultural markers as much as luxury goods.

Consequences For Brands

The Watches & Jewelry division shows why strategy cannot be reduced to quarterly growth.

Heritage reinforcement, flagship investment, and product anniversaries are not distractions from sales; they are the conditions that secure long-term survival.

Tiffany, Bulgari, and TAG Heuer illustrate this approach. They are not chasing spikes but embedding themselves in culture, ensuring that equity compounds even when the numbers stay flat.

Bottom Line

Flat revenue in Q1 2025 does not signal weakness. In watches and jewelry, it underscores the truth that resilience comes from cultural permanence.

Tiffany’s Landmark, Bulgari’s Roman storytelling, and TAG Heuer’s Carrera innovations prove that equity outlasts volatility. In the UAE, where jewelry and watches are woven into tradition and daily identity, this long-term positioning ensures that the category remains indispensable regardless of quarterly fluctuations.

Sources

LVMH (2025). Q1 2025 Results – Watches & Jewelry flat revenue, strategic priorities noted

Tiffany & Co. (2023). The Landmark flagship reopening press release

WWD (2023). Bulgari unveils “Eternally Reborn” high jewelry collection in Rome

Hodinkee (2023). TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Glassbox, 60th Anniversary

Grand View Research (2024). UAE Jewelry Market Report 2024–2033