In 2025, Rolex came out on top.
The Crown led the luxury-watch pack last year, driving its sales up 4 percent to surpass CHF 11 billion (around $14 billion) in a first for the brand, according to Morgan Stanley and LuxeConsult’s annual Swiss Watcher report. That’s in spite of the fact that Rolex actually brought less watches to market in 2025, amounting to a 2 percent decline—the second year in a row that the watchmaker has placed less timepieces in the hands of retailers, a repetition that hasn’t happened in over 20 years, Hodinkee reported.
What may be even more noteworthy is that Rolex is responsible for about 33 percent of the Swiss watch industry’s entire sales for 2025, Morgan Stanley says, selling around one million timepieces in that period. (Rolex did not respond to Hodinkee’s request for comment on the report.)
And though the Crown had far and away the most impressive figures, other watchmakers had plenty of celebrate at the end of 2025, too. Along with Rolex, Cartier, Audemars Piguet, and Omega make up around 55 percent of Swiss watch sales, showing just how powerful and dominant these storied brands are on the marketplace. Cartier came in second on the ranking, with sales hitting CHF $3.5 billion (around $4.5 billion) in 2025—possibly with the help of the sky-high popularity of its Tank model, among others. AP, meanwhile, raked in $3.3 billion on the sale of just 53,000 timepieces. Patek Philippe moved up to fourth place, bringing in $3.2 billion last year with 72,000 models sold.
Omega and Richard Mille were also at the top of the pyramid, the so-called billionaires’ club of the Swiss watch sector. Omega, falling to the fifth slot on the list, still saw its watches generate $2.8 billion on the ranking; the watchmaker’s owner, Swatch Group, says the Morgan Stanley report uses “wrong estimations, assumptions, data, figures, and statements,” according to Hodinkee. Richard Mille, known for its highly technical, avant-garde pieces with massive price tags, sold just 5,950 watches last year (coming in at No. 6 on the ranking), but still managed to generate $4.1 billion in 2025.
In general, Swiss watch brands are making less timepieces, the report found, even as prices are climbing. In fact, the number of models made in 2025—14.6 million—is half of what the industry produced back in 2011. And watches priced over $64,000 (CHF 50,000) are completely dominating the market, making up 89 percent of growth in 2025. Yet, that group only makes up 1.4 percent of the timepieces on offer for 2025, an uber-small percentage that, again, shows the vice-like grip these luxe brands have on the industry overall.
Now that 2025 is in the rearview, though, Rolex and other brands have plenty on the horizon—Watches and Wonders, anyone?
Authors
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Nicole Hoey
Digital Editor
Nicole Hoey is Robb Report’s digital editor. While studying at Boston University, she read, wrote and read some more as an English and journalism major. A class taught by a Boston Globe copy editor…


