Tiffany & Co. ordered to pay half a billion dollars to Swatch

Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group has won a lawsuit against U.S. jewellery brand Tiffany & Co. over a failed joint venture to jointly design and market luxury watches. Tiffany & Co. was ordered to pay Swatch Group about 402 million Swiss francs (327 million euros, $449 million) in compensation over a contractual dispute.

Swatch, the world's largest watchmaker, and Tiffany, a New York-based jewellery brand, had struck an agreement in 2007 to develop watches under the Tiffany brand together. The arrangement, intended to last for 20 years and give Tiffany a much bigger place in the luxury watch market, never turned into big business for both company, and the deal ended in animosity in 2011. The dispute arose when Swatch canceled its co-operation with Tiffany.

The companies sued one another where their Tiffany Watch Co. joint venture was domiciled. Swatch Group had sought 3.8 billion Swiss francs from its erstwhile partner, while Tiffany had counter-sued for 541.9 million Swiss francs from Swatch.

Tiffany chief executive Michael J. Kowalski said that he is shocked and extremely disappointed with the decision but Tiffany has sufficient financial resources to pay the full amount of damages.