Secretive Swiss
Watch billionaire Bucherer dies
By Christian Hensen
November 8, 2023, 10:34 a.m
During the crisis, Jörg Gerold Bucherer took over the helm of his family business. The Bucherer Group is one of the world’s largest watch and jewelry retailers. Now the entrepreneur is dead.
According to several media reports, Jörg Gerold Bucherer, former owner of the Bucherer Group, died on Monday evening at the age of 87. The Swiss watch industry is losing a veteran with Bucherer, who had been running the family business of the same name in the third generation since 1977.
Bucherer most recently hit the headlines when he sold his company to Rolex in August of this year after 135 years of family ownership. It is said that the billionaire took this path because he lacked a successor. Bucherer did not comment publicly at the time.
Bucherer was not only born into a family of jewelers whose company history dates back to 1888, but at the age of 20 he was also an intern (stagiaire) for Hans Wilsdorf, the Rolex founder who died in 1960.
The Bucherer Group is considered the largest watch and jewelry retailer in the world and, according to its own information, employs “just over 2,400 people.” The chain has 36 locations in Europe, and the world’s largest watch and jewelry store is in Paris, according to the company. 32 other branches in the USA are run under the Tourneau name and are also part of the group portfolio.
Media-shy entrepreneur
Bucherer took over the business from his father in 1977 at the age of 41. At that time, the industry was severely weakened by the so-called quartz crisis and had to find a way out of its financial difficulties. Bucherer concentrated on expanding into neighboring countries and was successful.
Like Rolex, Bucherer does not officially communicate any figures. The company’s annual sales are said to be between 1.8 and 2 billion euros.
Bucherer became a billionaire himself as the sole owner of the group. The “Handelszeitung” recently estimated his private assets at 2.2 billion Swiss francs, the equivalent of around 2.3 billion euros. However, the probably gigantic sum that Rolex paid him for his company is still missing from the invoice. The estimates here – because this is not communicated either – are around 4 to 5 billion Swiss francs.
Like Rolex founder Wilsdorf, Bucherer is said to have inherited the assets of his foundation. Bucherer was considered extremely media-shy throughout his life and rarely gave interviews. Little is known about his private life.
This text first appeared at stern.de