LVMH has donated €5 million to help the International Red Cross support victims of the war in Ukraine and it is working to help 150 of its employees in the country.
However, over the border in Russia, sales at Bulgari, LVMH’s flagship jewellery and watch brand, are rising.
As unprecedented sanctions on Russia bite and oligarchs have their financial affairs probed and frozen, the wealthy elite are buying up luxury jewellery and watches as a way to protect their wealth and turn it into easily transportable assets.
In a conversation with Bloomberg, Bulgari’s CEO Jean-Christophe Babin suggests: “In the short term it has probably boosted the business,” describing Bulgari’s jewellery as a “safe investment.”
While global giants including Apple, Nike, Google and Netflix have stopped or limited business activity in Russia, the luxury watch and jewelry industry has been largely silent.
WATCHPRO reached out to LVMH, Swatch Group, Richemont, Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille this morning to ask whether there has been any response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A Rolex spokesperson said they had checked with colleagues in Geneva and been told they will politely decline to comment.
Swatch Group pointed me to a web page where I could fill in a form with my questions, but there has been no response.
All other approaches have so far gone unanswered.
A trawl of watch brands’ social media accounts — ordinarily a place for corporate virtue signalling — found no mention of the conflict in Ukraine.
Two Cartier and four Bulgari boutiques in Moscow remain open, according to a search on Google.
However, supplying Russian boutiques may become more difficult because cross border payments are being hit by sanctions.
“How long it will last it is difficult to say, because indeed with the SWIFT measures, fully implemented, it might make it difficult if not impossible to export to Russia,” Mr Babin told Bloomberg.
Bulgari is ultimately attempting to stay out of the politics of the war on Europe’s Eastern edge. “We are there for the Russian people and not for the political world,” Mr Babin said. “We operate in many different countries that have periods of uncertainty and tensions.”
