Swatch Group lawyers have filed a complaint against Malaysian authorities that raided one of its stores in May and confiscated rainbow-coloured watches associated with the LGBT Pride movement.
Malaysia’s equivalent of the Home Office reportedly seized 164 watches from Swatch’s Pride collection from 11 shops.
The rainbow-coloured watches were described as “morally harmful” under Malaysia’s 1984 Printing Presses and Publications Act.
Homosexuality is illegal in the country.
This week Swatch hit back at the seizures, with a legal filing stating: “As far as we know, the picture of a rainbow and the acronym ‘LGBTQIA2S+’ are not banned words in Malaysia”.
“The watches did not promote any sexual activity but were merely a fun and joyous expression of peace and love,” it added.
Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek has also weighed in on the dispute.
“Swatch always promotes a positive message of joy in life. This is nothing political. We wonder how the regulatory and enforcement division of the home ministry will confiscate the many beautiful natural rainbows that are showing up a thousand times a year in the sky of Malaysia,” he says.
