The Swiss watch brand Swatch issued an apology and pulled a recent ad campaign after customers in China condemned the imagery, which they say incorporated “slanted eye,” a racist gesture.

In an image for the Swatch Essentials collection, an Asian male model is shown pulling the edges of his eyelids upward and backward with his fingers — an action widely seen as derogatory and racially discriminatory against Asian people.

The company pulled the international campaign from all its platforms on Monday, writing on Instagram, “We sincerely apologize for any distress or misunderstanding this may have caused.”

“We treat this matter with the utmost importance and have immediately removed all related materials worldwide.”

The apology was also posted on the Chinese social network Weibo in Chinese and English, according to The Associated Press.

Some were left unimpressed by Swatch’s efforts to make amends.

“I can’t believe that such a large watch company could make such a careless mistake,” an Instagram user commented. “You should not bring discrimination against Asians into your product posters. This will only cause you to lose more Asian customers and bring no benefit. This cannot be forgiven.”

Another person wrote, “This gesture has been used to discriminate against all Asians (not just Chinese, and therefore not a ‘China only’ controversy) for decades and it is common knowledge that this is a boundary that should not be crossed.”

According to Reuters, Swatch, which also manufactures Omega, Longines and Tissot watches, generates about 27 per cent of its group sales from China, Hong Kong and Macau. Following Monday’s events, shares fell as much as 2.7 per cent, but have since levelled out.

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This is only the latest in a series of challenges for the Swiss watch brand, including a stark drop in share value. Shares have fallen by almost half since 2023, and the situation for the company has been worsened by a recent 39 per cent tariff on exports to the U.S., implemented by President Donald Trump.

Revenue for the watchmaker fell 14.6 per cent to 6.74 billion Swiss francs ($8.4 billion) in 2024, due in part to less demand in China, where Swatch said it was seeing “persistently difficult market conditions and weak demand for consumer goods overall.”

Peter Xu, a fashion influencer in China with more than seven million Weibo followers, said he believed the controversy would impact Swatch’s business in China, but given the speed of the apology, the fallout was likely to be relatively short-term.

“It was pretty stupid to release images like those ones,” he said.

— With files from The Associated Press and Reuters

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