Swatch’s 2026 AGM: Correcting The Invitation

In 2026, unfortunately Swatch continued its track record of sending out incorrect invitations to its AGM. We’ve sent an open letter to the board to correct the inaccuracies and misleading information. Most of the explanations were only provided in German, so if you’d like to see the Company’s AGM annexes translated to English, please click here.

Click here to read the Open Letter. 

Or catch the speed read: 

• There is no conflict of interest in a nominating party having both Bearer & Registered shares. The Supreme Court reference the company cited had nothing to do with different voting classes, and was misleading. The referenced sentence was referring to separate classes of stock with different dividend treatment. This is not the case in Swatch. Furthermore, the Hayek pool also owns nearly all Registered shares, yet continues to dominate the entire Board’s nomination process. Thus, their argument is not only false and misleading, but hypocritical;
• We are the side of the debate with a track record of collegial collaboration — not the Hayek pool. Alleging that we cannot have a “relationship of trust,” because we have asked the courts to resolve the ongoing dispute from the 2025 AGM deflects from the Board having ignored Swiss law last year. We have exhausted our efforts to resolve last year’s AGM out of court, but have been stone-walled by Swatch’s board. Thus, their allegations are further hypocritical;
• The nationality of our candidate is NOT a disqualification and it is not a legally permissible opportunity for the Hayek pool to reject the will of the Bearer shareholders. The fact that Swatch’s AGM seems to imply the Board will automatically reject the will of Bearer shareholders is striking;
• Because Swiss law doesn’t mandate the governance proposals, doesn’t provide a sound grounds for rejection. Best practices in corporate governance go beyond the legal bare minimum. Our proposals are designed to bring Swatch’s governance up to basic standards, as endorsed by economiesuisse and adopted by nearly all Swiss corporations.

We encourage all shareholders to vote at this year’s very important shareholder meeting, and remain mindful of the important deadline to register your shares to vote by April 22. 

In case you missed it, click here to view our engagement deck outlining our rationale for all our proposals.  

Furthermore, if you’d like to see how we have voted our shares, please click here for a sample ballot.

In the appendix to the presentation, you can find a guide on how to register your shares to vote. If you’d prefer to skip straight to our guide how to vote, please use the resources below (based on which shares you own).

Registered Shares

How to Vote Instructions for Registered Shares

Appendix A: Application for Entry in the Share Register – Legal Entities

Appendix B: Application for Entry in the Share Register – Natural Persons

Appendix C: Sample Communication to Swatch Registrar Confirming Registration of Shares

Bearer Shares

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