The Day a Maison Became a Balance Sheet.

In 2000, a Swiss analyst valued Breguet the same way he valued Nescafé. Nobody blinked.

The article appeared in the Swiss Watchmaking Journal in 2000, tucked between trade advertisements and export figures. Its title was plain enough — “Evaluating a Brand: The Investor’s Standpoint” — and its author, Pierre Tissot, proceeded with the unhurried confidence of someone stating the obvious. The obvious, in this case, was that a watch brand is a…