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Kandy Wong

Swiss watchmaker Swatch has issued an apology for a “slant eye” promotional image that has triggered strong criticism on Chinese social media, with the gesture widely considered offensive to Asians.
In statements posted to Instagram and China’s Weibo on Saturday, the Swatch Group sought to “sincerely apologise for any distress or misunderstanding this may have caused”.
The company said it had taken note of the “recent concerns” regarding the portrayal of a model in images for a men’s watch collection.
“We treat this matter with the utmost importance and have immediately removed all related materials worldwide,” it added.


China remains a lucrative market for international luxury brands, but global retailers are increasingly grappling with challenges in the world’s second-largest economy, including rising nationalism, an economic slowdown and shifting consumer preferences.
Swatch is not the first multinational to face condemnation for culturally insensitive portrayals, which have previously sparked public backlash and calls for boycotts.
An influencer on Weibo with the username Mei Hua Long_MHL and 1.1 million followers described the Swatch advertisement as “racism towards Asians”.
Another with 1.23 million followers and the username Nie Hua Xiong said that it was terrible to “disgust Asians and degrade Chinese” at a time “when the watch industry is going downhill”.
Comments also flooded into RedNote, with a user named Dylan saying: “Some people will say those who feel offended are fragile, but this is a different situation – slanted eyes are an insulting gesture pointing to Asians made by the whites.”
Another RedNote commenter You Ren Ray said: “The first thing to do after feeling offended is to boycott [the brand], instead of contemplating whether the other party intentionally thought of doing something.”
“Even if I don’t see racism [in the ad], there is no way to judge how this slanted eyes gesture can add value to the product, unless the move aims at getting attention with promotional effect for free,” said another RedNote commenter called Wai.
On American social news aggregation platform Reddit, the forum r/swatch featured a thread with the title: “Swatch ad uses gesture with offensive cultural stereotype – how did this get approved?”
“For a global brand in 2025, it’s surprising (and disappointing) that no one flagged this as potentially culturally insensitive before publishing it,” the poster said.
“I’m curious – do you think this is an oversight, or should Swatch take more responsibility for cultural awareness in their advertising?”


The Swiss watchmaking group, whose brands include Omega, Blancpain and jeweller Harry Winston, has reported a worse-than-expected 7.1 per cent drop in sales for the first half from a year ago.
Operating income plunged to 68 million Swiss francs (US$84 million) from 204 million francs, it said last week, in a decline “exclusively attributable” to China, including Hong Kong and Macau.
But it is expecting a recovery in orders in the second half, given early signs of improvement in e-commerce and inventory reduction at retailers.
In recent years, Chinese web users have become increasingly vocal in condemning foreign brands they perceive as insulting their culture.
In 2023, the French luxury brand Dior faced backlash for an advertisement featuring an East Asian model pulling up the corner of her eye.
In 2018, Italian fashion label Dolce & Gabbana was accused of racism after a series of ads showed a Chinese model awkwardly eating Italian food with chopsticks.


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Swatch says sorry for ‘slant eye’ ad after social media backlash in China

The Swatch ad that has prompted a social media storm over offensive cultural stereotypes. Photo: Handout

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China Economy

Users condemn ad as ‘racist’, say it is terrible to ‘disgust Asians and degrade Chinese’ when ‘watch industry is going downhill’


Users condemn ad as ‘racist’, say it is terrible to ‘disgust Asians and degrade Chinese’ when ‘watch industry is going downhill’.


Swatch Group

Dolce & Gabbana

Dior

Swatch says sorry for ‘slant eye’ ad after social media backlash in China

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Users condemn ad as ‘racist’, say it is terrible to ‘disgust Asians and degrade Chinese’ when ‘watch industry is going downhill’

Users condemn ad as ‘racist’, say it is terrible to ‘disgust Asians and degrade Chinese’ when ‘watch industry is going downhill’