Bucherer has removed Beat Schmid as head of its flagship store at Schwanenplatz in Lucerne.
According to a local blog, Schmid, who joined the company from rival Gübelin ten years ago and has led the store since 2017, worked his last day on Friday. The report says Bucherer’s leadership informed staff on Tuesday that Schmid would leave. The company had originally planned for him to remain until the end of the year, then continue on internal projects for two years before his retirement.
The most serious allegations against Schmid concern the allocation of scarce Rolex watches.
The claims about Schmid’s conduct and the reasons for his departure come from unnamed insiders and a whistleblower complaint, not from the company.
Apparently, a dozen employees have left Bucherer since August, either by resigning or being dismissed, citing an unnamed insider. The company has also faced a “cost trap” linked to a large IT project. The report says some of the departures affected the group’s headquarters and others the Lucerne flagship store itself. It links the accelerated timing of Schmid’s exit to the volume of staff losses.
Bucherer did not respond to a request for comment.
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Allegedly Certain “Special” Customers Received Sought-After Rolex Models Immediately
A whistleblower complaint filed with Bucherer’s Integrity Line at the end of 2024 alleged that certain “special” customers received sought-after Rolex models immediately, while other customers waited years on waiting lists.
Rolex does not sell watches on a first-come, first-served basis. It allocates watches to authorised dealers, who then decide how to distribute them to customers. Bloomberg reports that dealers receive annual allocations by model category, and that demand for certain models far exceeds supply.
Inside Paradeplatz says the complaint named a well-known luxury car dealer from German-speaking Switzerland who allegedly received 53 Rolex watches over ten years. That would exceed Bucherer’s internal rule of a maximum of two Rolex watches per customer per year, according to the report.
The whistleblower also alleged that some sales were routed through the dealer’s wife, including a case involving an Oyster Perpetual where she was said not to have been present in the store.
Bucherer is not an ordinary independent dealer. Rolex acquired the company in 2023, making it the only retail chain the watchmaker controls directly, alongside its Geneva salon. The company has more than 100 stores, mainly in Europe and the US, and annual sales above CHF 1.8 billion.
That ownership structure raises the stakes. Any allegation of favouritism in watch allocation at a Rolex-owned flagship store touches directly on how the brand manages one of the most sought-after products in luxury retail.
A New Leader?
Jessica Ternes has taken over as managing director of the store. She joined Bucherer in September after a short stint at Tourismus Forum Luzern and a longer period at Luzern Hotels, the tourism association for central Switzerland. Her LinkedIn profile lists her as managing director at Bucherer AG since September 2026.
The appointment is notable because Ternes comes from hospitality and tourism rather than luxury retail. The Schwanenplatz store sits in one of Lucerne’s main tourist areas and is one of Bucherer’s most important locations.
