Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group has withdrawn a global advertising campaign and issued a public apology after images of an Asian male model pulling his eyelids into a "slanted eye" pose sparked accusations of racism on Chinese social media. In statements published in both Chinese and English on Weibo and Instagram over the weekend, the company said it "immediately removed all related materials worldwide" and "sincerely apologises for any distress or misunderstanding this may have caused." The contentious image had promoted the Swatch Essentials collection. China, Hong Kong and Macau account for roughly 27 percent of Swatch’s sales, making the market reaction significant. The controversy sent the group’s shares down as much as 4 percent in Zurich on Monday before trimming losses to about 3 percent by mid-afternoon. The incident compounds recent challenges for Swatch, whose 2024 revenue fell 14.6 percent to 6.74 billion Swiss francs amid soft consumer demand in China and a looming 39 percent U.S. tariff on its exports. It follows a series of cultural‐sensitivity missteps by global brands that have triggered boycotts in the world’s second-largest economy.