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Yet the shares remain at less than half their 2022 peak, ​LSEG data shows, reflecting a European luxury sales slowdown in recent ​years. Its shares sank in 2023 after major supplier Rolex acquired Swiss-based retailer Bucherer, which some analysts saw as a threat to the watchmaker's relationship with ​Watches of Switzerland.

Watches of Switzerland CEO Brian Duffy responded to ​the initial approaches because he believes the stock market undervalues the company, two of ‌the ⁠sources said, with one adding that no formal offer has been made.

The third source said the company was seeking an offer of significantly more than £7.50 per share.

Watches of Switzerland said it does not ​comment on rumours ​or speculation. ⁠Rolex did not respond to a request for comment.

An upbeat outlook from the company in May was ​supported by U.S. stock market strength that , ​though ⁠higher gold prices have squeezed margins.

The UK’s largest luxury watch retailer, which was established in 2007, is due to publish full-year results on Tuesday.

A ⁠private sale ​of the business would continue this ​year's migration of UK companies from the London Stock Exchange after a flurry of foreign ​takeovers.

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The index’s P/E ratio depends on who is defining the ‘E’

Wall Street pros are predicting stellar S&P 500 earnings growth this year and beyond. But there’s a problem with the underlying numbers. They are often deeply distorted.

This matters to everyday investors because it directly influences how cheap or expensive the market looks. Specifically it affects the index’s price/earnings, or P/E, ratio, perhaps the most frequently cited valuation metric for stocks. If you pick an “E” that uses actual net income for the past four quarters, the index may seem pricey at about 29 times earnings.

More commonly, though, Wall Street analysts steer investors to some form of alternative earnings. Viewed this way, the index may trade for around 22 times earnings using analysts’ 2026 estimates, except the adjustments that analysts make routinely ignore regular, real-world expenses such as stock-based pay or restructuring costs.

If this seems confusing, that is the point. Investors have a veritable lunch buffet of S&P 500 earnings figures to choose from—past or forward-looking, official or nonstandard. Depending on the flavor one picks, profits may be growing rapidly or modestly. Faster growth should generally go hand-in-hand with higher P/E multiples, as investors are willing to pay more for earnings that are growing. But if there is disagreement about which starting point to use, this can lead to inflated growth perceptions, too.

While the looseness of non-GAAP metrics is a decades-old problem, the sheer size of the latest earnings-growth forecasts means it is taking on renewed importance.

Data provider FactSet in a recent newsletter showed S&P 500 earnings of almost $275 a share for calendar 2025, climbing 24% to about $341 for calendar 2026. If investors thought earnings were really growing that fast, the premium they would pay for the market today arguably ought to be higher. But they likely discount the data already, knowing there’s something off with the numbers.

Neither of those figures was calculated using generally accepted accounting principles. Both the historical results and the future projections include a mix of earnings metrics. The numbers for some companies in the index are based on GAAP, and others aren’t. If the majority of analysts covering a given company calculate its earnings using non-GAAP metrics, that is what FactSet goes with.

Other data services such as LSEG compile similar figures, and they are widely cited by strategists at top investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

The GAAP numbers look much different. S&P Global Market Intelligence and Bloomberg both put the index’s GAAP earnings per share for calendar 2025 at about $241, with growth from the prior year in the low teens. That is a solid increase, but nothing wild.

Ideally, the major data services would consistently collect GAAP earnings estimates for future periods and compare them with the historical numbers in companies’ official filings. But this is easier said than done.

Many Wall Street analysts don’t calculate GAAP earnings projections, even when asked explicitly for them in survey forms. So the consensus forecasts become a hodgepodge of estimates, with some tracking net income and some using earnings before bad stuff.

Even S&P’s consensus earnings forecasts have this problem. For calendar 2026, S&P data show an estimate for GAAP net income of about $337 a share. That would be a 40% increase from 2025, which looks unrealistically high. Most likely, the forward estimate and the historical baseline aren’t comparable because some analysts are using different methodologies for their forecasts.

Bloomberg publishes a variety of estimates and historical data for S&P 500 earnings, both GAAP and non-GAAP. For calendar 2026, it recently showed a GAAP estimate of about $323 a share, which would be 34% annual growth. That also looks implausibly high, indicating the figure likely includes some non-GAAP estimates, despite efforts to maintain consistency.

A core purpose for accounting standards is so investors have a common yardstick to compare companies across completely different industries. Maybe the index’s current price is a fair one. It is just hard for investors to judge if they can’t agree on what the “E” stands for.

Brussels will propose gradual access for different ages in response to concerns over child safety online

Brussels is set to propose a “social media start date for minors”, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday, as it comes under pressure from member states to restrict children’s access over safety concerns.

Von der Leyen said she would make a proposal after the summer for “phased and gradual access for different age ranges”.

“What we already have is a consensus that there needs to be a start date for the age children can join social media,” she said after presenting the results from an expert panel on child safety online.

Several European countries have been pushing the Commission to restrict children’s use of social networks, arguing that tech companies are not doing enough to protect them from the negative effects of being online. Some countries, including France, have grown impatient and have imposed their own restrictions.

Von der Leyen said she was considering a “harmonised EU-wide delay to social media” for under-13s, unless under parental or caregiver supervision. There would then be gradual access as of 13 years old, “depending on the proof given by the platforms that they are age-appropriate and safe for teenagers”.

Most major social media platforms officially require users to be at least 13 — the age at which children can consent to their data being processed under EU privacy regulation. However, those restrictions are easily and often circumvented.

The Commission is currently working on an age verification app that allows users to verify their age without disclosing personal information to platforms.

“This is not about whether children can access social media”, von der Leyen said. “It is about whether and when social media can access our children.”

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen calls for an age limit on children using social media © EBS

Social media companies argue that they already have a number of protections in place for children, such as Instagram’s Teen Accounts, which have screen time limits and extra privacy settings to avoid contacts by strangers. Meta and TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the bloc’s announcement.

Separately, the EU is also increasing pressure on social media platforms via other means. The bloc has several ongoing investigations into social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook and Instagram under its landmark Digital Services Act, which polices content online.

Last year, Australia enacted the world’s first social media ban for under-16s after growing calls from parents who are concerned that bullying is frequent and hard to monitor on such apps.

“Social media is not a toy,” von der Leyen said, adding that it was “very clear that we need age-appropriate restrictions to platforms”, including a start date to access social media, “because childhood won’t wait and once it’s gone, we can never give it back”.

The German politician said that “just as we don’t give our children keys to the car before they have their licence, or we do not let them buy alcohol until they are legally allowed, we need to set the age at which the children can legally access social media”.

The Commission warned Meta last week that Instagram and Facebook’s endlessly scrolling feeds may breach the EU’s new content rules, as regulators intensify scrutiny of social media’s impact on children. Those investigations can lead to fines of up to 6 per cent of its global turnover.

The Commission is already preparing a separate proposal to protect consumers online, for instance against spending traps, which will also target children.