The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Operational decision · 2025
Reservoir Watch was rising fast — then one supplier's bankruptcy tore up its roadmap
Paris watchmaker Reservoir hit liquidation in March 2025 after a single supplier's collapse froze the cash flow of a brand that claimed to be on its way up
Reservoir Watch · 2025-03-28
What happened
Reservoir Watch was a Paris-based watchmaker, headquartered at 138 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, that sold distinctly Parisian timepieces while leaning on the 'Swiss made' label. With 130 shareholders and a growing roster of collectors, the young brand entered the early months of 2025 believing it was in the middle of an ascent.
In early January 2025 the company was placed in redressement judiciaire (judicial recovery), with a capital raise left open until 29 January. The trigger was not weak sales but the bankruptcy of a key supplier, which, in the founders' telling, 'tore up the roadmap' and froze the growth that had been building momentum.
The rescue did not hold. On 28 March 2025 the Tribunal des Activités Économiques de Paris converted the case into liquidation judiciaire, naming SELARL Actis MJ (Maître Julie Perrot) as liquidator. The brand was then sold through a plan de cession to JDB Invest and Spleen, two family offices that had been historical minority shareholders, in a deal homologated in March 2025.
Why it happened
- The brand's growth rested on one link in its supply chain — when that supplier went bankrupt, the cash flow funding the ascent stopped and there was no second source to absorb the shock
- A young label with 130 shareholders and continuous capital raises was fragile: momentum never became reserves, so a single external failure could stop the whole machine
- The founders called the collapse outside their control, but the roadmap had no shock absorbers — growth that depends on one partner is leverage, not stability
The lesson
A young brand running on momentum and one supplier has no shock absorbers: when the single link breaks, the whole roadmap comes off it. Growth that depends on one partner is leverage, not stability.
Aftermath
The brand was sold in March 2025 to JDB Invest and Spleen, two family offices that were already minority shareholders, through a plan de cession homologated by the court. The name lives on under new owners, but the original company's structure was wound up in liquidation.
Sources
- Le Temps — Les montres Reservoir en redressement judiciaire au beau milieu de leur ascension
- Le Monde du Droit — Spark avocats conseille JDB Invest et Spleen dans la reprise en plan de cession de Reservoir Watch
- ProcedureCollective.fr — Reservoir Watch : liquidation judiciaire
- Cour de cassation — Decision 25-00013 (liquidation judiciaire, 28/03/2025)
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