A Pride collection from Swiss watchmaker Swatch made headlines last year when it was seized by authorities in Malaysia. Now, the government has been ordered to return the 172 rainbow-coloured watches, following a High Court ruling.

The watches were confiscated from 11 Swatch shops nationwide in May 2023 because they featured “LGBT symbols”, the Malay Mail reported at the time. When asked about the seizures, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was quoted as saying: “The only fact I know is that the confiscation was because the watches had LGBT symbols, not because of the colours.” The watches had a small Pride flag printed on them and were available in each of the six rainbow flag colours.

As reported by The Guardian, Swatch Group chief executive Nick Hayek said they “strongly contest” that the watches, which spread a “message of peace and love”, could be deemed “harmful”.

“We wonder how the Home Ministry’s enforcement unit will confiscate the many beautiful natural rainbows that are showing up thousand times a year in the sky of Malaysia,” he said.

Swatch sued the home affairs ministry and the government of Malaysia after the controversial seizures happened, demanding the return of the Pride watches and a damages payment of $14,000 (€13,325), which they said had been caused by the raids of the stock.

The Swiss company stated in the lawsuit that the Pride collection was “not in any way capable of causing any disruption to public order or morality or any violations of the law”, The Guardian reported.

The outcome of the lawsuit was been announced on Monday, November 25, by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia must return the watches within the next 14 days. However, the Swiss watchmaker was not granted the damages payment and will only be compensated if there is any damage on the items upon their return, as reported by Free Malaysia Today.

The High Court also made clear that a law that banned the sale of the Pride watches was only imposed after the seizures, so Swatch could not be accused of being in violation of it. Still, with that ban in place now, the watches cannot be resold after being returned to Swatch.

Malaysia might accept the Swiss company’s win on the matter, with Home Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail quoted in the Malay Mail on Monday as saying: “When such a decision or action is taken to court, it is the court that ultimately decides the matter and if the court has made a decision, KDN (Malaysia’s Home Ministry) must respect it”.

However, the BBC also quoted him declaring that Malaysia’s government’s legal team will be examining “the basis of the judgement” and then decide whether to appeal against the order.

Malaysia is one of many countries in the world where homosexuality is illegal. Same-sex sexual acts and relationships are forbidden under secular and religious law and can be punished with up to 20 years in prison, fines and even caning.

Justified by the 1984 Printing Presses and Publications Act, a censorship of LGBTQ+ representation is enforced in media in the Southeast Asian country.

In a 2022 report, Human Rights Watch revealed Malaysia was criminalising LGBTQ+ people not just by penalties and anti-queer rhetoric but also by seeming to promote conversion practices seeking to change people’s sexual orientation or gender identity.