Richemont has 26 billion reasons to celebrate this summer.The luxury conglomerate, owner of maisons such as Cartier, Piaget and Van Cleef & Arpels, saw its sales increase by 13 percent in Q4, ending off this fiscal year with a bang. In total, Richemont’s revenue shot up by 11 percent to hit around $26 billion (22.4 billion euros) over the last 12 months, the brand announced in a report last week.The company’s jewelry brands, in particular, had a strong showing over the same period. Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Buccellati, and Vhernier saw a combined sales increase of 14 percent, hitting $19.2 billion (16.5 billion euros). And amid soaring gold prices and unfavorable currency movements, Richemont implemented “measured price increases” to weather the changes.As for the conglomerate’s watch-specific brands, which include A. Lange & Söhne, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Vacheron Constantin, that sector realized around $3.6 billion (3.1 billion euros) in sales, in a slight jump of 1 percent year-over-year. After two challenging years in the watch market, Richemont says its timepiece brands are “showing some encouraging signs” in part due to growth outside of China. Meanwhile, the conglomerate’s fashion and accessories brands also showed signs of growth, with its sales rising 3 percent to a cool $3.1 billion (2.7 billion euros).Amid a tumultuous geopolitical environment, chairman Johann Rupert said the company achieved “strong growth and solid results, reflecting the resilience of its business model, the strength of its maisons, the enduring agility and creativity of its teams and the benefits of its balanced regional footprint,” according to WWD.On a call after Richemont posted its end-of-year results, Rupert also took the chance to deny a watch-world rumor. The sector had been whispering earlier this year that Richemont was planning to offload Jaeger-LeCoultre. The executive dismissed such claims, calling the reported “nonsense,” per WWD, and describing JLC as “the watchmaker’s watchmaker.”“I can assure you we are better shape now than I can ever remember, from balance sheet through tech, supply chain, everything traditional that we could foresee,” Rupert said of Richemont’s performance. “We’re in great shape.”