ZURICH Richemont reported weaker-than-expected earnings on Friday as the Cartier jewellery owner became the latest luxury company to highlight increased caution by big-spending customers.

The owner of Swiss watch brands including Piaget and IWC posted a profit of 1.51 billion euros ($1.61 billion)for the six months to the end of September, worse than the 2.17 billion euros forecast by analysts in a consensus cited by Zuercher Kantonalbank.

Sales rose 6% to 10.22 billion euros from 9.68 billion euros a year earlier, below the 10.34 billion euros expected by analysts.

($1 = 0.9375 euros)

(Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Miranda Murray)