Lastly, we continue to work with our advisers on a strategic review of the business, including an ongoing review of our business model and comprehensive reviews of our capital structure and capital allocation strategies. We are acting with urgency as we focus on these priorities. During the first quarter, we appointed two independent Board members, which in tandem with recent leadership changes, usher in new oversight and fresh thinking. These individuals bring significant value to the organization with decades of experience in retail and consumer operations, turnarounds and finance. We look forward to the contributions and support as we move as quickly as possible to stabilize the business and pursue avenues to maximize shareholder value. We greatly appreciate the dedication of our teams and the support of our shareholders during this transformational time for Fossil.
We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress and driving value for all of our stakeholders. With that, I’d like to turn the call over now to Sunil to step through the financials.
Sunil Doshi: Thanks, Jeff. First quarter net sales totaled $255 million, down 21% in constant currency. With better gross margins and lower SG&A, both driven by our TAG program, we narrowed our adjusted operating loss by $6 million to $19 million. First quarter cash flow from operations was slightly positive, a significant improvement versus last year when we used $86 million. The improvement in cash flow was primarily due to closely managed working capital, timing of payments in the current year and lapping heavier than normal seasonal working capital needs last year. We ended the quarter with $113 million in cash and $123 million in liquidity. Diving deeper into our Q1 trends. As Jeff noted, there are three underlying themes that we have seen playing out across our business for several quarters now, which continued into Q1.
First, about five points of our 21-point revenue decline in the first quarter was attributable to the year-over-year decline from closed stores and the exit of our smartwatch business. The revenue impact was roughly four to six points in each of our regions. As a reminder, the stores we are closing are at lease expiration and in aggregate, did not have a material contribution in terms of four-wall profitability. And since announcing our exit from the smartwatch category, we’ve more aggressively worked to move through our remaining inventory. Second, we are seeing signs of stabilization in about half of our Q1 revenue base. Across this portion of our revenue base, net sales in the quarter were down 1%. Global net sales in fossil brands, traditional watch and jewelry categories were negative 4% on a comparable basis.
This reflects comp growth in the direct channels in India and our Asia region offset by declines in the indirect channels in the Americas and Europe. Growth in India remains robust for traditional watches, where we achieved double-digit growth in the strategic market anchored by strong sellout trends and expanded distribution. In our value-priced brands and more premium priced brands were about flat to last year. However, as Jeff noted, we’ve experienced persistent challenges in our licensed fashion brands and leathers category, that carried into the first quarter of this year. Sales across this portion of our revenue base was down approximately 30% in Q1 and reflects both challenging operating conditions in China and distribution and category headwinds in traditional wholesale channels, particularly in the Americas and in Europe.
Turning to gross margins. Q1 gross margins were up 300 basis points versus last year, primarily driven by benefits from our TAG plan. Gross margin improvement versus last year can be traced to two factors. First, the prior year results included a onetime 170 basis point drag from a TAG driven restructuring charge in our cost of goods related to liabilities from certain product categories. Two, the balance of the gross margin improvement or 130 basis points came from product margin improvement in our core categories, where initiatives from SKU rationalization, assortment architecture and reduced promotions in our direct-to-consumer channels drove better results. Lower freight costs also contributed to the year-over-year gross margin improvement.
SG&A expenses in the first quarter were down approximately $39 million year-over-year or 20%. Productions were primarily attributable to lower store operating costs on fewer stores as well as lower compensation and administrative costs resulting from our TAG initiatives. We ended the quarter with 277 company-owned retail stores, down 15% from the prior year. Turning now to our outlook. Our first quarter results for sales and adjusted operating margin were in line with our expectations, and our full year forecast remains unchanged from our prior guidance of approximately $1.2 billion in sales an adjusted operating margin loss of 3% to 5%. Our net sales guidance of approximately $1.2 billion assumes approximately $100 million of negative impact from our store and concession closure plans and the lapping of last year’s smartwatch sales.
As we noted on our last earnings call, we expected Q1 to be the softest sales quarter of the year. Benefits from our TAG plan continues to be a key driver of our 2024 gross margins and SG&A forecasts. We expect to achieve over $100 million of P&L benefits in 2024, stemming from annualized savings achieved in 2023 and expected to be achieved in 2024 under the TAG plan. These benefits are expected to materialize in both gross margin and SG&A. Within gross margin, our TAG initiatives are expected to contribute to gross margin expansion, particularly in the second half of the year. The improvement is primarily expected to be driven by initiatives within our product sourcing strategy, coupled with ongoing initiatives around assortment architecture and SKU rationalization as well as product mix benefits resulting from minimal smartwatch sales in 2024.
