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The French luxury group LVMH – the largest in the world – ushered in 2024 with the official announcement of a series of changes within the watch division. Starting with what concerns the new role of CEO of the new LVMH Watches, which from 1 January will be held by Frédéric Arnault (in the photo below): he will be responsible for the Hublot, Tag Heuer and Zenith brands and will report to Stéphane Bianchi , CEO of the LVMH Watches & Jewelry division, which until the end of 2023 included both watches and jewellery.
The passing of the baton from Tag Heuer and the news from Zenith
The change of role of Frédéric Arnault, who had been CEO of Tag Heuer since 2020, which he joined in 2017 and then also became Chief strategy and digital Officer in 2018, brought other innovations within the division. Julien Tornare is the new CEO of Tag Heuer, after having held the same role in Zenith, now held by Benoit de Clerck, who joins the French group after spending 25 years in the Richemont group, with his most recent role in Panerai as Chief commercial officer.
Ahead of LVMH Watch Week in Miami
Julien Tornare and Benoit de Clerck, to whom Ricardo Guadalupe (CEO of Hublot since 2012) must be added, will therefore report to Frédéric Arnault, who will make his public debut in the new role in a few weeks, as part of the fifth edition of the LVMH Watch Week, scheduled in Miami from January 29th to February 1st and where the first watchmaking innovations of the year from the French group’s maisons will be presented: there will also be proposals from Bulgari, Gerald Genta and Daniel Roth (in the photo above, from left, Julien Tornare , Frédéric Arnault, Ricardo Guadalupe of Hublot and Antoine Pin of Bulgari at the LVMH Watch Week 2023, which was held in Singapore at the beginning of last year).
The path of Frédéric Arnault
During the Tag Heuer years, among other initiatives, Frédéric Arnault signed the partnership with Porsche and celebrated the 60th anniversary of the flagship Carrera collection with new dedicated launches. At a distribution level, however, it has pushed hard to open single-brand boutiques (60 have been inaugurated in recent years, including one in Rome in 2022 and in Milan at the end of August 2023), reaching a total number at the end of last year. of 330 in the world. «His unique and disruptive vision for the watch industry has led to a spectacular transformation of Tag Heuer, which has recovered its credibility as a high-performance luxury watch brand in record time – commented Stéphane Bianchi, CEO of Lvmh Watches & Jewelry Division –. I am very pleased that Frédéric has joined me in this division of the group to oversee our three watchmaking houses which I look forward to seeing how they will grow further, and sustainably, thanks to his insights.” According to the latest Morgan Stanley report on the performance of the Swiss watch industry in 2022, LVMH’s watch brands (Bulgari, Tag Heuer, Zenith and Hublot) together have a market share of 6.3%.