BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
LVMH is one of the power players in the watch industry, one of the megacorps that owns many of the brands we write about regularly on WristReview. There are five leading key players in the modern luxury watch industry, which either make a lot of watches, own a lot of brands that make watches, or do both. These are the Swatch Group (Breguet, Glashütte Original, Omega, Longines & more), Richemont (Vacheron Constantin, Cartier, Panerai, etc.), Rolex (incorporating Tudor), Seiko and its subsidies, and finally, LVMH or Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessey. LVMH owns watch brands like Hublot, Zenith & TAG Heuer, but its portfolio of brands that aren’t watch or jewellery brands is vast compared to those mentioned above. The most recognisable names, such as Fendi, Tiffany & Co, Guerlain, Veuve Clicquot & Chateau d’Yquem, appear in the list of brands LVMH owns, and we’ve barely scratched the surface.
Recently, a shake-up has occurred within the LVMH empire. Frédéric Arnault, the 29-year-old son of LVMH co-founder Bernard Arnault (who is one of the wealthiest people on the planet, according to Forbes), has left his position as CEO of TAG Heuer to become the CEO of LVMH Watches. This position sees him grow and lead the entire watchmaking division of LVMH. He is being replaced at TAG Heuer by Julien Tornare, who was previously the CEO of Zenith. Julien is being replaced at Zenith by Benoit de Clerck, who was previously working for Panerai, which Richemont owns.
To us, moving Frédéric Arnault to the head of the entire watchmaking division for LVMH seems like a smart move. It’s hard to deny TAG Heuer’s ascension from the ashes over the past few years. The brand was known for remaking its old designs and squidging ETA movements into everything. Now, it’s got plenty of in-house calibres to choose from, a refreshed design language, and an increasing fanbase (loads of you requested TAG Heuer watches in our recent Top 10 Watches of 2023 list!
When will we see these changes take effect? I expect it to be about three to five years from now, but make no mistake: changes to LVMH’s watches will be coming.
