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Frédéric Arnault has been appointed CEO of LVMH Watches, a newly created role that oversees Hublot, Tag Heuer, and Zenith. His new position will “ensure strong and sustainable growth for the watch maisons and reinforce LVMH’s role within the watchmaking industry”, the luxury conglomerate said in a statement on Friday. His appointment is effective since 1 January and he reports to Stéphane Bianchi, CEO of LVMH’s watches and jewellery division.
It marks a significant broadening of Arnault’s responsibilities. The 29-year-old son of luxury titan Bernard Arnault joined Tag Heuer in 2017, and became CEO of the watch brand in 2020. At Tag Heuer, he made bold moves, including signing a strategic long-term partnership with Porsche, streamlining the distribution, elevating the positioning notably by introducing higher-end products, featuring lab-grown diamonds on watches, dabbling in NFTs and injecting humour into campaigns. It paid off. According to Morgan Stanley estimates, Tag Heuer sales were CHF 729 million (€784 million) in 2022, up from CHF 682 million (€733 million) in 2021. In an interview with Vogue Business in March, Arnault didn’t comment on these estimates but confirmed Tag Heuer is on track to enter the €1 billion watch brands club.
Sales in 2022 of Hublot and Zenith were CHF 744 million and CHF 121 million (€800 million and €130 million), respectively, according to Morgan Stanley; essentially meaning Arnault will oversee an estimated €1.7 billion business. LVMH’s watches and jewellery division generated €10.6 billion in 2022, up 12 per cent year-on-year.
“Frédéric has done a tremendous job at Tag Heuer over the past six years. His unique and disruptive vision for the watchmaking industry led to a spectacular transformation for Tag Heuer, which recovered its credentials in record time as the luxury watch brand driven by high performance,” Bianchi said in a statement. (Bianchi joined LVMH in 2018 as CEO of Tag Heuer before being promoted, leaving Frédéric Arnault, whom he mentored, to follow in his footsteps.)
As part of the division’s management reshuffle, Julien Tornare, CEO of Zenith since 2017, is appointed CEO of Tag Heuer while Benoit De Clerck succeeds Tornare as CEO of Zenith. De Clerck joins from Richemont where he was chief commercial officer of Panerai. Tornare, De Clerck and Ricardo Guadalupe, CEO of Hublot, will all report to Arnault.
The roles of the Arnault family within the LVMH empire have been shaped in recent years: Delphine Arnault was named chairman and CEO of Christian Dior Couture in January 2023; Antoine Arnault has been overseeing the group’s communications and environmental issues since 2018 (and is the force behind LVMH’s sponsorship of the Paris Olympics). He has also served as chief executive of the family holding company, Christian Dior SE, since December 2022. He has just stepped down from his role of CEO of Berluti but remains chairman, as he is at Loro Piana. The three youngest sons are focusing on hard luxury: Alexandre Arnault heads up product and communications at Tiffany & Co and Jean Arnault is watch director of Louis Vuitton.
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