LVMH: The new watchmaking division will be headed by Frédéric Arnault

Posted by lifata on January 10th, 2024

LVMH, the luxury leader in France and around the world, has just announced on Friday January 5, 2024, the creation of a new Watches division for the group. It is none other than Frédéric Arnault, 29 years old and son of the big boss, who takes the reins. The young man cut his teeth for a few years, since he was already CEO of the TAG Heuer brand. He will now also have the Zenith and Hublot brands under his management.

“A disruptive vision”

It is therefore the son of Bernard Arnault, the second richest person in the world, who was chosen to take charge of the new Watches division of LVMH. The group communicated a few days ago, explaining that it would be in charge of the Zenith, TAG Heuer and Hublot brands.

The 29-year-old young man, who has proven himself at TAG Heuer, will remain under the supervision of Stéphane Bianci, current CEO of the Watches and Jewelry division at LVMH. His superior already says a lot of good things about Frédéric Arnault, praising “remarkable work at TAG Heuer replica over the last six years”. He explains in a press release sent to AFP that “his unique and disruptive vision of the watchmaking sector has enabled TAG Heuer to experience a spectacular transformation”. He adds that he is “excited to see how his vision and knowledge will contribute to further accelerating the growth of LVMH’s watch brands.”

An already solid CV

Frédéric Arnault followed in his father's footsteps and graduated from École Polytechnique. He first launched his career at the famous consulting firm McKinsey, before joining the artificial intelligence research center at Facebook. His passion for watchmaking will then push him to take a position at TAG Heuer in 2017, first to supervise the brand's connected replica watch uk sector, before becoming CEO of the brand in 2020.

He will now supervise the luxury best fake watches division of the LVMH group, and it is Julien Tornare, who is leaving Zenith to take the helm of TAG Heuer. We also know that Benoit de Clerck, who had worked for 25 years at competitor Richemont, notably as sales director at Panerai in recent years, was appointed CEO of Zénith.

An already very clear mission

Frédéric Arnault has a clear and precise mission, which is “to ensure strong and sustainable growth for watchmaking companies and to strengthen the role of LVMH in the luxury watch industry”, as explained in the press release.

Even if it is not specified, we can easily imagine that the young man will have the ambition to leave his mark on his first years in this position, in particular by buying a few prestigious brands. We know, for example, that LVMH has been aiming for several months to acquire the Richemont group or possibly one of its most emblematic brands: Cartier. It is not impossible to see this type of rumor resurface in the coming months.

That said, Richemont has already announced several times in recent years that neither the group nor Cartier were for sale, but nothing is impossible at LVMH.