Louis Vuitton, Jean Arnault, and Large Watchmaking Ambitions

PARIS – Jean Arnault admitted he was once rolling the cube. “It’s actually one of those a big gamble,” the 24-year-old watch director of Louis Vuitton advised the Trade of Style in an unique interview. “This shift may both make our industry drop temporarily or revive it totally.”

The shift Arnault was once relating to was once the relaunch of Louis Vuitton’s flagship Tambour watch with a choice of 5 ultra-high-end diversifications at the taste. Forward of the brand new watches’ creation at Paris’ Musée d’Orsay Wednesday, Arnault mentioned the brand new line of mechanical sports activities timepieces was once “made by way of watch creditors for watch creditors.”

The Tambour was once at the beginning introduced twenty years in the past and is Louis Vuitton’s signature watch design. Now, below Arnault’s path, the drum-shaped watch has been upgraded with an built-in steel bracelet, thinner case, new computerized mechanical motion — and far greater value issues.

The brand new fashions are set to exchange as a lot of 80 % of the corporate’s common watch assortment, Arnault mentioned, as the emblem transitions to a top-end positioning within the class.

The release additionally marked the primary time Arnault — the youngest member of luxurious’s wealthiest extended family — had stepped into the highlight after quietly becoming a member of Louis Vuitton in 2021 (first as its watch department’s advertising and marketing director sooner than emerging to steer the class ultimate 12 months). The Arnault relatives have been some of the attendees at a gala dinner in Paris ultimate evening to announce the brand new assortment, along Bradley Cooper, Natalia Vodianova, Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender.

Even though the stakes have been excessive — Louis Vuitton is luxurious’s largest emblem and the benefit driving force of family-controlled mother or father corporate LVMH — Arnault mentioned he was once assured {that a} push upmarket was once the precise transfer. “It might be silly for us no longer to go into that aspect of the industry [and make] an built-in sports activities watch,” he mentioned.

In recent times luxurious sports activities watches with built-in bracelets (relating to designs the place the steel band flows into the case), corresponding to Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak and Patek Philippe’s Nautilus, have ruled the high-end watch marketplace. Rolex, whose assortment is nearly solely made up of built-in sports activities watches, is known to account for round 30 % of gross sales of Swiss timepieces.

Whilst earlier generations of Louis Vuitton watches were to be had for a couple of thousand bucks — kind of consistent with rival luxurious model manufacturers’ watch extensions — the brand new items will get started from $18,500 for metal variations and upward thrust to $52,000 for complete gold, placing the Tambour in direct pageant with watchmaking’s top-end natural gamers.

Louis Vuitton was once based in 1854 however most effective offered its first watch in 1988, making it a comparative newcomer in comparison to legacy names corresponding to IWC, Girard-Perregaux and Zenith, in addition to jewellery-first maisons like Cartier and Chopard, all of whom were making watches for greater than a century.

Can the Tambour compete? “It takes time,” mentioned Arnault. “I’m speaking about twenty years. Clearly, we’re hoping for a smashing luck, however we’re no longer anticipating a smashing luck to start out as a result of we’re going from one step to the following so temporarily.”

Arnault insisted he had no fastened goals. “We’re no longer taking a look on the numbers,” he mentioned. “We’re converting so radically that we haven’t put explicit ambitions as to when or how or which goals we’re going to do.” Nonetheless, class growth is noticed as a key alternative for Louis Vuitton as the emblem seeks to continue to grow after surpassing the edge of €20 billion in annual gross sales ultimate 12 months.

The costs of the brand new assortment took some observers by way of wonder. “Grossly overpriced for what it’s,” mentioned a commenter at the watch web site Hodinkee in keeping with the release. However Arnault was once unrepentant. “Louis Vuitton isn’t right here to place an eye fixed at the wrist of everyone.”

Arnault mentioned the brand new Tambour was once about making the Louis Vuitton watch tale extra coherent. Up to now, its entry-level watch assortment has had little in not unusual with low-volume, high-end mechanical releases, such because the playful Tambour Spin Time or the extremely ingenious Carpe Diem, created by way of the emblem’s Geneva watchmaking facility, Los angeles Fabrique du Temps.

“The emblem is dichotomic,” he mentioned. “It’s very bipolar. However from these days, we not have two ranges of completing, two ranges of workmanship and two ranges of high quality. The entirety is now at the identical aircraft.”

Louis Vuitton’s luxurious smartwatch, the $3,405 Tambour Horizon Mild Up, accounts for round 25 % of the corporate’s watch volumes, however the units are understood by way of customers to belong to a separate product class.

Requested who would possibly purchase the brand new watches, Arnault paused. “That’s attention-grabbing,” he mentioned. “I’m taking a look ahead to seeing the effects, which it will be totally other in a 12 months.” He mentioned Louis Vuitton’s high-end items had a dedicated collector base, and that to begin with, he anticipated the similar creditors to be inquisitive about his new watches.

However he added: “I am hoping with all my soul that someday we’ll be capable to convert watch creditors and watch connoisseurs that will have long past for a pure-player emblem, and to listen to them say that Louis Vuitton has a compelling be offering. I am hoping to show a few of the ones other people round.”

Patrons have already proved prepared to put money into pricey watches made by way of multi-disciplinary luxurious maisons. Bulgari, Gucci, Chanel and Montblanc have all evolved a hit advantageous watchmaking companies, whilst Hermès’ watch department trumped all of them with a turnover of €519 million in 2022, in step with its ultimate annual monetary document.

LVMH doesn’t wreck down the efficiency of person manufacturers, however in step with Morgan Stanley estimates, Louis Vuitton’s watch revenues reached 130 million Swiss francs ($144 million) and volumes of 35,000 watches ultimate 12 months (round 1 / 4 of Hermès).

Arnault mentioned his new watches would most effective be to be had in Louis Vuitton retail outlets, the place there would all the time stay items to take a look at on, despite the fact that some fashions have been more likely to run ready lists.

Arnault is the 5th and youngest kid of Bernard Arnault, the chairman and leader government of the LVMH Crew and the arena’s richest guy. Siblings Delphine, Antoine, Alexandre and Frédéric all dangle senior positions within the family-controlled luxurious empire, whose manufacturers additionally come with Dior, Tiffany, TAG Heuer and Berluti.

After finding out engineering and finance, Jean mentioned he had selected to transport into one in every of his father’s luxurious watch companies as a result of he had “all the time been enthusiastic about mechanical issues.” He mentioned he had to begin with sought after to paintings within the automotive industry sooner than being “referred to as by way of the watch rabbit hollow” as a teen. His older brother Frédéric — leader government of TAG Heuer since 2020 — may be an eye fixed enthusiast.

Arnault mentioned that regardless of rising up within the age of the iPhone and the smartwatch, he and his fellow participants of Gen-Z have been intrigued by way of mechanical timepieces. “We all know that they’re everlasting, or a minimum of that they may be able to ultimate so much longer than electronics,” he mentioned.

Luxurious watch manufacturing volumes have declined in recent times. Swiss watch exports fell from 28.1 million in 2015 to only 15.8 million ultimate 12 months.

Nonetheless, a handful of ultra-luxe manufacturers like Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille have surged right through the pandemic —providing hope for the business’s topline.

Arnault mentioned that was once a mirrored image of adjusting tastes. “Folks purchase much less watches or greater high quality watches that can ultimate and stand the check of time,” he mentioned.

And if Louis Vuitton’s Tambour solutions that temporary, Arnault’s top-table gamble would possibly but repay.

Disclosure: LVMH is a part of a bunch of buyers who, in combination, dangle a minority passion in The Trade of Style. All buyers have signed shareholders’ documentation making certain BoF’s whole editorial independence.