François-Henry Bennahmias has, after his decade-long tenure at the helm of Audemars Piguet, assured his place in watchmaking leadership’s Hall of Valhalla. While the fact that he took Audemars Piguet from a 600 million Swiss franc a year business to a 2.01 billion Swiss franc business within a decade is already extraordinary, it is the way that he did it that separates him from the rest of the crowd. Because what Bennahmias has succeeded in doing is to transform the Royal Oak, a timepiece created by AP in 1972 as the world’s very first luxury integrated bracelet, sports chic watch, into an internationally recognized symbol for success.
The way he did it had its start before he took the reins of the company based in Le Brassus. It dates back to his tenure as AP’s head of North America, when he embarked on a brazenly daring rescue mission for the entire watch industry to assert its relevance in the culture of today.
Thanks to him, Audemars Piguet became the first luxury watch brand to forge connections with the worlds of hip-hop by partnering with Jay-Z, sports with LeBron James, and cinema with Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was basically thanks to Bennahmias that watches went mainstream, an effort he continues today with his collaboration with Marvel. The result was a level of desire for the Royal Oak that was unprecedented for any watch in our industry.
Bennahmias’ clear objective was to achieve the same level of desirability for his watches as that of Hermès handbags, creating a condition where demand far outstripped supply — so much so that secondary prices for Royal Oaks skyrocketed, ensuring that the waiting list for new watches only grew longer and longer. If you’re wondering who it was that created the current unprecedented popularity for watches, if you’re wondering who single-handedly elevated the integrated bracelet category to become the most popular luxury accessory on the planet, if you’re wondering why every celebrity on the red carpet is wearing a talking piece watch, the answer is simple. It’s because François-Henry Bennahmias willed this into being.
The following interview was part of his “farewell tour,” as he is now handing the reins of AP to a new CEO, Ilaria Resta. But even then, he has put in place the next stage of accelerated growth for the brand, with a focus on becoming one of the most dominant players in women’s watches. The interview took place at the launch of AP’s second collaboration with Marvel, which resulted
