The simple definition for success is the accomplishment of an aim or a purpose. What unites all of the brands, families, groups and individuals featured in these pages is that they have had the audacity to dream big and the temerity, resilience, courage and capability to execute their goals. One example is Jean Arnault who just two years ago had set out to completely change the world’s perception of Louis Vuitton watches and, through his bold relaunch of the Tambour and championing of independent watchmaking, has completely transformed the way we see Louis Vuitton today. As another example, it would be fair to say that this is the year we truly see the brilliance of Jean-Frédéric Dufour’s leadership at Rolex: first with the acquisition of Bucherer and Rolex’s first entry into retail; second, through the global elevation of Rolex watches in terms of quality, beauty and design; third, in the proliferation of the Rolex Certifed Pre-Owned (CPO) program; and fourth, in his elevation of Tudor to be the market leader in the luxury tool watch category.
Even though François-Henry Bennahmias is leaving Audemars Piguet, his legacy in transforming this brand from a CHF 630 million a year business in 2012, to a CHF 2.01 billion a year juggernaut (with a 2023 estimate of CHF 2.4 billion) is extraordinary. And though he works decidedly behind the scenes, Omega’s Raynald Aeschlimann, who is growing in his job scope at the Swatch Group, continues to be one of the most impressive leaders on the market. Richemont Group’s three brilliant CEOs, Cyrille Vigneron of Cartier, Nicolas Bos of Van Cleef & Arpels and Louis Ferla of Vacheron Constantin (his brand is estimated to pass the CHF 1 billion mark this year), bring dynamism to their brands in a massive way. Among the family-run watch brands, Richard Mille has now firmly assured his succession plan with his very capable and incredibly dedicated son Alexandre Mille in place as brand director. Patek Philippe’s Thierry Stern continues to bring his brand from strength to strength even while grooming the next generation of Stern leadership. Finally, we also see a generational change beginning in Chopard with Caroline-Marie now working on product development with her father Karl-Friedrich, and her brother Karl-Fritz who is already responsible for the brand’s successful Alpine Eagle model is not long off from joining her.
What are the key takeaways over the last decade? The growth of the watch industry has been mainly driven by the high-end brands. The polarization of the industry with just a few brands producing high-value watches and fostered by strong brand equity, such as Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille, is reflecting the overall trend of the luxury industry, which is moving upwards in all product categories. One very distinctive difference of the watch industry compared with all other luxury product categories is that the privately owned brands are performing far better than the ones owned by listed luxury groups, albeit with one remarkable exception which is Hermès, even though the brand shares more characteristics of a family-owned company than a listed company with only 32.3 percent free float traded shares, but foremost a longterm view on the business.
With this ranking, we are aiming to establish a top 20 success index of the owners of watch brands. The watch world being a very secretive industry, we base our estimates on trusted sources such as the yearly Morgan Stanley report on the luxury watch industry that I’m co-writing.
The estimated wealth of the following 20 individuals, families, trusts, private or listed companies are based on their overall assets. Methodology is based on the estimated value of the market price — in the case of a listed brand or group — or the estimated value, which is a multiple of the estimated sales and EBITDA (the operational gross margin before taxes, depreciations and amortizations) on which I added the brand equity/goodwill. I also indicated the estimated retail market share of the Swiss-made or Swiss-owned watch industry to give an idea of how important the watch business is for each person or institution mentioned. These values (in CHF) were taken from the annual Morgan Stanley × LuxeConsult report last published in March 2023 based on the estimated 2022 sales.
1 The Arnault Family
COMPANY LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton
NET WORTH CHF 150 billion
TOTAL MARKET SHARE 6.3 percent
BRANDS TAG Heuer, Hublot, Bulgari, Zenith, Louis Vuitton Horlogerie, Dior, Chaumet and Tiffany & Co.
Even though the recent market correction was quite hefty (-23.5 percent in six months), LVMH is still the most valued luxury corporation in the world at CHF 317 billion, which is still almost twice the value of Hermès and seven times that of Kering. Hence, at the time of writing, Bernard Arnault is still the second richest man in the world with an estimated wealth of CHF 150 billion.
And even though sales of watches account for only 6 percent of the group’s total revenues with an estimated CHF 4.7 billion out of CHF 79 billion, LVMH clearly has big ambitions to grow this business unit. Currently with 6.3 percent market share, the group is only in fourth position behind Rolex, Swatch Group and Richemont, but everybody knows that Arnault has never been satisfied to play second fiddle in any one of his active market segments.
We highlighted recently on RevolutionWatch.com that Louis Vuitton has decided to change gears for its watch business, not loudly, but in a very elegant and smart manner. Even though LV has a huge potential to grow its watch business, the real growth in order to become a major player in the watch business will be through a major acquisition, and there aren’t many candidates available out there. At the same time, Bulgari has carved a strong niche for itself in the sports chic category with the excellent Octo Finissimo. The company is ably led by Jean-Christophe Babin and his team, which consists of the likeable and diligent Antoine Pin and the talented Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani.
Interestingly, two of Arnault’s five children are now active in the watch division, with Frédéric as the CEO of TAG Heuer and Jean who is the head of Louis Vuitton Horlogerie. Frédéric is said to be leaving TAG Heuer to take up another position within the same division; he is to
