Two weeks again, Audemars Piguet was fast to close down a report suggesting chief government Ilaria Resta was leaving the corporate. She could be going nowhere, the family-owned Swiss watchmaker stated.
In the times following, Resta was in Hong Kong unveiling a brand new assortment of watches as a part of Audemars Piguet’s one hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebrations, the place she instructed reporters the rumours have been unfounded, countering that revenues have been up by 12 % within the 12 months to August. Her message? Move on, as a result of I’m not.
Questions might persist about her future following an additional report over the weekend from the media website Miss Tweed backing up its authentic declare, however for now Resta stays within the place she assumed in the beginning of final 12 months. If something, the chatter appears to have energised her: the Italian former Procter & Gamble government has come out swinging.
Following the Hong Kong occasion, she introduced on Tuesday that Audemars Piguet could be exhibiting at Watches and Wonders Geneva subsequent spring, returning to a significant Swiss watch truthful for the primary time since 2019 when it withdrew from the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) citing price and lack of public entry, in addition to its shift to a direct-to-consumer retail mannequin. And she has hinted that within the coming weeks, she is going to pull the covers off a brand new watch that may show a milestone within the historical past of Swiss mechanical watchmaking.
But in a wide-ranging interview with The Business of FashionResta acknowledged this was a tough time for luxurious watchmaking. “I remain concerned about the health of the industry, especially the suppliers that are under huge stress,” she stated. “Do I see it as a crisis? Frankly, no, because a crisis assumes a structural reason for suffering, and I do not see that. [Today’s challenges] are all contingent and time-limited phenomena that are creating a pause on an otherwise extremely successful trajectory for the watchmaking industry.”
Factors akin to US tariffs on Swiss watch exports, hovering gold costs and a powerful Swiss franc have coincided with weakened shopper confidence in key international markets. “It’s just a perfect storm,” Resta continued. “And it all comes after years of glory growth, which frankly, was also growth that was a bit excessive. So we had perfect positive momentum and now a perfect storm.”
Resta stated she had made adjustments to adapt to the brand new local weather. “I’ve been forced to inject new strategies,” she stated. “Eighty percent of my leadership has changed. This was needed because the company had reached a level of maturity and success that was extraordinary, but when the context outside changes, you cannot continue the same strategies. Not because they are wrong, but because you need different muscles to face the storm.”
Her focus has switched to “elevating horological excellence, innovation and client-centricity.”
Audemars Piguet now controls most of its distribution, promoting direct-to-consumer by its boutiques and what it calls AP Houses, personal lounge-style areas in cities akin to London, New York and Milan.
“Client-centricity is all about defining innovation by observing clients and talking to them so that we know what matters to them,” Resta defined, including that the AP House mannequin enabled the corporate to glean deeper buyer insights. “We don’t just launch things because they’re cool, but because they mean something in the everyday use of the people who wear our watches,” she stated.
Bringing in youthful purchasers can also be a key focus. “For Gen Z, what surrounds the shopping experience is much more important than the purchase act itself,” she stated. “There is a lot of learning and engagement that happens before a Gen Z-er opens the door of a store. So we are omni-channel and we are making sure we serve this generation at any and every touchpoint, well before the phases of consideration.”
Watches face stiff cross-category competitors, she went on. “We’re competing with travel, a bag, a car and any other shopping opportunity Gen Z have,” she stated. “A watch is in the same bubble of consideration as all these experiences and because of that, there is a ceremony around the selling and buying experience that becomes relevant to them. They bring their friends, they want engraving, they want a relationship with the sales assistant who becomes a kind of friend. So we’re obsessed about masterclasses, the behind the scenes of a watch and explaining a watch much more thoroughly than we used to in the past.”
Resta’s method is markedly completely different to that of her predecessor François-Henry Bennahmias, who casts an extended shadow over Audemars Piguet. During his 11-year tenure as chief government, he seemed to place the corporate within the coronary heart of common tradition, forging alliances with LeBron James, Travis Scott and the Marvel Universe, an method that earned him as many critics as followers.
By her personal admission, Resta’s type is extra pragmatic. “The mission for the company is to survive the next 150 years,” she stated. “It’s boring and less sexy, but it’s indispensable. It’s not visible in a watch, but it’s ultimately the most important thing to work on the fundamentals of a company.”
Since Resta’s appointment the hype that surrounded lots of Audemars Piguet’s launches over the previous decade has cooled. The firm has dropped some high-profile sports activities ambassadorships because it embraces a method refocused on “friends of the brand.” This is greater than semantics, Resta insisted.
“People think we work with artists and with music as a platform for client engagement,” she says. “In reality, when we talk with artists and creators in other fields, we learn more about the creative process and this is helping us accelerate the company with new discoveries and innovations. I’m not obsessed about whether we do tennis, golf or basketball.”
She cites the instance of a limited-edition model of the Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar created in collaboration with the music artist and famend watch collector John Mayer, launched final 12 months. “He is much more an advocate of watch design and innovation [than a traditional ambassador],” stated Resta. “He interacts a lot with our production team and brings the point of view of a client. This is an old partnership that existed before I came and that I have pushed to a new level.”
The model’s relationship with retired tennis star Serena Williams continues, Resta stated, whereas musicians Mark Ronson and Raye recorded a soundtrack for the corporate’s one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. “We don’t even fixate on the length of the partnership,” she stated. “We want the partnership to last as long as possible, very organically and much less contractually and transactionally. If the relationship doesn’t work, we will end it.”
Last 12 months, Audemars Piguet reported 2.4 billion Swiss francs in gross sales, a slight uptick on the earlier 12 months, bucking the business’s unfavourable development. Resta stated the corporate could be up once more this 12 months. “We will continue growing,” she stated. “But I don’t believe growth is a healthy measure of success. Growth can be a disease. I’m pivoting the brand towards a new success measure, which is innovation and the reputation of the brand. If we meet those success criteria, growth will come. If we don’t, growth will ultimately stop.”
Resta stated Audemars Piguet would produce 53,000 watches this 12 months, up from 51,000 in 2023 (no figures have been launched in 2024), and that the corporate couldn’t sustain with demand for some items, together with the battery-powered Royal Oak Mini, a style-focused 23mm piece launched final summer time. She stated feminine purchasers had elevated by 20 % year-on-year and accounted for round 30 % of the corporate’s prospects.
But she stated the corporate’s gross sales momentum was primarily right down to promoting extra high-end issues, watches with complicated mechanical capabilities that command a better value. “Growth in [sales of] complications is a much more interesting measure of growth,” she stated. “That shows we’re doing the right complications and elevating our narrative and our contribution to the world of high-end watchmaking.”
At the higher finish of the market, watchmakers have been specializing in decrease quantity items with greater values for quite a lot of years, contributing to the business’s quantity stoop. Swiss export volumes have halved over the previous decade, in accordance with the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. “Some years, we might produce fewer watches because we’re focusing on higher-end complications,” Resta stated. “We’re also looking at 100 percent hand-made pieces that take two years in the life of a single watchmaker.”
Next spring’s look at Watches and Wonders Geneva will probably be welcomed by the present’s organisers, and by its exhibitors. Rolex, Cartier, Patek Philippe and Chanel are among the many big-hitting manufacturers that backed the present at its inception in 2022, however Audemars Piguet, estimated by Morgan Stanley to be the fourth-ranked Swiss watch firm by gross sales, had till now declined to take part. Richard Mille, Breitling and the Swatch Group of manufacturers, which incorporates Omega and Longines, have additionally not but exhibited on the truthful.
Looking on the greater image, Resta stated she was assured the business would bounce again, however pressured the necessity to keep the course. “Is it tough?” she stated. “Yes, it is. But pulling the plug now would be the worst thing that can happen. So we will continue to invest. There is a client for our watches, and the number of clients is increasing.”