Audemars Piguet CEO Talks Asian Market, Smartwatches
In his less than three years heading up the prestigious Audemars Piguet brand, Franรงois-Henry Bennahmias has made a few major changes like making the labelโs gold watches more affordable and cutting the number of new products introduced each year. In an interview with Blouin Lifestyle, Bennahmias gave his opinions on subjects including the problems with the Asian market and the potential threat to luxury watch brands from smartwatches.
While other luxury watchmakers are seeing significant hits to their bottom lines due to the slowdown in demand from Asian markets, Bennahmias sees Audemars Piguet as getting by nicely thanks to strategic planning.
โWell at the end of May our sales were up 15 percent year on year on the same period last year, so no; and I can tell you right now very few watchmaking companies can claim to have achieved that,โ he said. โThere is a real commercial war out there. Business is tough. We have retailers with too many brands and brands with too many retailers, so we all have to make choices.
โSo far with the strategy we implemented three years ago, including our pricing policy, retailers are pushing us more than others. We have a good watch collection and a collection which is easy to understand, because we reduced the number of references a lot. Weโve increased our quality and delivery timing, and we have a great marketing strategy and interaction with our retailers. So itโs a great mix, which is helping us weather the storm even though business is tough.โ
One problem that does not bother Bennahmias is the coming of smartwatches and other wearable devices. The CEO does not see them as a threat to Audemars Piguet or other luxury watches.
โIf we make an analogy with the food business, smart watches are like fast food. Theyโre mass-produced for everybody. A billionaire can go to McDonaldโs and order a Big Mac, but heโll still go to a 3-Michelin-star restaurant, and thatโs what we are.
โItโs not the same proposal, itโs completely different and Iโm pretty sure I can find 50,000 people on the planet, that are passionate about craft and timepieces that last for a long, long time. Fast food will never kill a 3-star-Michellin restaurant.โ