After hosting the year’s first big watch fair, SIHH, the Richemont Group found itself in the news again this week for other reasons. The luxury conglomerate has announced the replacement of four of its brand CEOs — at Jaeger-LeCoultre, Piaget, Vacheron Constantin, and Dunhill.
Fabrizio Cardinali at Dunhill will be replaced by Andrew Maag, who had previously worked as head of India, Middle East, Africa and Europe for the well-known fashion brand Burberry. At Vacheron Constantin, current Marketing Director Louis Ferla will replace Charlie Torres, who is retiring. The new CEO at Piaget will be Chabi Nouri, who will take over for the retiring Philippe Leopold-Metzger. Nouri is currently Piaget’s Managing Director for Marketing & Sales and will start as CEO on April 1, 2017.
Daniel Riedo will leave his position at Jaeger-LeCoultre by the end of February. There has been no new CEO announced as yet for the brand, so Georges Kern – the Head of Watchmaking, Marketing and Digital at Richemont – will take over as interim CEO.
It is a pity that a complaint regarding Piaget polo falls on deaf ears.
Customer care is least bothered. Certainly hope this comment can teach Noori.
There is no surprise about these radical changes. Most branded Swiss watch brands ( including those that are Swinese) have seen the dramatic reduction changes in the industry. Not just in the U.S.A. market but the global market as well. Don’t forget that over 55% of all the retail jewelers in America who were in business 5 years ago are now O.O.B. This goes from lower main-stream to upper high-end, exclusive stores. Don’t forget that you can now buy almost ALL used to be high-end, designer, exclusive and protected distribution brands on the web, cable-T.V. and all the big-box stores at 40% to 73% off the published retails. These changes will forever impact all those brands, the distribution and retail players in this industry. I know because I’ve been in it, including at the top of a watch company doing $500 000,000.00 a year in the good old days and this year marks my 52 year in the watch business! I’ve seen them born, grow, be profitable and successful and watch them die.These changes are predictable.