Raising Tag Heuer’s profile

WITH his thick brown hair standing more or less on end, Frederic Arnault could easily pass off as a piano maestro. Except that he really was one. When he was younger, he followed in the footsteps of his concert pianist mum Helene Mercier, and was accomplished enough to give concerts once a year. But these days, the 28-year-old has swapped ivories for watch movements as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer, which his father Bernard Arnault acquired in 1999.

The younger Arnault was handed the baton of the 162-year-old company in 2020 – incidentally, 14 years after his father gave him his first watch, which happened to be a Tag Heuer Aqauracer. 

But before anyone thinks he’s too young for the job, the new boss pointed out in another interview that historically, Tag Heuer was run by young CEOs. In any case, Arnault, who speaks four languages (French, English, Italian and German), is already seen as the next generation’s most important young leaders in the watch business. 

He wasn’t parachuted straight into the top job. Armed with a degree in computer science and applied mathematics from Ecole Polytechnique, one of France’s top tertiary institutions, Arnault first moonlighted at Tag Heuer in the smartwatch division, before joining full-time as the strategy and digital director. 

And the new CEO isn’t all green about business. He has interned at Facebook and consulting firm McKinsey as well as done a stint running a mobile payment startup with a friend. At home, he talks mostly business with his siblings and dad, who happens to be chairman of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury conglomerate.  

Stephanie Bianchi, the Tag Heuer CEO who groomed him, said the young man has the brain and the leadership qualities to drive the company forward. Since Arnault took over the reins, he has reversed the dip in sales resulting from Covid-19, rolled out cutting-edge technology, formed a brand partnership with Porsche and moved Tag Heuer into non-fungible tokens.

Lots of buzz also has been created by bagging Hollywood A-list actor Ryan Gosling as brand ambassador and launching the Tag Heuer Carrera Plasma, a tourbillon-chronograph watch wrapped in laboratory-grown diamonds that carries a S$500,000 price tag.

Less publicised are the talents the new CEO has gathered around him, notably high complication watch specialist Carole Forestier whom he wooed from Cartier, as well as Emmanuel Dupas, Rolex’s movement director.

“How did we get them? Through (our shared) passions,” Arnault said recently in a short interview while in Singapore for a quick market visit. “We met and we talked about (Tag Heuer’s) vision for the future. They saw the ambition we had to build and develop.”

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The vision is a “stronger and more desirable” Tag Heuer brand in 10 years. And he aims to realise it by raising Tag Heuer’s profile, starting with re-designing the Carrera and Aquaracer models and streamlining the Monaco line-up. 

“We want to see how we can improve the quality and the perceived value of our watches, the iconic sentiments of some of our collections,” he explained.

A partnership with movement manufacturer Kenissi has produced the TH30-00 calibre for the brand’s new Superdiver watch that’s water-resistant to 1,000 metres, five times the minimum requirement for a dive model. Tag Heuer has also rolled out the Solargraph, its first watch powered by the sun.

“We’re the first Swiss watch brand to invest heavily on the solar-powered quartz movement,” Arnault said.

The new CEO has also gone into partnership with Porsche to refocus on the brand’s links with motor sports. Too much promotional money has been put into soccer when consumers associate Tag Heuer with Formula One racing. To improve retail experience and after-sales service, distribution outlets were slashed by a quarter in the last two years while more boutiques opened. 

These efforts have paid off in drawing greater attention to Tag Heuer. Arguably, Ryan Gosling and the Plasma watch did most to increase its visibility. The Hollywood actor was a big catch for the new CEO, because it’s Gosling’s first ever brand collaboration. The eye-popping price tag of the Plasma is obviously an instant attention grabber.

But the Plasma, a mix of experimental technology and disruptive design with 12 carats of lab-grown diamonds, also puts Tag Heuer in head-to-head competition with super high-priced watch brands like Richard Mille. It’s not a one-off production, as Arnault said it would be “a new collection by itself – though he also pointed out that avant-garde timepieces are very much part of the brand’s DNA, having produced them in the past.

Perhaps Arnault is encouraged by the fact that the first three Plasma watches rolled out were already sold. The challenge ahead is to sustain the hype he has created, but it’s pretty clear that this young CEO is on the right track.