Luxury watchmakers need to be more conscious of value for money as they seek to reinvigorate demand for the sector, according to Hublot’s new chief executive. “We as brands have to be careful,” Julien Tornare told BoF in his first interview in the new role. “It’s not just because something is luxury that people are willing to pay any price. Those days are gone.”
Tornare took over as head of the LVMH-owned luxury watch company in September, just eight months after he succeeded Frédéric Arnault, fourth child of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault, as CEO of stablemate TAG Heuer. The 52-year-old Swiss executive says the call to succeed Ricardo Guadalupe, who stepped back after 12 years as Hublot’s chief executive, was as much a surprise to him as anyone else.
“I had no idea,” Tornare said of his Hublot appointment. “I’m not the kind of guy changing jobs every eight months. I didn’t expect that Ricardo would leave, otherwise I would have waited.” Tornare, previously CEO of LVMH’s Zenith, moved into Guadalupe’s spot and was replaced at TAG Heuer by Bulgari’s Antoine Pin.
The LVMH Watch Division’s game of musical chairs coincides with an anxious period for the luxury watch industry. Exports of Swiss watches have taken a hit this year, driven largely by a downturn in Chinese demand. LVMH reported in October that during the first nine months of the year, its watches and jewellery revenues were down 5 percent compared to 2023.
Tornare said his job now is to “build Hublot 4.0”. Reinforcing the brand’s value proposition in terms of craftsmanship—including by integrating more of its supply chain in a new facility —and accelerating a push to diversify its marketing with additional “emotional drivers” beyond football will both be in focus as Tornare works to reignite sales.
The Swiss brand was founded by Italian watchmaker Carlo Crocco in 1980 and sparked into a dynamic global player in the mid-2000s under Jean-Claude Biver, a charismatic industry legend. Biver’s Big Bang watch of 2005 and the aggressive marketing strategy surrounding it transformed the brand, leading to a sale to the French group in 2008 for an undisclosed sum. Biver went on to lead LVMH’s watchmaking group as well as its flagship TAG Heuer brand.
Under Guadalupe, the brand became tied to football with further partnerships in sport, music and art.
China Downturn
Tornare, the company’s fourth leader in 45 years, inherits a full inbox. The Swiss watch industry is still reeling from the China crisis, where exports are down 26.3 percent this year according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. Globally, the value of exports has slipped 2.6 percent.
Hublot has likely been hit harder, with macro-economic headwinds being compounded by higher competition as post-pandemic inventory shortages ease at rivals like Audemars Piguet, Rolex and Patek Philippe. According to Morgan Stanley estimates, in 2023, Hublot’s revenues dropped around 10 percent year-on-year to 670 million Swiss francs ($750 million), in contrast with the wider watch market’s 8 percent growth in export values. Like many brands, Hublot likely decelerated further this year, and could end the year with revenues down by as much as 30 percent, according to Oliver Müller, a co-author of Morgan Stanley’s report.
Tornare said Müller’s calculations were “too pessimistic,” although he declined to offer his own figure. LVMH does not break out sales for individual units. “Hublot is, like every brand, impacted by the global context,” Tornare said.
Looking ahead, Tornare forecasts a turnaround. “We are convinced that what we are experiencing in China now is temporary,” he said. “We don’t know how much time it’s going to be contracted, but we all believe that appetite for luxury goods did not disappear overnight. So we will maintain our presence in China without pushing it.”
For now, Hublot benefits from a more balanced geographic footprint than competitors, with China making up less than 10 percent of sales, Tornare said. He identified the US, Latin America, Japan and Korea as Hublot’s main areas of growth.
The US is by far the Swiss industry’s largest export market, while Japan, Korea and Mexico have been rare bright spots for watchmakers in a difficult year.
Craftsmanship Investment
In 2026, Hublot is due to open a new manufacturing facility at its Swiss headquarters that will more than double its factory footprint. Tornare said this wouldn’t equate to increased volumes. “It’s not going to be a quantity strategy,” he said. “It’s going to be a quality strategy, mastering more and more crafts to make a watch. High-end brands should not go for volume.”
The manufacturing push will allow the brand to explain more clearly to consumers where their money is going. “I want more people to realise that behind the price of a new Hublot watch, it’s not only famous people, famous ambassadors and big events. It’s real know-how.”
Falling demand has led a number of Swiss watchmakers to furlough staff and cancel parts orders this year, but Tornare said Hublot had avoided any such measures. “Hublot is very lean,” he said. “I don’t need to make changes in terms of staff because we don’t have so many people.” The company employs around 1,500 people, half at its Swiss site, the other across subsidiaries and a global network of 140 boutiques, according to Tornare.
Marketing Rebalance
Since the release of the Big Bang, Hublot has become known for its daring, often outsized designs and innovative use of materials—mixing precious metals with rubber and titanium, or experimenting with multi-coloured ceramics or neon translucent sapphire alloys.
Tornare said he saw no reason to change course. “If Hublot becomes too normal, too traditional, we will not survive,” he said. “Some customers will always look for something new. I want Hublot to be more entertaining and to give more emotion.”
The brand’s ascent has been backed up by high-profile partnerships—underscoring its link to football as the official timekeeper of FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro tournament, UEFA Champions League and a handful of national leagues in addition to signing French superstar player Kylian Mbappé as an ambassador.
Tornare said football remained a priority, but that he would “rebalance” in order to invest more into what he calls “fields that are great emotional drivers” such as art and music. In 2024, the brand collaborated with A-Cold-Wall designer Samuel Ross and artists Takashi Murakami and Daniel Arsham.
He did not confirm whether domestic deals, such as that with the English Premier League, which is due for renewal next year, would continue. “The focus will definitely be on international competition and the [UEFA] Champions League,” he said.
Other partnerships from the world of sport include sprinter Usain Bolt and tennis great Novak Djokovic.
Hublot was once involved in Formula 1 as a sponsor of the Ferrari F1 team. Following news of LVMH’s 10-year deal with the sport, TAG Heuer is expected to replace Rolex as the sport’s official timekeeper from next season, nudging Hublot out of the picture. Tornare says Hublot’s involvement will be limited to client entertaining. “This is a group-level decision,” he said.
Anniversary Moment
In 2025, Hublot will mark the 20 years of Big Bang, which Tornare says currently accounts for around 40 percent of company sales. He described the anniversary as “a big deal”, but details of how the company will celebrate remain under wraps until Watches and Wonders Geneva, the Swiss watch fair scheduled for the first week of April next year.
Tornare said LVMH has given him licence to look beyond the industry’s current challenges. “They want us to be strong and live in the long-term,” he says. “They really understand that we need to keep and preserve what has been built by the brand.”
Before he took the Hublot job, Tornare said he consulted 20 industry colleagues, including his predecessors. “They all gave me the same advice,” he said. “That Hublot is a brand that did a lot of good for the industry by being so disruptive, so different and so entertaining within the very traditional and conservative watch industry. So they all told me: ‘Continue to do that.’ And that’s very much my personality.”