This Monday evening at Casa Cruz, a discreet private club along Park Avenue, in the Upper East Side, the president of the watchmaking division of LVMH, Frédéric Arnault, launches the 6th edition of the “Watch Week”, week of the watch. Nine brands of the group represented by their CEOs, around forty of American and South American journalists, and some European handpicked journalists.
After Dubai, Geneva, Singapore and Miami, the Watch Week returns to the United States, a strategic choice after a complicated year for the watch industry, marked by a climate of sluggish business and a Chinese declining Chinese market. The group’s results figures will be unveiled this week, but we already know that most of the group’s brands have suffered, even if Bulgari and Tiffany, carried by jewelry, have limited the damage. On the watchmaking side, only Tag Heuer has slight growth. Tiffany having a separate status in the LVMH portfolio. The emblematic American jeweler continues to take the cost of massive investments launched in 2020, even if Frédéric Arnault recalls that “Last year, Tiffany was worn by his New York store with the highest sales volumes in the group”. In these uncertain economic times, the “US” represent an Eldorado for luxury and particularly for the watchmaking sector: “The market was very dynamic in 2024. We are confident in the high watchmaking sector in the United States”concludes Frédéric Arnault.
An observation shared by the president of LVMH United States, Anish Melwani, who already measures the positive effects of the Donald Trump election on the business climate. “Before the election in November, 100 % of Americans were nervous. In the aftermath of the election, just under 50 % of them were disappointed, and just over 50 % were satisfied. But above all, he adds, the results were clear, no dispute, the Democrats, beautiful players, immediately turned the page. From the week of November which followed the result, there was a significant recovery in business. The embellished was confirmed at Christmas and even in January: after having their loved ones happy, the Americans returned to our brands to have fun! »»
The strong development potential of the watch market in the United States, Frédéric Arnault identified it as soon as he took office at the head of the division a year ago, while the group had already initiated an important turn to this continent. Like the acquisition of the emblematic Tiffany jewelry claw for $ 15 billion in 2020, celebrated by the lifting of its “flag ship” – main store – on 5th avenue. A magnificent ten -story setting surmounted by a luminous statuette of the Bird Symbol of the brand, “Bird on a Rock”, created by designer Jean Schlumberger in 1965.
Trump’s election has positive business climate effects
On this prestigious 5th avenue/57th Street crossroads, a few meters from the Trump Tower, the power of LVMH unfolds on three from the four street corners: Tiffany dominates the magnificent Bulgari setting in Italian design of the 1930s and the monumental trunks Vuitton reproduced Gray leather way, wood and metal reinforcements, which hide the pharaonic site of the future brand’s future site, unveiled in early 2027.
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An investment that meets the brand’s confidence in the potential of the American market. At the cost of a rise, both for watchmaking and for jewelry, testifies Anthony Ledru, CEO of Tiffany: “We are in the world’s top 3 on high jewelry, the development potential in the United States, which represents our main market, is colossal, by enhancing our offer to the very high end. The average price of our jewelry has doubled in four years, following the transformation of our stores, which have become universes in which our customers come to live a unique experience. This corresponds to market expectations. »» A universe that will soon have a setting in Paris, commensurate with the brand’s prestige, in a still secret place.
Tiffany will soon have a case in Paris commensurate with its prestige
America, a land of growth for high -end watchmaking, despite the future choices of Donald Trump, want to believe the great bosses present who came to attend the LVMH event. “We have to share things between the often vehement declarations of the president and his actions,” decrypts a New York CEO. For example, he announced an increase in taxes of 25 % on products imported from Canada on February 1. He said, when signing his first decrees, that it was going to be studied. Will Trump tax massively? I want to answer you: “Who knows?” »»
The luxury industry, in this context, fears to be collateral damage in a trade war that is played around the flagships of the sectors of each continent. Airbus against Boeing, American gas against electric and renewable energy resources of Europe, steel, GAFA … “Adjust these subjects quickly!” »» Quicks a specialist in the luxury industry, and the American dream of LVMH will then be at hand …
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