A great watch brand CEO makes the brand’s identity clear in its products and customer experience, while investing in the people and capabilities needed to keep it relevant. Interviews with leaders at Breitling, A. Lange & Söhne, Audemars Piguet and TAG Heuer point to a set of recurring practices—not a proven formula or universal scorecard.
Give the brand a distinct identity
A CEO’s choices are easier to understand when they express a recognizable point of view: what the brand stands for, whom it wants to reach and what customers should recognize in its watches. The identity has to show up in design, product selection, communication and retail—not just in a slogan.
Breitling CEO Georges Kern described shifting the brand toward a more mainstream, relaxed “sports-chic” identity while retaining associations with aviation, sport and craftsmanship. He pointed to collections such as the Navitimer, Chronomat and Avenger as part of that story. In a separate interview, LVMH Watches chief executive Jean-Christophe Babin emphasized reputation, storytelling, design and distinctive models as ways brands can stand apart. These are leaders’ perspectives, not independent proof that any one positioning strategy will succeed.
For customers, a clear identity helps explain why a watch belongs in a brand’s collection and what makes it different from alternatives. For a CEO, it acts as a filter: a product or campaign that does not fit the brand’s character may create short-term attention but weaken recognition over time.
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Make innovation reinforce the brand’s history
Tradition and change need not be opposing goals. A. Lange & Söhne CEO Wilhelm Schmid said the company preserves hand-finishing traditions while introducing new materials and mechanisms. “Tradition and innovation, for me, is not an ‘either-or’ situation,” he said in a 2023 interview. The leadership challenge is to make a new technique or product feel like a meaningful extension of the brand rather than novelty for its own sake.
TAG Heuer CEO Antoine Pin has framed research and development as a continuation of the company’s history of innovation. In a January 2026 interview, he said, “We have been driven by the market too much. We need to be the drivers.” That is a strategic ambition, not evidence by itself that a particular product or investment has worked. Taken together, the examples suggest a useful test for a CEO: does innovation strengthen what the brand is known for, and can the company explain why it matters to a buyer?
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Make the customer experience part of the strategy
A watch’s appeal is shaped not only by its movement, materials or design, but also by how accessible the brand feels before and after a purchase. Kern said Breitling deliberately designed its boutique to feel open and welcoming so customers would not be intimidated. “Everything is open, and that was a deliberate choice,” he said. He added, “We want customers to feel good because Breitling is a feel-good company.”
Schmid described A. Lange & Söhne’s effort to know clients and their expectations more closely, alongside collector-focused product development. His account is a CEO’s description of the company’s approach, rather than independent customer research. The broader leadership lesson is practical: listening to customers can inform product choices and service, but a CEO still has to decide which requests fit the brand and which would pull it away from its identity.
Invest in skilled people and the ability to make watches
Brand promises depend on operational capabilities. If a company wants to preserve hand finishing, improve production flexibility or develop complex products, it needs skilled people and the systems that support them. Those capabilities take time to build.
Audemars Piguet CEO Ilaria Resta has linked the company’s independence and long-term planning to investment in manufacturing flexibility and watchmakers. On training, she said, “You can’t train a watchmaker in a span of weeks or months.” Schmid has also described apprenticeships and further training before skilled workers enter production. These examples show why leadership decisions about training and capacity cannot be reduced to a quick hiring plan: expertise has to be developed and retained.
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Plan for the long term without treating the future as fixed
Watchmaking involves long development horizons, so CEOs have to commit resources before the outcome is certain. Resta has described planning toward 2040 and investing in capabilities. Pin has discussed product research and development that is measured in years. Those are examples of company-specific planning, not universal timelines or benchmarks.
Long-term thinking does not mean refusing to adapt. A useful balance is to protect the capabilities and identity that make a brand distinctive while adjusting products, communication or customer access when circumstances change. CEOs have to choose where patience is valuable and where waiting would leave the company out of step with customers.
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Understand the market customers can actually afford
A brand can be prestigious and still face a basic access question: who can realistically buy its watches, and how might new customers encounter them? A Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie event report cited Deloitte’s 2025 Swiss Watch Industry Study as finding that 58% of customers could not pay more than US$1,500–2,000 for a watch, and that 40% of young buyers entered through the secondary market. The event report says the latter figure was almost double the corresponding figure for the boomer generation. It does not provide the full study methodology, so these figures should be read as reported findings rather than a complete account of every buyer or market.
For a CEO, the implications are questions to investigate, not automatic prescriptions: whether the brand offers a credible entry point, how buyers learn about its products, and what role authorized retail and the secondary market play in its relationship with customers. A strategy should reflect the brand’s own audience and positioning rather than treating these reported figures as a mandate to lower prices or change distribution.
How to assess a watch brand CEO
These interviews offer examples of leadership choices, not comparable evidence that one executive outperforms another. A more grounded assessment is to examine how consistently a CEO connects the following areas:
- Identity: Is the brand’s point of view recognizable in its products and customer experience?
- Product and innovation: Do new materials, mechanisms and designs build on the brand’s strengths?
- Customer relationship: Is the brand accessible and attentive without losing its character?
- People and capability: Does the company invest in training, manufacturing and research needed to deliver its promises?
- Time horizon: Can the CEO sustain long-term commitments while responding to changes in the market?
A compelling strategy is only the starting point. To judge results, a reader would also need comparable evidence about product quality, customer response, financial performance and execution over time; the leaders’ interviews alone do not establish those outcomes.
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Sources and interview perspectives
- CNA Luxury: “Breitling CEO on building a cool, sporty chic watch brand” (July 20, 2024).
- Watchype Magazine: “CEO Interview: A. Lange & Söhne” (November 19, 2023).
- Hodinkee: “Interview: Audemars Piguet CEO Ilaria Resta…” (interview covering long-term planning and capability investment).
- Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie event report (figures attributed there to Deloitte’s 2025 Swiss Watch Industry Study).
- WatchPro USA: “The Big Interview: TAG Heuer CEO Antoine Pin” (January 7, 2026).
- Wallpaper*: “Jean-Christophe Babin on the future of watchmaking” (interview covering storytelling, design and brand reputation).
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