Tick-tock: we all want a clock

Unlock Editor’s Digest for free

FT editor Roula Khalaf selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

LVMH announced the acquisition of Swiza, owner of the Swiss watch brand L’Épée 1839, at the end of June. The statement contained the usual corporate blandishments: it was a “crown jewel of fine watchmaking”, there was a “determination to preserve and develop historical savoir-faire”. What makes it unusual is that the manufacturer in question is not a watch brand, but a watchmaker. When the luxury world’s top predator takes over a watch factory, it’s clear something is up.

The watches aren’t exactly new, but the way L’Épée makes them is. Forget traditional carriage clocks, cuckoo clocks and grandfather clocks; Think instead of those shaped like revolvers, airplanes, race cars, rowboats, vintage cars, and hand grenades. L’Épée collaborates with avant-garde watchmaker MB&F on Clocks that look like giant spiders.while with Ulysse Nardin he created the buoy-shaped UFO (Unidentified Floating Object). He also does work for renowned brands beyond specialty watchmaking, including Chanel.

“We see potential in this know-how applied to different universes of our brands,” says Frédéric Arnault, who, as director of LVMH’s watch and jewelry division, was behind the acquisition. The potential he talks about can already be seen in pieces like a New York taxi in Tiffany blue and the Louis Vuitton Montgolfière Aéroa time-exclusive hot air balloon with an LV log as a basket (there is also a diamond-set limited edition version).

The interest of large luxury companies in watches goes far beyond LVMH. Some of the first signs of the 21st century luxury watch resurgence were felt around 2017. when nicolas bosthen president of Van Cleef & Arpels and now CEO of Richemont, revitalized the automaton tradition. It took seven years of collaboration with François Junod, an automaton manufacturer from the Swiss Jura, to create the first “Extraordinary Object”: la Fée Ondinea unique kinetic sculpture of a gem-set white gold fairy waking up on a billowing lily pad, quite overshadowing the clock at its base.

Over time, Fée Ondine itself was overshadowed by later masterpieces, including the Source of the Oceansshowing two gem-encrusted golden birds moving their heads, flapping their wings and walking around the edge of a pond. It won its category at the 2022 Geneva Watch Grand Prix, which was the first year to introduce a category for mechanical watches; It also announced the launch of a series of simpler, smaller but still gorgeous watches, each of which features fantastical flowers.

Under Bos’ direction, Van Cleef became known for resurrecting historic decorative techniques, creating clocks with a narrative. “What was exciting and also frustrating is that we had to do it in the size of a watch,” he says. Clocks offered a broader canvas, creating “mechanisms that don’t necessarily just tell time, but try to tell a story.” The stories have attracted “many collectors and watch lovers,” he adds. “I don’t know if they have it all, but they have already explored what can be explored with watches. Now we see that there is interest in different sizes and different stories.”

The desk clock business is really going to boom

“Storytelling” has been devalued by overuse in marketing departments, but storytelling is central to this resurgence. “The inspiration really comes from Gabrielle Chanel, her apartment, her universe,” says Chanel’s president of watches and fine jewelry, Frédéric Grangié, of a musical clock that features a quintet of dancing Stockman mannequins that move up and down. down while spinning on a carousel. to “My Woman” by Al Bowlly. The time indication may be a distant third of the music and movement, but it’s not an afterthought and is read on a scale that looks like a tape measure.

Grangié suggests that the new interest in watches could be due, among other things, “to the fact that it is becoming unsafe to walk around with large watches or jewelry. People want to be surrounded by objects they love. “The majority of our clients are women, which is why we will see these objects in dressing rooms, in bedrooms, as part of the most intimate universe in which they live.” Although it was priced at more than 2 million euros, the Chanel watch sold quickly.

“When I look at the watch business, there are actually two segments,” says Grangié. “One of them, normally in our case, will focus on very high-end, limited edition watches. The other one, which is really going to prosper, is the desk clock business.” This is good news for Jaeger-LeCoultre, whose atmospheric clockdriven by changes in atmospheric temperature, it has been produced since the 1930s. Between 2010 and 2016 he was a contemporary of Marc Newson. The designer is now working on another JLC classic: an eight-day desk clock.

Still, the term “desk clock” can be misleading, as one of the most expensive clocks of any type in recent years is a desk clock. Made by Patek Philippe, inspired by one owned by Gilded Age plutocrat James Ward Packard, it sold for 9.5 million Swiss francs (around £8.4 million) at auction in 2021. Meanwhile, Dome watches of the brand, which once went unnoticed, enriched with rare craftsmanship, are now highly sought after by collectors of the brand’s watches.

It’s not just the more established names that are entering the market. This August, vulcainrelaunched by Guillaume Laidet, it introduced a new, affordable desk clock with three quartz movements based on a historic public clock in what is now the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport. “I thought it was a cool design,” says Laidet, “and a good way to diversify the business.”

It is this prospect of diversification that makes LVMH’s acquisition of L’Épée so fascinating. Can we expect to see watches on champagne and brandy bottles, honoring Moët & Chandon and Hennessy? With Berluti shoe heels or pampered with cashmere. by Loro Piana? The possibilities are unlimited.