How Audemars Piguet CEO Ilaria Resta is disrupting the luxury watch business

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Audemars Piguet, the prestigious Swiss watch brand, is tearing down the marketing walls separating men’s and women’s watches, as women become the biggest growth drivers of luxury watch sales, according to its CEO. Rather than marketing watches specifically to men or women, Audemars Piguet will no longer refer to “men’s” or “women’s” watches in its boutiques or marketing. “I’m changing the narrative and the architecture of the brand,” said Ilaria Resta, CEO of Audemars Piguet. “I stopped defining watches as a men’s watch or women’s watch. I believe it’s wrong that the company, in a way, predefined the buyer. It’s not for us to tell women, ‘This is your watch.'” The move reflects surging demand by women for high-priced, mechanical watches traditionally made for men, and the increasingly blurred product lines in luxury. It also marks a highly symbolic change for AP — part of the “Holy Trinity” of Swiss watches along with Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin — that’s likely to reverberate through an industry undergoing rapid transition. Resta, who took over AP a year ago, is one of the first female CEOs of a top Swiss watch brand. Her appointment seemed to make official the importance of women to the $100 billion-a-year luxury watch business. The women’s watch market alone is expected to reach $35 billion by 2032, up from $28 billion in 2023, according to Market Research Future. As the luxury watch business enters its third year of declines, engaging women and younger buyers will be critical to restoring growth. Resta cited studies predicting that by 2030, 45% of women will buy a mechanical watch. She said the number of women entering an Audemars Piguet store and buying a watch for themselves in the U.S. has jumped by 11% in the past two years. Of the top 50 collectors of Audemars Piguet watches in the world, several are women, Resta said. With women expected to receive nearly half of the $100 trillion Great Wealth Transfer — both as spouses and descendants — their spending power in watches is only likely to grow. Conventional wisdom in the luxury watch industry has been that women prefer more feminine versions of watches, typically smaller, more colorful, more likely to have diamonds or jewels and with fewer complications. Yet the growing trend of gender-neutral luxury, with unisex clothing, accessories, fragrances and jewelry, is also reshaping watches. “Women love diamonds — as well as men — and they love complications more and more,” Resta said. “It’s also the other way around. We launched the Flamingo, a 34mm with a pink dial, and we have many men interested too. We’re just reflecting society.” Along with eliminating gender distinctions, AP is also highlighting women in many of its events and marketing, including an event at Art Basel Miami in December with Serena Williams, Simone Biles and leading women entrepreneurs and executives. Resta’s moves carry outsized weight in the luxury world given AP’s prominence. In an industry where most watch brands are seeing declines, AP’s sales increased in 2023 to $2.7 billion, according to a report from Morgan Stanley. Audemars doesn’t disclose any financials or production numbers, but analysts estimate the company produces only 50,000 watches a year, compared with more than 1.2 million for Rolex. The limited supply means that buying an AP is a challenge, even for those who can afford the price tag of between $25,000 and well over $250,000. Audemars is also one of the few luxury watch makers that’s remained independent and family-owned since the 1800s. Most luxury watch brands have been consumed by LVMH, Richemont and the other large luxury conglomerates. Family owners often prize long-term brand reputation and craftsmanship over sales growth, meaning production typically increases only minimally from year to year. At the same time, AP has become a popular wrist-flex for top athletes, celebrities and younger collectors, lifting it to superstar status on Instagram and other social media platforms. Last month, Tom Brady’s customized Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Flying Tourbillon sold at auction for $720,000. AP’s scarcity is one reason the brand has continued to shine even as much of the industry has seen declines for over two years. Swiss watch exports fell 3% through November compared with the previous year, as China’s economic slowdown and weakness in Europe and other parts of the world has hit demand for both new and pre-owned luxury watches. Prices for pre-owned Rolexes are down about 30% from their peak, according to the Bloomberg Subdial Index. Like the broader luxury slowdown, the luxury-watch recession has created a new divide between companies that went more mass-market and are now seeing the biggest declines, and those that remained highly exclusive and are less affected. While seen as an unlikely choice to run one of the crown jewels of Swiss watchmaking, Resta is moving quickly to adapt to the more competitive landscape. One of her top goals is to drive Audemars further upmarket, focusing growth on the most complicated and expensive watches. The aim isn’t higher margins, she said, but a return to AP’s roots, with its most skilled watchmakers dreaming up ever more elaborate and innovative creations that set the brand apart from its competitors. “Our mission is really shifting from really quantity to higher end,” she said. “We will grow organically, but we will also increase the complications in our watches. We were born as a highly complicated watch, so we are going back to how we started.” Resta is also reaching out to younger and future collectors with innovation — including a new center for developing advanced materials such as forged carbon and new finishes — and with a new and as-yet-unannounced kind of retail experience. While Resta declined to offer details, she said the new stores, or pseudo-museums, would compliment the company’s AP Houses — the posh, residential-like lounges in top cities around the world that have become popular with top clients. “My passion and our belief is that we have also responsibility of divulging the culture of watchmaking and its accomplished history of serving humanity,” she said. “We’re trying with the new models of retail to open up the doors to people who cannot buy and they are simply interested in watchmaking to at least have an access to the brand.” In the end, no matter how strong or weak the luxury market, Resta says selling five- and six-figure watches is all about creating emotion. She said wealthy watch buyers need to feel a sense of belonging and connection when they buy a hyper-luxury watch. It traces back to the company’s roots in the Jura mountains, its generations of master watchmakers creating miniature wonders, and the care taken with each watch over generations, no matter the owner. “Yes, we sell time pieces that are extremely precious, extremely complex to sell. But what we really sell is an emotion, we sell interaction, we sell intimacy to our clients,” she said. “When you hear the stories of how they made that watch, how it ultimately got to your wrist, you cannot help but look at your watch as a gift of love, respect and obsession with detail, of someone who spent months or years making that watch for your wrist.”

Audemars Piguet CEO Ilaria Resta is shaking up the luxury watch business

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.

Audemars Piguet, the prestigious Swiss watch brand, is tearing down the marketing walls separating men’s and women’s watches, as women become the biggest growth drivers of luxury watch sales, according to its CEO.