Tiffany & Company, the jewelry house of Holly Golightly and Beyoncé alike, made its debut last month at LVMH Watch Week, the luxury group’s annual presentation of new watches, held this year in New York and Paris.
Its appearance alongside the likes of TAG Heuer, Zenith, Hublot and Bulgari was just the latest in Tiffany’s efforts to expand its profile in contemporary watchmaking since LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton bought the house for almost $16 billion in 2021.
The Watch Week debut was a “significant milestone,” Anthony Ledru, the chief executive, wrote in an email, that “not only allows us to share our rich history of inventiveness in the world of horology but also to showcase our vision for the future of Tiffany watches. At Tiffany, every watch tells a story.”
And the man behind those stories is Nicolas Beau, the vice president of Tiffany Horlogerie, the jeweler’s watchmaking arm that now employs 50 people at its Geneva headquarters. Mr. Beau joined the house in 2021 after spending nearly 20 years in watches and jewelry at Chanel and earlier stints at Cartier and Baume & Mercier, both owned by Richemont.
In a video interview from Geneva before the Watch Week presentations, Mr. Beau said that, when he was considering the move to Tiffany, he had been “extremely surprised” to learn of its long and rich watchmaking past, including the establishment of a factory in Geneva in 1874. “It had been leading the way in the late 1800s and early 1900s to a point that you’d expect from mostly Swiss, British or even French companies at that time,” he said. “That very strong heritage and past is a chance for the future.”
Five jewelry watches were introduced at the Watch Week presentations, two of which were inspired by the famous Bird on a Rock brooch first created by Jean Schlumberger in 1965. (The bird has become something of a touchstone for Tiffany recently, even appearing in festive lights on the flagship Fifth Avenue store in December.)
Jewelry watches, Mr. Beau said, are one of the three categories that now make up the horology division’s streamlined offerings. The others are a classic collection, which includes the Atlas watch line, introduced in 1983 and inspired by the New York store’s signature Atlas clock; and a playful line of table clocks called Time Objects, referencing Tiffany’s clock making heritage but in the shapes of planes, sports cars and New York’s signature yellow taxis.
As part of the change, he said, some watch models will be discontinued, including the 1940s style East West design, which has a horizontal dial, and the oval Cocktail collection.
During the interview, which has been edited and condensed, Mr. Beau talked about his strategy for Tiffany watches, where the industry is going and the differences between fathers and sons.
What does the LVMH Watch Week debut mean to you, as a watchmaker?
It’s obviously very important. The reason we haven’t been there until now is just because we were not ready. The company was acquired nearly four-and-a-half years ago and our strategy was to go back to our roots — the roots of which are in Geneva. To showcase that change, it was important to give ourselves a little time.
What is the strategy for the watch division?
Because we are a jeweler, when it comes to creation, we have a design-first philosophy. And within that philosophy, we are creating watches that are related to that history and jeweler’s DNA, and obviously incorporating some serious elements of watchmaking.
Being a jeweler is a bit different from being a pure watchmaker. It’s about always trying to find this right balance between being a jeweler and watchmaker — it’s a subtle balance.
Tiffany still is mainly known as a jeweler. What are the challenges in positioning it as a watchmaker?
The challenge is to make the public know about our rich history and heritage. Traveling in New York, I find that people know, as well as those in some key cities in the U.S. where Tiffany was so strong for so many years.
In the rest of the world, it is sometimes totally unknown for watches. We need to combine this focus on the past and build the future. The company is evolving very fast, transforming in many directions, and we are within that transformation. I like to call it “back to the future.”
What is your outlook for the watch industry right now?
When I look at the market today, I find two very interesting things. There are two types of companies which are successful — or staying pretty successful — in a time that’s not great economically.
You have very traditional watchmakers, most of which are independent. They can be big and part of a group. But they can also be very small. And there are jewelers.
When you look at the great jewelers, they all are doing pretty well today — and we are doing pretty well, too. I think there is this search for very authentic, traditional watches incarnated by those independent brands. And a search for very jewelry-related timepieces.
One of the new jewelry watches from LVMH Watch Week was the Eternity by Tiffany Wisteria, part of a collection that features diamond hour markers in different cuts, from princess to heart shape. The floral motif dial recalls the famous Wisteria lamp created by Tiffany Studios in the early 20th century. What does the design represent?
When I was talking about the connection between the art of watchmaking, the art of jewelry and Tiffany’s various histories and DNA, here you have a watch that is inspired by the Tiffany lamps and all the work on the diamonds with the 12 different cuts. And with a LTM mechanical movement.
You’ll also find the crown set with a diamond in the six-prong Tiffany Setting. This watch illustrates what I am trying to evoke.
How did you get into watches?
My father was an electrical engineer, a pure engineer, and the only thing he was interested in was technique. Ever since I was young he was always bringing me electronic watches, mostly from Japan at the time, and being so proud that they could measure temperature, the altitude, the weather. But this was not speaking to me.
Years later, when I was working in watchmaking, I bought him his first luxury watch for his birthday. It was only telling the time and had to be rewound every 24 hours. I remember his face, thinking “What is this?” He thought I was crazy.
It was more a culture shock for my father, who was so much about technology, while I was much more about art and hand craftsmanship.
That’s why I went into watchmaking actually — I’m so passionate about hand crafting, even a piece of furniture — and I think it was also about wanting to go in a different direction than your parents.
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