Watches expert Robin Swithinbank weighs in twice a month with intelligence and insight on the age-old industry as it navigates the tension between tradition and reinvention.
For my latest briefing, I sat down with Ilaria Resta, CEO of Audemars Piguet, who discussed her strategy over over a coffee at the upscale Chedi hotel in the Swiss Alpine town of Andermatt.
It’s little more than two years since the former Procter & Gamble beauty executive took over the family-owned luxury watchmaker. In that time, the watch market has hit the buffers, while sales at AP shot up 10 percent last year, according to Resta.
The Italian executive says she didn’t expect such growth. Under her leadership, the brand has adopted a no hype approach, with gentle paeans to “savoir-faire” and…