The president of LVMH’s watch division and CEO of TAG Heuer, Jean-Claude Biver, has spoken out on the challenge that the Swiss watch brand faces in staying at the forefront of the luxury market without losing sight of where its entry price is.
Biver described TAG as a “Swiss avant-garde luxury brand with a very competitive entry price”, but said this positioning comes with its own set of challenges.
“The entry price at TAG Heuer is £600, which is a hell of a lot of money, but there are not many luxury brands that are known all over the globe, with 150 years of history, that have that. The future of TAG Heuer is great if we keep this mentality: we must be innovative, we must be avant-garde, but we must never forget where our entry price is.”
He added: “At every segment, if we talk quartz, connected, tourbillon, high mechanical, we should always have a perceived value that is – and this is what I say to my people – two to four times above the real price. That means if we have a simple chronograph at £3,000 it must look like a £9,000 watch; and if we have a tourbillon for £12,000 it should look like a £40,000 watch.”
TAG is at Baselworld this week, where it is unveiling a string of new products, including a titanium and carbon flying tourbillion watch with a £10,275 price tag. It claims the timepiece is the only Swiss-made, COSC-certified automatic chronograph with tourbillion selling below that price.
Biver’s comments came as part of an interview with QP magazine, published on SalonQP.com from today.
