"I'm More a Conductor": Jean-Christophe Babin's Plan for LVMH Watches

Jean-Christophe Babin has been running watch houses for LVMH since 2000: twelve years at TAG Heuer, a brand he revived, then thirteen at Bulgari, where the Octo Finissimo set a string of world records for thinness. In March 2025 the group gave him its watch division, Frédéric Arnault's old job, and on July 1 he handed Bulgari to his deputy, Laura Burdese, keeping the chairman's seat.

For the first time since 2000, Babin has no house of his own: TAG Heuer, Hublot, and Zenith keep their chief executives, who answer to him. When the pandemic canceled Baselworld and Watches & Wonders in 2020, it was Babin who pulled seven other brands into launching Geneva Watch Days, a fair that is still open to the public. He spoke with Crown & Caliber about the new job and the state of the watch industry.

Crown & Caliber: You once said that your ignorance of watchmaking is what allowed you to ask the brands you oversaw to think more progressively…

Jean-Christophe Babin: Well, I never pretended to be a watchmaker myself. I'm more a conductor and conductors might not play an instrument but they understand their different roles. That's the approach I took to Tag Heuer and more recently Bulgari - first ensuring the creativity would be consistent with the brand but at the same time be surprising. That's a paradox that's difficult to manage because if you stick to your DNA too closely you become old-fashioned and if you evolve too drastically from your DNA you lose your roots. It's a matter of intuition and your own sense of aesthetic. Being ignorant as a watchmaker but passionate as a conductor gives a certain pace to the music that makes it really emotional.

C&C: Is that the approach you're taking across LVMH Watches now, even with those brands you're not directly responsible for?

JCB: I aim to bring a new eye to the brands and try to spot those things that can quickly be improved - the quick wins - but also to push for one or two big things that will take more time but which will happen only if you score the quick wins. You need those because they build confidence that the big wins can also become a reality. Above all it's about encouraging those brands to be more ambitious.

C&C: To the wider industry: Smartwatches dominate the watch world. Where do you think that leaves appreciation for mechanical watches?

JCB: I think the perception of mechanical watches is still very high. Even the non-watch lover acknowledges that hundreds of components in a case a few millimetres thick is still something unbelievable. The question is always 'yes, but do I really need it?'. I think anyone who gets into watches is sooner or later going to buy a mechanical watch. The further question is whether that's a Swiss one - because the Chinese are crafting mechanical watches, some extremely affordable, and moving from copies to creating brands.

C&C: How can interest in mechanical watches be further encouraged?

JCB: The fact is that a lot of ladies are used to buying two or three handbags a year yet a watch is still bought maybe every 10 years if we're lucky, and sometimes it's one watch for a lifetime, or no watch at all. That's why watch fairs are going to become more important - because it's difficult for any one brand alone to attract the international collectors and media, but together they can attract far more attention. Without them the Swiss watch market would be much smaller than it is. [But] we also have to get more people to factories, to manufactures, to get close to the precision of it all. People who get close to that invariably become very respectful of it.

C&C: Is the watch industry too concentrated in big brands and iconic products?

JCB: It's clear there's a correlation in this industry between the size of the brand and the strength of the brand, and for sure that tends to be reassuring to many customers with regards to quality, but also status and culture. And of course the main reason for buying a watch isn't function. It's a symbolic accessory, especially for men and it's still a much more masculine product. The fact is that a luxury watch needs to be founded on a strong brand reputation. The strongest brands all have at least one to three icons as well, and we all know what they are. But I think the fact that Geneva Watch Days got 20,000 visitors last time shows too that collectors aren't interested only in the big brands - because they know them already and because the icons aren't changing that much, they're part of our general watch culture. They also want to see a balance of young or recently revived brands too.

C&C: Should brands drive harder on aesthetics, to offer more radical designs?

JCB: It's like in the sportscar industry - the aesthetic comes first. When you're wearing something intimate, on the body, then first it has to be to your taste - the balance, the shape - and then in addition you [take pleasure in] knowing the engine is the equivalent of a V10 or V12. The engine is mobilised for design. I think if you're a big leader in watchmaking your role is, without losing your icons, to try to aim for more radical designs - in the way Tag Heuer really did with connected watches, for example, which has left it the only luxury player in that segment. To draw a comparison, Ferrari's new electric car isn't the risk some people claim because the rest of its line-up continues in a more traditional way with a more traditional Ferrari design. They've left their tree with two roots. The watch industry can take a similar approach.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.