The family photo of smiling CEOs that accompanies the opening of LVMH Watch Week every year was looking like it would be an awkward affair with rumours circulating since the start of the year that TAG Heuer CEO Antoine Pin was on his way out of the business.
The group’s showcase of eight watchmakers kicks off in Milan on Monday, but Mr Pin will not be on parade.
His departure was confirmed late on Friday with a statement from LVMH saying the executive has “decided to start a new chapter in his career”.
“We thank him for his contribution and address wishes of success in his future projects,” the statement adds.
News of Mr Pin’s exit had been reported as early as January 3 by Business Montres, citing “strategic differences”, but requests by Watchpro to LVMH’s headquarters for confirmation went unanswered until today.
No replacement at TAG Heuer has been named, leaving the brand without a figurehead at the Milan showcase next week.
LVMH’s watchmaking division, home to TAG Heuer, Hublot and Zenith, has endured a chaotic seven years since Jean-Claude Biver retired from running the business in 2018.
Mr Biver was replaced by Stéphane Bianchi, who had spent the previous ten years as CEO of cosmetics giant Yves Rocher Group.
At first, Mr Bianchi also took on the top job at TAG Heuer, before the CEO role was handed to Frédéric Arnault, son of LVMH’s billionaire chief executive Bernard Arnault.
In 2024, Frédéric Arnault was promoted to head LVMH Watches, with Zenith CEO Julien Tournare moved to lead TAG Heuer.
Mr Bianchi was promoted at the same time to Group Managing Director for LVMH.
Mr Tournare’s time at TAG Heuer was brief. He was moved to Hublot in another reshuffle in 2025 that saw Frédéric Arnault leave the watchmaking division for the CEO role with Italian luxury house Loro Piana.
Antoine Pin took the reins at TAG Heuer following 23 years at LVMH, ten of them with Bulgari where he ran the watchmaking division from 2019 to 2024.
LVMH Watch Week will present new watches from eight watch brands under the group’s umbrella: TAG Heuer, Hublot, Zenith, Bulgari, LVMH, Gerald Genta, Daniel Roth and Tiffany.
LVMH, Gerald Genta and Daniel Roth are all housed in La Fabrique Du Temps, where another of Bernard Arnault’s sons, Jean, is director of watches.
The French luxury conglomerate is searching for a combination of leaders that will see its watch and jewellery business, which includes Tiffany, Bulgari and Chaumet, return to growth in sales and profits.
For the first six months of 2025, its most recently reported financial period, watch and jewellery sales declined by 1% and profit dropped by 13%
This followed a full year sales decline of 3% in 2024 and a 28% slump in profit.
LVMH does not break down sales and profits of individual brands within Watches and Jewellery, but the performance of TAG Heuer, Hublot and Zenith is reported separately to all other group brands in the UK.
The scale of the challenge is laid bare with sales down 28% last year and by 36% since peaking in 2022.
In his final interview with WatchPro as TAG Heuer CEO, Mr Pin cut a frustrated figure.
Asked whether he expected 2026 to be a little easier than 2025, he snapped: “I do not care. At some point, we have to find our own solutions. We have to inspire, we have to shock, we have to create excitement whether we are talking about watches costing CHF 2,000 or CHF 100,000. We have been driven by the market too much. We need to be the drivers.”
