Editor’s Note
This article reports on significant leadership changes within LVMH’s watch division, highlighted by the departure of Hublot’s long-serving CEO. It is based on public announcements made by the executive involved.
The news has spread like wildfire in the watch community on social media. Ricardo Guadalupe (in the photo) announced it himself with a post on his Instagram account: after 20 years working at Hublot, 12 of them as CEO, he is stepping down from the front line of the brand owned by the French luxury giant LVMH. The executive will continue as honorary president of the brand.
This was not the only change for the conglomerate’s watch division, which consists of TAG Heuer, Zenith, and Hublot. Starting in September, Julien Tornare, CEO of TAG Heuer, another group company, will be Guadalupe’s replacement. And Antoine Pin, until now Managing Director of Bvlgari Horlogerie, the watch unit of Bvlgari, will lead TAG Heuer, replacing Tornare.
This past January saw the first round of musical chairs of the year in the upper echelons of LVMH’s watch section. Frédéric Arnault, until then CEO of TAG Heuer, assumed a newly created position at the age of 29: CEO of LVMH Watches. He took on responsibility for the group’s purely watchmaking brands, reporting to Stéphane Bianchi, head of LVMH’s Watches and Jewelry division. This division contributed 10.902 billion euros to the company’s total revenue of 86.153 billion in 2023.
In addition to Frédéric, the fourth son of billionaire Bernard Arnault, owner of LVMH, Julien Tornare moved from Zenith to TAG Heuer (which he is now leaving) at the beginning of the year, and Benoît de Clerck moved from Panerai (owned by rival group Richemont) to Zenith. The only one who did not move that month was Ricardo Guadalupe.
Born in Neuchâtel, the cradle of haute horology, Guadalupe (59) joined Hublot in 2004. That year, its then-president, Jean-Claude Biver, and Guadalupe as CEO took control of the company founded in 1980. They propelled it to the top ranks in the preferences of enthusiasts worldwide. LVMH acquired it in 2008, so Ricardo Guadalupe, who had become CEO in 2012, was one of the group’s most experienced executives.
Now, an LVMH statement notes, the descendant of people from Santander (he spent summers in a Cantabrian village, hence his fluent Spanish) “wishes to step back from operational management.” Guadalupe waited for the festivities and bustle of the European Championship to end (Hublot times the matches) to announce his decision.
This was Guadalupe’s response when asked last January about potential changes at Hublot under the supervision of Frédéric Arnault.