François-Henry Bennahmias, the former chief executive of Audemars Piguet, has joined Hublot as a consultant. In an internal memo to Hublot staff, the brand says Bennahmias “will be working with us as a consultant… giving Hublot the benefit of his strategic insight.” The pairing is an unusual one: Bennahmias spent nearly 30 years at one of watchmaking’s best-known family-owned houses, and Hublot sits in LVMH’s watch division, which is run by Jean Arnault.
François-Henry Bennahmias, Audemars Piguet's chief executive from 2012 through 2023, has joined Hublot as a consultant. An internal memo to Hublot staff says he will give the LVMH-owned brand "the benefit of his strategic insight." Julien Tornare remains Hublot's CEO, with Bennahmias advising alongside him.
Beyond that description, Hublot has not detailed the scope or length of the arrangement. Julien Tornare remains Hublot’s chief executive, and Bennahmias’ role is an advisory one, alongside him.
This month, the brand unveiled the Classic Fusion Tributo, a gold-and-rubber homage to its 1980 original. What Hublot gains, then, looks less like a new boss than a seasoned outside voice, and one with a long record of results.
Three Decades in Le Brassus
Bennahmias never planned to become a watch executive. When he sat down with Haute Time in 2014, he explained that he came from the fashion business and owed his career to a vacation in St. Barths, where he befriended a man who later took over Audemars Piguet for the French market and asked him to come aboard. “At the time I said, ‘I don’t know anything about watches.’ [But] he said, ‘You should be OK.’ That’s how I started,” he told us.
He joined Audemars Piguet in 1994 and rose from CEO of Audemars Piguet North America to general manager and, in 2012, chief executive of the whole company. Even in that 2014 conversation, he described a business transformed, one that had gone from “$80-$90 million in revenue, to making $700 million in revenue” since his arrival. By the time he handed the role to Ilaria Resta on January 1, 2024, he had quadrupled the brand’s revenue over two decades, as we noted in our look at the Audemars Piguet RD#5.
Audemars Piguet chairman Alessandro Bogliolo said at the time of Resta’s appointment that Bennahmias’ “transformational leadership has been essential in building the success story AP is today.” Bennahmias put his own philosophy more simply. In 2015, he told Haute Time that the priority was “‘fewer, bigger, and better’ – not too many models, with an aim to consolidate,” and that the brand was shifting sales from wholesale to retail “to get to know our clients better.”
He was just as blunt about the celebrity ambassadors who became part of the brand’s image. “In the end, you have to have a good product, no matter what,” he told us in 2014. “Try to put an ugly watch on a big name, and you’re going to see how long he’s going to wear it.” He didn’t sit still after leaving Le Brassus: in September 2025, he announced a new luxury venture of his own, The Honourable Merchants Group.
What It Could Mean for Hublot
Hublot is a brand built on the idea of fusion. Carlo Crocco’s 1980 original put a gold case on a black rubber strap, a look the new Classic Fusion Tributo revives almost exactly.
In recent years, Hublot has leaned just as hard on collaborations, from its new partnership with Jeff Koons, celebrated in New York in September, to the SR_A designed by Samuel Ross and limited to 200 pieces. Add the steady stream of Big Bang news, from a blue ceramic Champions League edition in August to new Big Bang styles days later, and the release calendar is a busy one.
That, in our view, is where an outside perspective like Bennahmias’ could help most. His track record pairs disciplined collections with a gift for culture, and his “fewer, bigger, and better” instinct is a natural test for any brand juggling this many launches and partners. Whether Hublot takes that advice, of course, is Hublot’s call. A consultant counsels; the brand decides.
There is a small irony, too. Asked by Haute Time in 2014 whether Audemars Piguet could stay independent as the big conglomerates grew, Bennahmias predicted that, with the founding families on the board, it would “remain independent and have a great future just the way we are.” He was right. Now its former chief is advising an LVMH house.
Then again, Bennahmias has never done anything halfway. The quote on his door, which he discussed in that same interview, came from Yoda: “Do or do not. There is no try.” Hublot is about to find out what that sounds like from the inside.
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