The Strength of Time

When you imagine the man behind Audemars Piguet, the family-owned Swiss watch brand founded in 1875 known for its extreme designs and dedication to excellence, one might visualize a sage man with a lifelong passion for watches. And though president and CEO of Audemars Piguet, North America, Inc. Francois-Henry Bennahmias is sage, a lifelong passion for fine watches he does not possess.

In fact, this Parisian’s love of watches began with Swatch. “I liked watches,” Bennahmias explains. “I started my collection of Swatch watches in 1983. It was fun. The first Swatches were coming out, and there was a market.” Which is certainly a testament to his outgoing and playful personality, an attribute that has bolstered his professional relationships. In 1996, after Bennahmias had amassed a complete collection of Swatch timepieces, he was approached by the Swiss company, which wanted to purchase his prized possessions.

Hearing Bennahmias speak, you can understand how his humbleness, both as a man and as a professional, allowed him to make such great strides to get where he is today. “My parents come from a very average family, not wealthy, not rich,” he explains. “And my mother was not a woman who used to buy a lot of things.” Nor was Bennahmias’ true passion collecting cheeky watches. He says that he “never liked school,” so much so that he never completed his formal education, choosing instead to pursue his talents in the world of professional golf. At one time ranked No. 25 on the French golf tour, today, he credits his appetite for excellence to the time spent playing professionally, during which he learned the true formula for a champion. “I wanted to become the No. 1 golfer, because I’m a very competitive person. So I trained and trained,” he explains.

Bennahmias’ dream of becoming No. 1 was abandoned, however, when a friend convinced him that fashion was the industry to conquer. With no experience in the world of style and trends, he began in the shipping and receiving department of a French distributor. With his immense hunger for success and ambition to master any task, Bennahmias was destined to climb the ranks of the fashion world. And so it wasn’t long before his ascent in the company began, and ultimately he became a sales director. Shortly thereafter, Bennahmias was vacationing in St. Barths and mingling with the who’s who of the luxury world. There he met a distributor for Breitling in the French market, a relationship that cemented his future in the watch world.

After a brief courtship of sorts, Bennahmias was asked to join this man at Baselworld, the annual luxury watch and jewelry show in Switzerland. “I said, I know nothing about watches. He said, you’ll do fine. And that’s how I started in 1994 as a sales person for the French market.” He has since worked in various management positions for such fashion brands as Giorgio Armani, Les Copains, Peter Hadley, and Vilebrequin.

Bennahmias joined Audemars Piguet in 1994. After three short years, he was promoted to lead the brand’s operations in Singapore. And, in 1996, he took on the added responsibility of the French, German, Italian, Swiss, Australian, Malaysian, and Brunei markets. Finally, in 1999, Bennahmias was promoted to his current position in the Americas, where he is responsible for overseeing all financial, operational, sales, and marketing functions for Audemars Piguet throughout North and South America, including Mexico and the Caribbean. Bennahmias has had his hands full. But it is his strong faith in the extreme value of the company’s immaculate timepieces that drives increased brand recognition and sales. In fact, under his direction, the Americas became Audemars Piguet’s leader in sales and took the No. 1 position worldwide.

But it wasn’t always smooth sailing for this French native. When Bennahmias arrived in the U.S. in 1999, he was faced with major distribution challenges. Retailers were not happy, the inventory was poor, and he was a foreigner in a new country. He was challenged with rebuilding the reputation of Audemars Piguet in his new market, and he had to act quickly and strategically. His biggest move was cleaning up the inventory, as private distributors had abused the parcels. Determined to bring the brand back to its fullest potential, Bennahmias diligently began correcting the mistakes made before him. “Again, slowly but surely, we took it back.” The new flagship store on 57th Street in New York opened in 2009, and a second flagship operates in Miami’s tony Bal Harbour Shops.

During his decade-plus-long tenure as president and CEO, Bennahmias has taken the storied Swiss watchmaker to new levels of fame and notoriety. By forming key relationships with celebrities, musicians, and sporting teams, Bennahmias catapulted Audemars Piguet into the category of the most desirable luxury products. In one of his key first moves, Bennahmias approached Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was a known collector of Audemars Piguet timepieces, to be a brand ambassador. What resulted was the Royal Oak Offshore End of Days Chronograph co-designed with Schwarzenegger in 1999. The relationship between Schwarzenegger and Audemars Piguet created such allure and awareness for the brand that it attracted other notable figures and collectors to the exquisite timepieces.

Since then, Bennahmias has launched several additional successful campaigns and lines using star power. “Jay-Z was a big move,” Bennahmias recalls. “Jay and I have been friends for many, many years, and he already had 14 or 15 of our watches. We came up with the idea to make a limited edition watch with him,” says Bennahmias. This was in 2004, when Jay-Z was planning his retirement as well as the release of his 10th album. Bennahmias realized the extreme marketing potential intrinsic in solidifying a working relationship with the music legend at this juncture. Jay-Z signed on, and what resulted was the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Jay-Z 10th anniversary line, made up of 100 watches, each engraved with a different one of Jay-Z’s top 100 songs, ranging in price from $24,000 to $100,000 each. To further authenticate this exclusive partnership, the timepiece came with a hand-printed parchment style sheet with the song’s lyrics, signed by the hip-hop mogul, and an iPod inscribed with a lyric from the song “Hovi Baby” off of Jay-Z’s album Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse. That lyric read: “I’m so far ahead of my time I’m about to start another life. Look behind you I’m about to pass you twice.”

Most recently, music mogul Quincy Jones was added to Audemars Piguet’s grand list of brand ambassadors. Other stalwart notables include former President William J. Clinton, Shaquille O’Neal, and golf great Vijay Singh, with additional representatives in the worlds of art, cricket, golf, skiing, motor sports, sailing, and technology. Moreover, Audemars Piguet is continuing its branding efforts in the world of sailing through a sponsorship of the fastest sailing vessel in the world, L’Hydroptère.

The distinction of owning an Audemars Piguet timepiece has been made more valuable through the various relationships and marketing ploys made possible by the CEO. And the executive does not take these relationships lightly. “The relationships that I have with so many people now means I can go pretty much anywhere, out of respect for what we did together. If I give them a phone call, I’m going to see these people. That’s a real big thing.” These partnerships have helped the brand climb to its current position at the top of the luxury world. Of course, it also helps that an Audemars Piguet timepiece is not attainable by your average watch connoisseur. These are more than simple means of telling time; as any avid collector will tell you, an Audemars Piguet is an investment, much like a fine work of art.

What’s most important to Bennahmias, however, is remembering where he and the company came from. “Yes, I made the money. We made the money. We did great. But I never forget where we were,” he explains, so he is driven to give back. The company created a dedicated non-profit foundation for the conservation of forests in 1992 to mark the 20th anniversary of the Royal Oak collection. What’s more, when Audemars Piguet announced its latest partnership with Quincy Jones, the company contributed $1 million to The Quincy Jones Foundation. And, to date, Audemars Piguet has raised $8 million for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s charity, After-School All-Stars.

With no plans to slow down, we can all look forward to the next phase of Audemars Piguet under the direction of this genuine genius in the world of luxury and high-end goods. And what is next? “Umm, well, this I cannot really talk about, but the game is not over yet.”