Tiffany & Co. Watchmaking Division Awakens After Three Decades
Nicolas Beau, the vice-president of Tiffany Horlogerie, faces a fascinating historical challenge. As the French watchmaking expert for the iconic New York-founded jewelry brand, his mission is to bridge the gap between Tiffany & Co.'s extensive archival heritage and its contemporary timepiece ambitions. The core difficulty lies in a significant historical gap: for approximately thirty years, the watch category was not a priority for the nearly 190-year-old luxury house.
The "Best-Kept Secret" of Watchmaking
"I call it the best-kept secret question of the watch industry," Beau explains. "When you discover the archives, you realize that until the late 1970s or early 1980s, Tiffany was one of the top actors in watchmaking. Then it fell asleep for 30 years, precisely when the entire industry was booming." He notes there is no definitive explanation for why the division went virtually dark during that period, but he is now spearheading its return to prominence.
Tiffany & Co., which was acquired by the French luxury conglomerate LVMH in 2021, operates twelve stores across Canada, including locations in Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, and Montreal. "As a group, we are very sensitive to history, to heritage," Beau states. "It was, for Mr. Arnault and Anthony Ledru, a natural thing to bring back watches to where they should be."
A "Back to the Future" Approach
With nearly two decades of experience in the watch category at Chanel, Beau is deeply familiar with the luxury watch landscape. During a recent press event at the company's Landmark flagship boutique on Fifth Avenue in New York, he outlined his vision. "I call our approach Back to the Future," Beau says. "What you see here is what we believe would have been if there was not that interruption of sleeping, that 30-year hiatus. This would be the Tiffany of today. That explains the amount of energy we put into creativity and design."
He gestured toward a display of exemplary timepieces, including the Tiffany Rope, a solar-powered design, illustrating the renewed creative direction.
Reviving Historic Foundations
Founded in 1837, Tiffany & Co. released its first timepiece in 1847. By 1866, the jewelry company had launched its first timing watch, the Tiffany & Co. timer, a pocket watch that established its timekeeping division. Beau has drawn inspiration from this archival design to regenerate excitement around Tiffany watches in the modern era.
The new Tiffany Timer, unveiled during LVMH Watch Week in Milan in January, features a custom, Swiss-made El Primero 400 chronograph movement and a distinctive three-dial layout. The iconic Tiffany Blue color is prominently featured in enamel on the dial, connecting the new release directly to the brand's heritage.
This revival marks more than just a product launch; it represents a strategic re-entry into the competitive luxury watch market, leveraging Tiffany's storied past to forge a contemporary identity. The Tiffany Timer is positioned as merely the beginning of a broader initiative to restore the brand's watchmaking legacy, signaling a new chapter under LVMH's stewardship.
