PARIS – Capping the ongoing executive shuffle at its watch and jewelry brands, Richemont has revealed another series of rapid-fire appointments on Friday.
Laurent Perves had been named chief executive officer of Vacheron Constantin, while Jérôme Lambert becomes CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre once again.
Both executives will take up their positions on Jan. 1.
Perves, who is currently chief commercial officer of Vacheron Constantin, takes over from Louis Ferla, who was named CEO of Cartier in July’s raft of executive moves. Meanwhile, Lambert, currently Richemont’s chief operating officer, takes over at Jaeger-LeCoultre, succeeding Catherine Rénier, who stepped up to become CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels.
Their appointments complete a year of change, part of the succession planning in top management by chairman and founder Johann Rupert. In May, Richemont revealed that Nicolas Bos, formerly head of Van Cleef, would take over as CEO of Richemont.
Perves, a French and Swiss national, has been at Vacheron Constantin for eight years, joining in December 2016 as chief marketing officer and becoming chief commercial officer in 2021. He is credited with playing an important part in the brand’s positioning as a leader in high watchmaking and its commercial success.
He began his career at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton as change manager in its perfume and cosmetics division. After that, he spent a decade at Procter & Gamble in various roles in consumer intelligence, marketing and business development, culminating as global brand manager of Gucci Parfums.
After that, Perves served for over two years as head of brand communications at Audemars Piguet before joining Richemont.
A graduate of Paris-based ESSCA management school, Perves holds a masters degree in economics and marketing as well as masters in processes engineering and project management from Polytech Angers engineering school, and a masters in strategy and organization from Paris Dauphine university
Also a French and Swiss national, Lambert is back at the helm of Jaeger-LeCoultre, a position he previously held for over a decade.
A graduate of the ESG Management School in Paris and the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration, the 55-year-old joined Jaeger-LeCoultre in 1996 as financial controller after holding financial roles in Switzerland’s public postal and telecommunications service.
He became the watchmaker’s chief financial officer in 1999 and was its CEO from 2002 to 2013. He became CEO of Montblanc in 2013. In parallel, he also served as chairman of A. Lange & Söhne from 2009 and was the company’s CEO for two years.
In 2017, Lambert was first named the group’s head of operations, then group operations officer, before serving as the group CEO from September 2018 until Bos’ nomination in May. Lambert then took up his former position as chief operating officer in June.
Both executives are stepping in at a rocky time for luxury and watches in particular. Richemont’s specialist watchmakers underperformed in the first half, with results down 17 percent in the category as demand was dented by the slowdown in China.
At the time, the group said the decline in demand for watches “highlights the need for discipline and caution regarding overproduction, and underscores the importance of adapting to changing market conditions,” which will ultimately preserve the watch brands’ “desirability.”
