Watches
Audemars Piguet Sees Controversial New Watch Spurring Sales
- Watchmaker expects record year after revenue tops $1 billion
- Code 11:59 line introduced simultaneously for men and women
A Code 11.59 watch on display at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva, on Jan. 15.
Photographer: Stefan Wermuth/BloombergAudemars Piguet, known for its chunky Royal Oak chronograph, expects a record year in 2019 after stunning the watch industry with a new line of timepieces that is polarizing critics with its more classical looks.
Sales rose 10 percent to 1.1 billion francs ($1.1 billion) last year, and the new model should expand the 144-year-old watchmaker’s clientele, Chief Executive Officer Francois-Henry Bennahmias said in an interview at a watch fair in Geneva. It’s family-owned Audemars Piguet’s biggest launch ever and its first collection with variants for men and women introduced simultaneously.