The new Piaget: icons, fine jewelry and rising prices

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Piaget, the jewelry and watch brand owned by Richemont, has no new line this year. Instead, at the prestigious Watches & Wonder show, which opens today in Geneva, the brand is offering a new Limelight Gala Tsavorite watch from an existing collection, in 18k white gold with diamonds, priced at 141 €000; alongside new timepieces in the historic Polo and Possession collections.

“This is a year of consolidation of our existing offerings,” says Benjamin Comar, CEO of Piaget. Fashionable business. The industry veteran joined the Richemont-owned brand in June last year after serving as head of product marketing at Cartier, head of Chanel’s watch and jewelry division and most recently as CEO of the jewelry brand Repossi, owned by LVMH.

Its strategy, in an industry dominated by the big-budget, glossy marketing campaigns of Tiffany and Cartier, which use high-profile house ambassadors to promote heritage products, is to also focus on iconic lines of the brand, promote its fine jewelry range to elevate the brand, and continue to drive direct-to-consumer distribution while building on its 148-year heritage. Price increases are also expected for the month of May, of 5% on average, reflecting a rise in commodity prices and an upmarket strategy. Analysts believe the brand still has some way to go to reach its rivals, with Morgan Stanley estimating annual sales for the financial year ending March 31, 2022 at 480 million Swiss francs (467 million euros). Cartier, which mixes watches and jewelry, achieved annual sales of 8.5 billion Swiss francs (8.2 billion euros) in the 2021 calendar, according to Morgan Stanley estimates. The group does not break down the sales of the individual brands of the Maisons de Joaillerie division or the Specialized Watchmakers division. But there are market shares to take, especially given a dynamic jewelry market driven by young buyers.