Uhrinstinkt Magazine
For three decades, she gave watchmaker Audemars Piguet the title of the only major family-owned Swiss luxury watch brand. Now the great-granddaughter of company founder Jules-Louis Audemars is vacating her position as chairman of the prestigious manufacturer’s board, to be replaced by former Tiffany boss Alessandro Bogliolo. A look into the great career of a journalist, fighter and sovereign grande dame of the Swiss watch industry.
Stepping down after 30 years at the helm
Large corporations dominate the Swiss watch industry with an overwhelming superiority. Sometimes it feels like the most powerful players – Swatch Group, Richemont and LVMH – dominate the entire industry. The face of probably the most prominent exception has been one of the most influential women in Swiss industry for 30 years: Jasmine Audemars. Her retirement as Chairman of the Board of Directors, which will officially take place on November 11, 2022, marks a turning point in the nearly 150-year history of the high-end manufacture. From the very beginning in 1875, the company was owned by the two founding families, Piguet and Audemars, who passed on their leadership roles to the next generation as a matter of course.
In 1992, Jasmine Audemars took over the board of directors from her father Jacques-Louis Audemars, who brought the independent manufacturer the greatest success in the company’s history with the bold enforcement of the Royal Oak. The “grande dame of the Swiss watch industry,” as the press dubs the now 80-year-old and places her in the ranks of industry icons such as Jean-Claude Biver and Georges Kern, quickly developed into a resolute, forward-looking boss of the great house. The difference to her predecessors: Jasmine Audemars has no descendants.
From journalist to watch icon
In return, the passionate watchmaking personality, for whom the financial health and independence of her brand has always been a matter close to her heart, looks back on an impressive career. After studying social and economic history in Geneva, which gave her a close connection with the cosmopolitan Rhone metropolis that continues to this day, she worked at the daily newspaper Journal de Genève, gaining deep insights into the world of international trade relations. Knowledge that was to prove invaluable in her later management of the Group.
Jasmine Audemars devotes almost 25 years of her life to journalism and rises to the top of her daily newspaper in the 1980s. At this point, she becomes Switzerland’s first female editor-in-chief and loves her job more than anything, despite the daily pressures and the fact that editors-in-chief don’t just have friends in the world. Making decisions, meeting exciting people, learning from daily mistakes – while her father puts the manufactory on a previously unattained track to success, Jasmine pursues her own career.
The fact that she experienced an abrupt change of scene in 1992 and took over the president’s seat from Audemars Piguet did not bother her successor. On the contrary: the then 50-year-old identifies (to this day) 100 percent with her family’s watchmaking tradition, takes over the chairmanship with the same naturalness as her predecessors and is not afraid of the new task. The first big bang came just one year after she took the helm: in 1993, the brawny Royal Oak Offshore was launched, which over the next three decades became a huge success alongside the regular Audemars Piguet Royal Oak.
Patience, discipline and responsibility
The fact that the businesswoman faces her challenges with patient composure is to pay off. In the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, the company’s healthy financial position made it possible to build a new manufactory to urgently expand capacity. And even in the second half of the 2010s, when many watch brands are struggling with falling sales, the manufacturer under Jasmine Audemars continues its success story without a break. From her journalistic work, the watch president is very familiar with international business and knows the benefits of good diversification. While other companies are expanding massively in China, the strategic leader is focusing on solid sales on all continents.
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Like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore and other timepieces from the high-end brand, Jasmine is an exciting character with rough edges. As contradictory as the balance in the watch industry between the preservation of historical values and constant further development may seem, the impressions one gains from talking to the elegantly dressed businesswoman are equally contrasting. On the one hand passionate, enthusiastic about her profession and with sparkling eyes as soon as she is asked about her journalistic time, on the other calm, observant and above all disciplined. Jasmine Audemars considers discipline a luxury and punctuality a matter of course in her line of work.
Watch personality with own convictions
A watch representative who appears unpunctual? Not conceivable for the self-confident lady. In other respects, too, the outgoing mistress of Royal Oak and Co. is a woman with clear visions, who can answer complex questions briefly and questions things instead of simply accepting them. Smartwatches, for example, are not rejected per se by the grande dame of mechanical watchmaking, but she regards them as an interesting line of business alongside traditional watches, although they do not come close to the emotional impact of a genuine automatic movement. She places particular emphasis on local responsibility, stressing that many jobs and family histories depend on the well-being of the world-famous company, especially in its hometown of Le Brassus. And on the uncompromising quality of the top brand, which is not up for discussion for Jasmine Audemars.
The successor: brief portrait of Alessandro Bogliolo
Whether her successor will lead Audemars Piguet with the same aplomb remains to be seen. In any case, Alessandro Bogliolo’s CV sounds promising: the 57-year-old Italian, who lives in New York, was CEO of Tiffany & Co. from 2017 to 2021, after 16 years as CEO of the Italian fashion brand Diesel. This followed various managerial positions at Bulgari in the U.S., Singapore and Italy. In any case, Bogliolo does not lack experience in the luxury industry to follow in the big footsteps of his predecessor.
However, the previous era of the last watchmaker owned by the founding families does not end completely. After Jasmine’s departure, there will still be a leading family member in the company, 63-year-old Olivier Audemars, who took over the post of Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors from his aunt Paulette Piguet in 1997 and is a great-grandson of the second founder of the company, Edward Auguste Piguet.
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Image sources:
Title photo:
By Rama – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1563549
Portrait Jules Audemars:
By Alexaube – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=108993844
Portrait Edward Piguet:
By Alexaube – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=108993980
