The veteran cosmetics executive will join the 148-year-old watch brand, which remains family-owned, in August. On Jan. 1, 2024, she will officially take on the role of CEO. That will make her one of only a handful of women who have headed major watch companies. (One other exception: Catherine Rénier, CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre.)

Resta replaces François-Henry Bennahmias, Audemars Piguet’s CEO since 2012, who announced his intention to leave last year. Bennahmias has worked at the company for nearly three decades and will remain through the end of 2023.

New chief executive Resta has more than 25 years of international experience leading divisions of big companies. She most recently served as president, global perfumery and ingredients, at Firmenich, a fragrance conglomerate. Prior to that, she spent 22 years at Procter & Gamble, where she worked on iconic products like Tide, Swiffer, Duracell, Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Ariel, and Fairy.

In a statement, Audemars Piguet chairman (and former Tiffany CEO) Alessandro Bogliolo hailed “Ilaria’s belief in the empowerment of teams and her accomplishments as an inspirational leader in corporate sustainability.”

He also thanked Bennahmias for his lengthy service, “transformational leadership,” and “commitment to stay until the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition.”

(Photo courtesy of Audemars Piguet)

When it comes to watches, you could also consider Walker an early adopter. He recalls wearing a watch even as a child, fascinated with the fake Rolex his father had brought home from a Shanghai business trip. The fakes fell away and Walker kept wearing watches, moving up in brand as his career flourished.

“I bought a watch with my first real bonus at Google,” Walker says. “It maybe wasn’t the best financial decision, but I wanted to commemorate the occasion.”

Watches grew from a hobby to a near obsession, Walker says. As someone who enjoys making things, he admired a watch’s external beauty and the impressive mechanicals on the inside.

“If you take care of it, a watch can last forever. There’s such a level of craftsmanship,” he says. “It represented the opposite of my job with screens and technology. I fell in love with how rational it was and the investment side of it. If you buy the right pieces at the right price, they go up in value. You get that joy and expression of who you are, as well.”

Six years after joining Google TV and driving the product to more than 100 million active users, Walker made the leap to cofounding Bezel in 2022. Bezel is described as a technology-first online watch marketplace with a mission to provide a trusted buying experience and best-in-class customer service.

In addition to Walker, Bezel’s executive team includes chief financial officer and chief operating officer Chase Pion and chief technology officer Darryl Johnson. The company is backed by a variety of investors, including singer John Legend, former head of Christie’s watches John Reardon, and Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, says Walker.

As CEO, Walker says he focuses on the company’s long-term vision, its product, and its brand. What he enjoys most about his role is working with experts in watches and in technology, and learning from both.

The demand for watches has grown exponentially over the past two decades, Walker says, especially with celebrities, CEOs, and the general public showing an interest in watch collecting and enjoyment. Walker says his first forays into collecting watches were challenging, given that the early online marketplace felt too archaic, complicated, and intimidating.

“As a budding new collector, learning everything from scratch was a scary process. This was one of the largest purchases of my life, and it wasn’t a comfortable space for a newcomer,” Walker says. “I looked at a company like StockX, which sells collectible sneakers with an authenticated marketplace model, and that felt like a trusted source. So I thought, why don’t we build something like that for watches?”

Bezel can be the solution to those issues, Walker says. Its strict authentication process offers transparency and trust, he says.

“We like to say we’re wildly transparent,” Walker says, from the online workflow that a customer can track to interactions on the app to customer service that lets the buyer and seller ask questions throughout the process.

Here’s how it works: After a watch is purchased on the Bezel website or app, the seller ships the watch to Bezel, which examines it and verifies its authenticity. The Bezel team includes in-house authenticators and watchmakers who have worked for Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Hodinkee and bring decades of experience in the industry, Walker says.

Bezel users can browse listings for more than $150 million worth of watches, from brands including Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, and Cartier. Prices may range from $2,500 to millions of dollars. The site also offers educational content and stories of famous watch wearers and collectors, from Cardi B to the late Princess Diana. Users can talk to Bezel’s client specialists, who help with sourcing and personal shopping.

“We are modern and technology-forward for the longtime collector, but we never forget about first-time buyers,” Walker says. “You’re buying a really beautiful, celebratory thing. It should be an experience that you feel good about and remember.”

Top: Quaid Walker left Google to start the online watch marketplace Bezel, which he says is benefiting from Gen-Z and millennial interest in watch collecting. (Photos courtesy of Bezel)

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The program will “expand with other official Rolex Jewelers in the future,” a statement said. It covers secondhand Rolex watches that are at least three years old. They will be sold with a seal attached and a Rolex-issued card that both bear the words “Certified Pre-Owned.” The watches will also carry an “international guarantee” for two years after their resale date.

Individual dealers can set their own prices for the pre-owned Rolexes, a company spokesperson confirmed. However, the authenticity of all watches will be certified by Rolex itself.

By some estimates, Rolex watches constitute about half of the growing secondhand watch market.

Outside the States, Rolex’s certified pre-owned program debuted in December at Bucherer boutiques in six countries: Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, Denmark, and the United Kingdom.

After checking some initial displays in Europe, watch website Hodinkee found certified pre-owned Rolexes selling for higher than their original manufacturer suggested retail price.

(Photo courtesy of Rolex Watch USA)

Take last fall’s Opera Godfather 50th Anniversary model, a triple-axis, flying tourbillon watch featuring a music box complication and a 49 mm case etched with 13 emblematic scenes from The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 film whose 50th anniversary the timepiece was designed to celebrate.

At the end of March, just as the high-end watch industry was arriving in Geneva for the start of the Watches and Wonders fair, Jacob & Co. upped the ante yet again with the unveiling of what it claimed to be the most expensive timepiece of watch week (a claim we can’t dispute), the $20 million Billionaire Timeless Treasure.

While the pièce unique features a skeleton tourbillon movement, its astronomical price tag isn’t related to its complexity, but rather to its brilliant and extremely sunny casing: 216.89 cts. of fancy yellow and fancy intense yellow diamonds.

“It took us three and a half years to finish this project,” Benjamin Arabov, the brand’s CEO, told JCK at the Four Seasons Hotel in Geneva, where a throng of retailers and press had gathered to witness the unveiling of the watch. “It literally has our blood, sweat, and tears on it. Yellow diamonds are a lot rarer than white. For every 10,000 white stones, there’s only one yellow. To find them is almost a mission impossible.

“If we didn’t start the piece three and a half, four years ago, we wouldn’t have done it,” he added. “Especially because of the crisis of diamonds being dried up because of the Russian war and the politics behind that.”

The brand began with 880 carats of rough yellow diamonds, which Seraina Wicht, head of gemology watch production, vetted based on only two qualities: cut and clarity (in keeping with the watch’s name, price was no object). Ten staff members were charged with searching for, sorting, and cutting the gems into Asscher and baguette cuts. An additional 15 people were responsible for crafting the watch’s yellow gold lattice structure, setting the diamonds, and encasing the movement.

Some of the largest diamonds (up to 2.5 cts.) were reserved for the case, which is set with 46 stones totaling 55.15 cts., as well as the 159 ct. bracelet, not to mention the 3.59 cts. of tsavorite garnets set on the dial. “But the gems are not placed according to their original size,” according to the press release. “Only color matters here. So several large stones have been cut with massive waste of matter.”

And has the risk paid off? While the brand remains mum about whether the watch has sold, the frenzy that surrounded the big reveal of the timepiece made the Watches and Wonders event at the Palexpo convention center seem like a meditation retreat by comparison.

As Jacob Arabo, founder of Jacob & Co. and Benjamin’s father, prepared to unveil the mega-timepiece (the case measures 52.2 mm x 43.5 mm), the crush of people holding smartphones in the air, poised to capture the exact moment he threw off the showcase covering, conveyed something essential about the brand: “People come here to see the unexpected,” Arabov said. “That’s what this event is all about.”

Top: The Billionaire Timeless Treasure, a $20 million pièce unique by Jacob & Co. (All photos courtesy of Jacob & Co.)

Cerrato formerly served as head of marketing, design, and product development for Tudor, Rolex’s sister company. At Tudor, Cerrato supervised the relaunch of the brand and the design of the venerated Black Bay watch, one of Tudor’s most popular pieces.

Cerrato previously was managing director of Montblanc’s watch division and is credited for its 1858 Geosphere watch, which became a hero product for the brand. He has also served as CEO and creative director of HYT Watches.

“We are thrilled to have recruited a world-class CEO to help support our ambitious vision for Bremont,” Bremont cofounder Nick English said in a statement. “Following the $59 million investment by Bill Ackman and Hellcat LP announced in January, Bremont is now well positioned to execute on its future plans for growth.”

Cofounder Giles English said: “Davide has amazing, complementary experience and is a great cultural fit. We are delighted to welcome him to the Bremont family.”

Cerrato noted he, too, is looking forward to pushing Bremont toward its fullest potential.

“I am incredibly excited to be joining Bremont,” Cerrato said in a statement. “I have long admired what Nick and Giles have managed to achieve in a relatively short space of time. The brand has been on an amazing journey, and I’m looking forward to working with the entire team.”

Brothers Nick and Giles English founded Bremont in 2002 with a mission of honoring British engineering, a spirit of adventure, and a focus of aviation and military might in its design. In 2021, it opened the Bremont Manufacturing and Technology Centre in Henley-on-Thames, England. Hellcat, Bremont’s lead investor, is described as an investment vehicle for individuals who have been shareholders in the watch company for more than eight years.

“Davide is a proven world-class executive who has spent his career leading successful transformations of watch brands and designing some of today’s most iconic watches,” said Ackman, who acquired a “significant minority stake” in Bremont after purchasing one of its watches and connecting with the Englishes. “I am thrilled to have him join Bremont at this pivotal moment in the company’s evolution. Davide’s passion for the industry, wealth of expertise, and great vision will help enable Bremont become a global leader in watchmaking.”

Top: Bremont announced it has hired Davide Cerrato as its new CEO, as the British brand looks to expand its presence in the luxury watch industry. (Photos courtesy of Bremont)

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Press Play

A refreshing sign that high-end watchmakers are no longer taking themselves quite so seriously is the proliferation of lighthearted, eccentric styles introduced over the past year.

Richard Mille kicked things off last September with the RM88 Automatic Tourbillon Smiley, a serious watch with a golden smiley face centrally placed on the skeletonized dial, alongside other emblems of good times, including a blossoming flower, sun rays, a pineapple, a blooming cactus, a pink flamingo, and a rainbow.

In February, Jacob & Co. took the notion of play in a much more literal direction with the introduction of the Casino Tourbillon, a $280,000 watch featuring a real spinning roulette wheel on the dial.

Rolex, however, sealed the deal in Geneva with a bevy of unexpectedly festive timepieces, from its bubbly new Oyster Perpetual watch to an off-catalogue Day-Date 36 model featuring a colorful jigsaw motif on the dial—available in 18k yellow, white, or Everose gold.

That’s not all: The watch displays an inspirational keyword in English—Happy, Eternity, Gratitude, Peace, Faith, Love, and Hope—in the arc-shape aperture at 12 o’clock (replacing the day of the week). And in the window at 3 o’clock, wearers see one of 31 exclusive emojis in place of the date. Color us impressed!

Red State

The watchmakers who showed in Geneva have something in common with their counterparts in fashion: They’re seeing red. The color appeared on dials, straps, and accent details in new introductions from Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Roger Dubuis, Oris, and even Patek Philippe, to name just a handful of brands that adorned their newest timepieces in pops of scarlet, crimson, and cherry.

Salmon Skin

Move over green. Step aside blue. The reigning dial color of 2023 is a warm shade of pink that most brands described as salmon. Seen at Bulgari, Cartier, Chopard, MB&F, and Vacheron Constantin, among others, the shade acts as a neutral counterpoint to the saturated hues that lately have dominated watch fashion.

Time on a String

A throwback to an earlier era, when women were not expected to know the time, pendant watches that doubled as elegant deco-style necklaces appeared at Bovet, Chanel, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Van Cleef & Arpels.

Skeleton Crew

Providing watch lovers with a peek inside the movement is hardly a new concept. What is new about the slew of skeletonized timepieces we saw in Geneva is the contemporary approach watchmakers are collectively taking—from displaying a movement flipped over to reveal its extraordinary complexity, as Montblanc did with its new 1858 Unveiled Secret Minerva Monopusher Chronograph Limited Edition, to encasing an open-worked movement in a case fashioned from a block of transparent sapphire crystal, as Hublot did with its Square Bang Unico Sapphire watch.

Top: Oyster Perpetual Day-Date 36 emoji puzzle watch in 36 mm 18k white gold case, price on request; Rolex

The final price of the Patek Philippe “Sky Moon Tourbillon” exceeded its original estimate of 28 million to 45 million Hong Kong dollars.

Christie’s noted that millennials represented 40% of the buyers at the auction, and seem to prefer the online channel.

In a statement, Alexandre Bigler, vice president and head of watches for Christie’s Asia-Pacific, said the results mark a strong start for 2023’s watch selling season.

“The outstanding results…demonstrate the power of Christie’s online sale platform to present exceptional lots and achieve top prices, on par with our live sales,” he said.

In addition, auction house Phillips in association with Bacs & Russo will be unveiling a Patek Philippe Reference 96 Quantieme Lune that once belonged to Aisin-Gioro Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty.

While only seven Patek Philippe Reference 96 watches of such complication were previously known, this newest watch is fresh to the market and is the eighth example to appear. The Calatrava case in platinum was crafted by famed case maker Antoine Gerlach and identified by a “Key number 4” stamp. The dial features an Arabic numeral dial paired with matching pink gold ring and Feuille hands.

The display will take place at the March 18 opening of Phillips’ new Asia headquarters in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District.

The watch and other pieces from the Last Emperor’s collection will be on view at Phillips’ Hong Kong office from March 18 to 31. This will be followed by an international tour to New York City, Singapore, London, Taipei, and Geneva. The pieces will be offered for sale at a later date.

Top photo courtesy of Christie’s

The report, “Luxury Preowned Watches, Your Time Has Come,” found that secondhand watch sales hit $22 billion in 2021, close to one-third of the $75 billion luxury watch market.

While the report didn’t provide final numbers for 2022, it estimated secondhand watch sales hit $24 billion last year, out of a total global luxury timepiece market of $79 billion.

The report comes as online secondhand sellers have taken pains to buff up their image, and the market has gained legitimacy as big names like Rolex have entered the space.

While “the secondhand watch market once evoked images of back alley deals and discounts, with dubious authenticity and a high risk of fakes and fraud,” today’s market is dominated by transparent markets and authentication services, the report said.

Watches have also become an unlikely investment vehicle.

From August 2018 to January 2023, the average price in the secondhand market for top models from the three largest brands—Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Audemars Piguet—rose at an annual rate of 20%, BCG found. That’s more than double the 8% gains investors saw from the S&P 500 index.

And while secondhand watch prices fell during 2022, stock prices did too—and in most cases, the watch market outperformed the S&P, said the report. Most collectors still believe their items will increase in value, with two-thirds of secondhand watch buyers saying an expected increase in value influenced their decision to buy.

Watches also outperformed other collectible assets like jewelry, handbags, wine, art, and furniture, it said.

The report credited e-tailers for fueling the secondhand sector, noting online sales in this segment already top sales at traditional channels like auctions and brick-and-mortar stores. It predicted that online sales will account for close to 60% of the secondhand luxury watch market by 2026.

The secondhand market tends to draw Generation X males and high-income millennials, with the latter particularly attracted by the social component.

“Many collectors exchange information over Reddit and other forums and show off their acquisitions on networks such as Instagram and TikTok,” the report said.

Image credit: Getty

Vortic, which is co-owned by R.T. Custer and Tyler Wolfe, is spilling everything in a weekly docuseries with its first chapters now available on YouTube, as well as writing a book telling the behind-the-scenes tale of how it survived the Hamilton v. Vortic lawsuit.

“It’s documenting all of the things I learned by building a watch company over the past 10 years and working through some of the most difficult conversations personally, professionally, and legally that I’ve ever had,” Custer says. “Hopefully, it inspires another generation.”

The six-year legal battle in a federal court was more than a trademark issue, Custer says. When Swatch Group went after Vortic for its use of the Hamilton pocket watch in its upcycling business, Vortic had to split its attention between starting a new business and hiring attorneys to help determine whether its use of vintage watch parts was legal.

“This is the next step,” Custer says. “There’s a lot of history and a lot of stories to tell. We know from the success of business podcasts that people love these stories and they want to know your personal experience alongside that of your company’s. People want to know who is making this stuff, not just what the product is.”

In 2015, the Swatch Group, a Swiss conglomerate that owns the U.S. brand Hamilton, filed a lawsuit accusing Fort Collins, Colo.–based Vortic of trademark infringement and counterfeiting. The case culminated in February 2020 with a bench trial in the Southern District of New York. A September 2020 ruling came down in favor of Vortic.

Swatch Group immediately appealed that judgment, Custer says. However, in September 2021, a panel of judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit affirmed the original ruling, and Vortic immediately started offering its Hamilton-branded watches again. By early 2022, Swatch Group confirmed it would not pursue the case further.

Custer says he hopes any person who is thinking of going into business for his or herself will read his story or watch the docuseries, “Upcycling the American Dream,” to get informed on what could happen if you cross swords your larger competitors.

“You don’t know what you don’t know. So many entrepreneurs and visionaries like me will go blindly into stuff,” Custer says. “I knew nothing about the law. I knew nothing about trademark law, specifically. I know a lot about it now because I got sued. These are things you don’t think about when you become an entrepreneur.”

Custer says he regularly receives emails and phone calls from people and legal experts asking about the lawsuit, and the docuseries is his first chance to tell his side and go into more detail. Custer says he will use the interviews from the Vortic docuseries to help him write a book about the case; he expects the book to come out this summer.

One detail most people don’t know about the case: how it started in the first place. The truth of the matter is Vortic received the gut-wrenching cease-and-desist letter before it even manufactured or shipped its first watch, Custer says.

“We had an ad in WatchTime magazine because we thought that is what we were supposed to do,” Custer says. “Swatch saw it and didn’t like it.”

Ultimately, Custer says he wanted to get his thoughts down about the case now that he has had some time to digest the company’s victory and before the pain of such a significant legal battle becomes too faint to recall.

“This will reveal a lot of the unknowns for people. All of the judges in this lawsuit called it an interesting case, and, trust me, you don’t want to be the defendant in an interesting case, because it’s also going to be very expensive,” Custer says.

Top: R.T. Custer and his team at Vortic are creating a docuseries and book around the Hamilton v. Vortic lawsuit in which Swatch Group sued the Colorado-based company for its use of the original pocket watch in its timepieces. (Photos courtesy of Vortic)

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The watch company has added stores in Atlanta (Lenox Square); Dallas (NorthPark Center); Costa Mesa, Calif. (South Coast Plaza); Boca Raton, Fla. (Boca Raton Town Center); Garden City, N.Y. (Roosevelt Field); and Houston (Woodlands Mall).

With these six additions, Breitling has 29 stores in the United States, and more than 250 worldwide.

The new boutiques range in size from 670 to 1,500 square feet and feature a “unique design concept” patterned after an industrial loft, Breitling said.

“As the Breitling brand continues to grow, our retail development remains a priority,” said Thierry Prissert, president of Breitling US, in a statement. “We have a robust strategy for our North American expansion.”

In December, financial news sources reported that Breitling had a new private equity owner, Partners Group Holdings, which was eyeing a public listing on the Swiss stock exchange in 2027.

Top: Breitling’s store in Dallas (Photo courtesy of Breitling)