LVMH watchmaker Zenith sets sights on Chinese millennials

When Julien Tornare took over the helm at Zenith last year, the watch brand was in his view beautiful but "a bit dusty and - if I'm being extreme - almost a bit boring, missing something", he says Mr Tornare had spent 17 years at Richemont's Vacheron Constantin in various management roles and, he says, Zenith was exactly the kind of challenge that he was looking to take on next Mr Tornare set his sights on Asia and moved to Hong Kong in 2011.

"But [of late] Zenith was not well recognised except among collectors," Mr Tornare says Besides Zenith's dedicated team, LVMH has a shared research institute through which its brands - including Tag Heuer and Hublot - discuss possible "Synergies" Zenith has no plans to follow in the footsteps of its stablemates and create a connected watch.

Zenith produces about 20,000 watches a year and Mr Tornare wants the pieces to sit predominantly in the €6,000-€13,000 range, compared with the current €4,200-€10,400. . Source