LVMH Watches Division Acquires a Strategic Stake in Swiss Movement Maker La Joux-Perret

In a press release issued just a few hours ago, the LVMH Watches Division announced having acquired a minority stake in yet another key player in the Swiss watch industry. As a reminder, the LVMH Watches Division comprises brands Hublot, TAG Heuer and Zenith and is under the direction of Jean-Christophe Babin, also CEO of Bulgari, and has a strong presence in Switzerland where LVMH currently has 16 manufactures. As a consolidation of its industrial activities, LVMH has just announced having acquired a minority stake in Swiss movement maker La Joux-Perret, until now under full ownership of the Citizen Group. And while the reasons explained by LVMH make complete sense, it also raises some questions for the future. 

This minority stake acquired by the LVMH Watches Division is a rather surprising move at first sight, since La Joux-Perret, a recognised Swiss player in the design and production of mechanical and quartz movements, was until now under the full ownership of Japanese conglomerate Citizen Group. While not mentioning the level of capitalistic involvement from LVMH, the group now joins Citizen on the board of LJP.

Why is this stake making sense? Since 2022, TAG Heuer has been working closely with La Joux-Perret on the development of a solar quartz movement, which can be found in TAG Heuer Aquaracer and Formula 1 collections, as entry-level models. LVMH and TAG don’t have this expertise in-house (the Group mostly invested in mechanical watchmaking) and have to rely on external partners to source these solar-driven movements – it also does so for base automatic movements. As such, the minority stake in La Joux-Perret acquired by LVMH is a way to secure the production of movements for TAG Heuer. The Group also indicates that LJP will remain fully independent and that “Citizen Group, owner of La Joux-Perret as well as several watch brands, will also continue to operate the brands in its portfolio independently.”

This investment of LVMH is explained by J.C. Babin as the wish “to strengthen our ties with La Joux-Perret.” There are, however, rather interesting elements in this announcement. The LVMH Watches Division indicates that “a strategic commercial partnership has been formed to provide new production and innovation capabilities to all of the Group’s watchmaking Maisons.” Considering that brands Hublot and TAG Heuer currently rely strongly on Swiss movement maker Sellita for the production of their simpler time-and-date automatic movements (but also chronograph calibres or GMT movements), we can raise a question… Could this “strategic commercial partnership” also include the replacement at these brands of the Sellita SW200 by the La Joux-Perret G100, an automatic movement with the same dimensions as the aforementioned calibre, but also the ETA 2824?

Considering this new acquisition and the fact that the G100 calibre benefits from a longer power reserve, it could also be an option for LVMH brands such as TAG Heuer and Hublot. We’ll have to wait for future collections to be released, but it’s surely an interesting development for both La Joux-perret and LVMH. In addition, LJP also has expertise in the conception of complex movements, such as tourbillons, chronographs or even constant force devices (most of them used by Angelus and Arnold & Son, also owned by the Citizen Group). This could bring new opportunities for LVMH, whether in terms of R&D or production.