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To anyone who knows how to live life to the fullest and appreciates the highest quality, the four letters LVMH have a very special ring. After all, they stand not only for the renowned luxury brands in the name – Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon and Hennessy – but for a number of other brands that make LVMH the largest luxury goods group in the world. Among other things, the company owns the rights to Hublot, TAG Heuer and Zenith, as well as many other luxury brands.
Leading Luxury Brands Under One Roof
Today's LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE looks back on a rather eventful history. It was formed in 1987 through the merger of two well-known luxury goods makers. Champagne producer Moët et Chandon, in business since 1743, which had already joined forces in 1971 with cognac producer Hennessy, likewise founded in the 18th century, and the renowned trunk and leather goods maker Louis Vuitton both feared hostile takeovers at the time, which they hoped to preempt by combining into a single, larger company. Moët Hennessy chief Alain Chevalier took the helm of the new company, while Louis Vuitton's former CEO, Henry Racamier, served as his deputy in the group's leadership.
Against the backdrop of growing disagreements between Chevalier and Racamier, Bernard Arnault – who had already acquired Christian Dior in 1985 – bought a stake in Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton shortly afterward. Arnault steadily increased his holding and, in 1989, after Chevalier and Racamier had left the group one after the other, finally took the top job himself – in the face of considerable resistance from the founding families.
Although some restructuring and repositioning was initially required in the early 1990s, under Arnault's leadership the company subsequently managed to consolidate its market position and continue expanding.
In the process, it invested heavily in retail in particular and, from the late 1990s onward, acquired further valuable brands in the luxury segment.
More Than 70 Luxury Brands in Five Business Groups
Today the portfolio comprises more than 70 different luxury brands, and the group employs around 134,000 people. Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton's activities are now divided into five business groups: Wines & Spirits, Fashion & Leather Goods, Perfumes & Cosmetics, Watches & Jewelry, and Selective Retailing. In addition to the brands already mentioned and included in the group's name, LVMH also owns the champagne houses Ruinart, Mercier, Dom Pérignon, Veuve Clicquot and Krug, the whisky brands Glenmorangie and Ardbeg, the Château d'Yquem estate in Sauternes near Bordeaux, and several wineries overseas.
In fashion and leather goods, the LVMH empire includes Loro Piana, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Fendi, Donna Karan and – since 2016 – the German luggage maker Rimowa, among others; well-known group brands in perfumes and cosmetics include Acqua di Parma, Bulgari, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Guerlain and Kenzo.
Incidentally, Château d'Yquem is by far the oldest brand in the LVMH portfolio, with wine having been successfully produced there since 1593.
Louis Vuitton, on the other hand, is considered the most valuable of the LVMH brands. For watch enthusiasts, of course, it is the LVMH watches that are of particular interest. The group's watch business was built on the 1999 acquisitions of Dior Watches, TAG Heuer and Zenith. Hublot followed in 2008.
LVMH Watches: From Renowned Classics of Watchmaking History to Extravagant Luxury Timepieces
With the brands that make up LVMH's watch division, the group covers a range within the luxury watch segment that caters to very different target audiences. Both TAG Heuer and Zenith are renowned Swiss watch manufactures that have not only contributed significantly to the worldwide reputation of Swiss watches but have also enriched the industry with major technical innovations.
TAG Heuer
In TAG Heuer's case, these included the development of the first chronograph accurate to 1/100th of a second in 1916, the first quartz chronograph with analog display, unveiled in 1983, the first mechanical movement with belt drive, linear oscillating weight and ceramic bearings in 2004, and, a year later, the first mechanical wrist chronograph accurate to 1/100th of a second – to name just a few milestones in TAG Heuer's history, which spans more than a century and a half.
Zenith
The roots of the Zenith brand likewise go back to the mid-19th century, but the company celebrated what is probably its greatest and most prestigious achievement to date in 1969: on January 10 of that year, after around two years of development, Zenith's watchmakers and engineers presented to the public and the industry the first automatic chronograph movement, which is still produced today under the name El Primero and impresses with both its build quality and its high frequency.
In 1994, the brand once again caught the watch industry's attention when it launched the Elite, a particularly thin automatic movement.
Hublot
Compared with these two companies, the youngest member of the LVMH watch family is almost a start-up, as the luxury watch manufacture Hublot was founded only in 1980. In terms of product quality and brand prestige, however, it is in no way inferior to its two older sister brands and has long since established itself among the leaders of the luxury segment. In 2015 and 2016, Hublot already ranked 40th among Switzerland's most valuable brands – even though Switzerland is home to a whole host of storied, internationally successful brands, and not only in watchmaking.
Which LVMH Watches Suit Which Buyer?
While the two older brands in LVMH's watch division offer both classic and sporty designs, Hublot focuses on extravagant and remarkably distinctive design solutions. Most Hublot watches stand out for their size and avant-garde design alone, and they usually impress further with the generous use of gold and diamonds. They are favored by buyers who love to surround themselves with luxury that is allowed to attract a little attention.
If, on the other hand, you are looking for an understated, elegant dress watch, you are more likely to find it in collections such as Zenith's Captain, Elite or Heritage, or TAG Heuer's Link. In its Carrera line, the latter brand also offers, alongside decidedly sporty models, a number of versions that pair perfectly with business attire and eveningwear. LVMH meets demand for sporty, functional dive watches primarily with TAG Heuer's Aquaracer watches, which include quartz models as well as mechanical timepieces with automatic winding.
Sporty chronographs can be found above all in Zenith's El Primero line and among TAG Heuer's Carrera, Monza and Monaco models, joined in 2017 by the revived motorsport legend Autavia. The TAG Heuer Connected shows that Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton also keeps an eye on current trends such as smartwatches: it made watch history as the first smartwatch in the luxury segment and opens up access for its maker to young, digitally minded customers who appreciate high-quality watches but are less enthusiastic about classic mechanical watches or conventional quartz models.
