4 Takeaways From LVMH Watch Week 2025

Just last week, I was fortunate enough to attend my first LVMH Watch Week. Originally slated to be held in Los Angeles, the group pivoted to New York City in wake of the devastating fires in Southern California. Even with the cross-country change of venue, the team at LVMH managed to put together an incredibly successful event, showcasing some of their novelties for the year. 

1. Commitment to Women’s Watchmaking

To me, perhaps the most important release of LVMH Watch Week 2025, wasn’t a watch release. Well, not exactly. The release of the Bulgari BVS100 Lady Solotempo automatic movement represents a step-forward for women’s watchmaking for LVMH. The movement, which comes in a very compact 19mm in diameter by 3.9mm thick, will be first introduced in nine Serpenti models, in both the Seduttori and Tubogas collections. This will mark the first time an automatic movement will be used in a Serpenti. Yes, the original Serpenti watches had manual wind movements, and we have seen recent models with manual movements, but never an automatic movement.

Why is this so monumental? With brands talking the talk about a commitment to women collectors, Bulgari is actually walking the walk. Few brands are producing smaller movements specifically for female-oriented watches. And, as both Bulgari and Zenith told me, Zenith will be producing a variation of the movement for use by LVMH brands in the future. Which brings me to my next point.

2. Collaboration 

Often in the big watch groups, the brands seem to operate independently, with almost no contact with each other. And while I understand that many of these brands have long, storied histories, and may not want to be influenced by their sister brands, I do believe that some level of collaboration can be good for the brands. And that is exactly what the LVMH Group is doing. 

As I mentioned, the Bulgari’s BVS100 Lady Solotempo automatic movement will be produced by Zenith for use by other LVMH brands. Zenith CEO Benoit de Clerck told me that they will be producing many movements for use by other LVMH brands. Indeed, Hublot already uses a modified version of the iconic El Primero movement in their Spirit of Big Bang models. And it appears this type of collaboration between LVMH brands will only increase. Zenith will continue producing movements for the other brands, using their know-how to provide the best quality movements for the group as a whole. I think using the group’s combined resources should allow for us to see new innovations. 

3. Overall Increase in Quality

Another thing I noticed about the new releases coming out of LVMH Watch Week was the increase in quality across the board. This was particularly evident to me in two brands: Hublot and Louis Vuitton. 

Hublot can be a controversial brand, often getting criticism for using off-the-shelf movements in fairly expensive watches. And while I would argue that many brands do this (and without the criticism), Hublot is actually doing a lot to answer their critics. The new sized-down, 42mm Big Bang Meca-10 watches is a great example of this. Yes, this watch has an in-house manual wind movement, with 10 day power reserve. But, unlike last year’s releases, the skeletonized movements have all been hand-finished. And, they were hand-finished without a corresponding increase in price. I really think Hublot is a brand to watch in the next 5 years. They clearly are out to prove something

And then we have Louis Vuitton. I will be the first to say that I was skeptical of their venture into high horology just a few years ago. But they have proved me wrong. After seeing the new releases, including the Tambour Taiko Spin Time collection, the Tambour Convergence and the Tambour in ceramic, I am fully on board. These watches have finishings (and movements), to compete with the best of them. Of course, they also have sky-high price-tags as well. But as a watch collector and journalist, I was impressed.

4. Introduction of Tiffany & Co. Design-First Watchmaker

My last appointment of LVMH Watch Week was with Tiffany & Co. And since I mostly cover men’s watches, maybe I wasn’t initially as excited about it as I was the rest of the event. But I have to say, I was very impressed by what Tiffany is doing. The brand is unapologetically a design-first watch manufacturer, with many (most?) of their watches being diamond adorned and housing either a quartz or off-the-shelf automatic movement. But Tiffany & Co. is a jewelry brand, and it is great seeing them add that flare to watches. 

But even with their design first ethos, one of the most impressive pieces I saw the entire LVMH Watch Week was the Bird on a Flying Tourbillon. Pairing Tiffany’s expert jewelry setting with Artime’s haute horology movements, resulted in an incredible timepiece. And showcases that Tiffany & Co. is willing to move beyond just design in the development of their timepieces.