The fourth oldest son of Bernard Arnault, a graduate of the famous École Polytechnique in Paris, he joined the TAG Heuer watch company in early 2017, where he was immediately assigned to the smartwatch segment. Today, 25-year-old Frederic Arnault is one of the top managers of the watch brand TAG Heuer, responsible for the strategy and digital development of the brand. A member of the millennial generation, he sees connected watches as a living functional product and dreams of these new models evoking the same emotions as the good old TAG Heuer watchmaking. Shortly before the premiere of TAG Heuer Connected in New York, met with the young manager at the LVMH headquarters in Paris.
- What does the TAG Heuer smartwatch business do?
- This market is still very young: the first models appeared in 2015, I did not work at TAG Heuer then. Even when I joined the company two and a half years ago, there were still a lot of doubts about their appearance and functionality. But a year later, we realized that smartwatches are a fundamental trend that provokes the latest developments, a significant increase in production and arouses great public interest. A watch like this has opened up a huge field of development opportunities for TAG Heuer.
Personally, I strongly believe in the potential of smart technology, especially in relation to the topic of sports and health. The built-in TAG Heuer Sports app supports outdoor activities such as golf, running, cycling, walking and fitness. By the way, Google Corporation, having bought Fitbit, confirmed that it is ready to invest in this segment.
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- Is there a contradiction for you between traditional watches and wearable technologies?
- Watch mechanics have always interested me. I received my first watch - the Aquaracer chronograph - as a gift from my father for my 12th birthday. Connected models are a convenient and practical tool for everyday use. This is an assistant in my work: with him I receive notifications and messages, promptly track information and short news. Plus it is a great partner in sports: smartwatches motivate me to run in the morning. I also wear mechanical models regularly: I like to test prototypes that are under development. If I had my way, I would love to wear traditional and smart watches on different hands.
- What is the fundamental difference between the connected novelties and the previous generation?
- At first, the added value was the smartwatch design. Our first models were similar to classic mechanics, and the technological filling was completely manufactured by our partners at Intel (today we are already cooperating with Qualcomm). But, starting with the TAG Heuer Connected Golf Edition, we have changed the priority towards functionality: services and software come to the fore. Customers get used to using this tool, the watch accompanies them every day, encouraging them to an active lifestyle. As a result, buyers stay with the brand - and not so much because of the design, but because of the functionality of the watch.
- But design still plays an important role?
- Of course! The watch should be ergonomic and fit comfortably on the wrist. At the same time, comfort should not affect signal reliability and measurement accuracy. GPS and Wi-Fi antennas are built into a 45 mm case made of steel or titanium, and a heart rate sensor made of high-tech rubber is integrated into the watch back. So there were plenty of technical limitations. Digital dials have become a strong design feature, which can be customized by choosing the appearance, color, font, and thus animate your copy, change its appearance over time. TAG Heuer designers worked on the development together with digital specialists.
Among the five design options are reimagined mechanical counterparts, such as the skeletonized dials of the in-house movement Heuer 02 and Carrera Heuer 01. Importantly, digital design does not copy classic mechanics: we tried to find digital codes that would create a brand identity. The Orbital display depicts a neural network model that resembles constellations in the night sky. On the Carbon nanotube screen, physical activity is displayed by color-filling the cells of the carbon structure. And these details come to light gradually, with use, but we tried to make the design as a whole as intuitive as possible.
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- What kind of dial will your personal smart watch have?
- I really like the Orbital version, especially the design of the seconds hand, which looks like an illuminated section of the dial. This is not a video animation, but an algorithm that highlights fragments in a circle. And then there's the Heuer 02, an interpretation of our classic chronograph.
- What services do you personally use?
- Mostly "running" and "golf". I don’t run every day as I would like, but I feel that the clock stimulates me to go for a run. It is difficult to combine business and professional life, sports and music lessons - I play a lot of the piano.
- Can you imagine a special TAG Heuer music app?
- I would love that. (Smiles.) But the company wants to position itself where there is a real need. Many people ask us why there is no motorcycle or motorsport app, although the TAG Heuer brand is historically associated with racing. But we feel that such a watch is not needed for auto racing, but for running or cycling, it is very suitable, and there is a steady demand for it.
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- And yet one day the connected clock will replace the mechanical one?
- Classical mechanics is our priority business, which will remain so forever, and connected watches are a living functional product that accompanies you every day. They are not mutually exclusive. These are different ways to keep track of time, different customers, different purchase motivations. And now we are trying to make sure that through a smart watch a person opens and experiences the same lively emotions as with classical mechanics, so that over time they discover some details and design elements, begin to feel some kind of attachment to the connected watch, how they usually feel about their mechanical favorites.>