Welcome to the Business of Watches, the Haudiki podcast, where horology meets high finance,

and we talk to the executives driving the industry.

This week, we're in La Chaudaigneur to speak with Pascal Béchu, who heads both the

Arnold and Son and the Angelus brands.

They're both Swiss-based assets owned by Japan's

citizen group, and they are very different brands. Angulus is a revived historic Swiss mark

known for its chronographs that won a GPHG for its chronograph telemetzsche last year.

Arnold and Son is a very different story, a revived take on

the work of John Arnold, one of the UK's most important historical watchmakers. We talked to

Bechu about how he manages both these very different brands in today's challenging market. But first, a bit of business news. We had Richemont's

full year financial results last week, and they were a mixed bag. Led by Cartier van

Van Cleef and Arpal, Richemont's jewelry division remains the main sales and profit driver for the

Swiss-based luxury conglomerate.

We also got some insight into the watch market from the company that owns Vassau-Consens,

Giger LeC, and IWC.

Middle East sales have been hit hard by the conflict in the region,

with overall sales dropping 3% in the fourth quarter

between January and March, as tourists in Dubai have abandoned the region, at least temporarily.

The U.S., though, remains defiantly strong with sales in the Americas up 17% year over year and 18% in the fourth quarter.

While the specialist watchmakers division sales fell 4% year over year, they were up 2% in the

fourth quarter at constant currencies in the company cited strong performance from Vassant,

Géégé,

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