rançois-Henri Bennahmias is no stranger to shaking things up. At Audemars Piguet, he overhauled distribution by shifting from wholesale to retail, introduced the innovative AP House concept and helped propel watches into popular culture through film (Terminator, remember?), music (Jay-Z, the Montreux Jazz Festival) and even the Avengers. Throughout, he also championed a more human approach to management, notably through his “two minutes with the CEO” initiative, which saw him meet every employee three times during his tenure at the head of the venerable manufacture.

So why does he now want to go one step further and “change the luxury business model”? His answer is characteristically direct: “I think I have always had this search for balance in me, this desire to reward everyone who contributes to creating value. Visiting Brunello Cucinelli in 2017 was the final trigger. It was a revelation. The world is not perfect, but it is time to restore a sense of balance.” The tone is set.

Why does he now want to go one step further and “change the luxury business model”?

THMG’s five principles

To explain how he intends to rethink business, Bennahmias lays out five principles. “The first is that trees do not grow to the sky. Endless growth at the expense of employees’ well-being and of luxury’s very scarcity should no longer be the norm. Every company should reach a mature size and be able to say, ‘This feels right,’ while respecting both employees and customers.”

He continues: “Second, I do not want anyone to be left behind as value is created. Sharing is central to what we are trying to do.” The third principle is a firm commitment to work-life balance, based on a blunt observation: “At least 20%, and probably much more, of working time is inefficient. That is effectively one full day lost to email overload and endless meetings. It gets in the way and destroys value.” The ambition, then, appears to be a four-day working week, which could also help reduce the growing number of burnouts seen across companies.

The fourth principle is that “everyone should be able to contribute actively at their own level”. Bennahmias points to the “two minutes with the CEO” sessions he introduced at AP: “It is the best barometer of a company’s health. It gives you a much finer level of insight and lets you act very quickly and very concretely. It also builds credibility for the management team.” The fifth and final principle is to move beyond “generational conflict”. His message is simple: “Let’s learn from the new generation and build tomorrow’s world together.”

What about the environment?

Could the environment be the conspicuous absentee from these values? In a business world where success is still judged overwhelmingly by financial indicators — revenue, gross profit, EBITDA, net margin and so on — is it not time to factor environmental impact into the way performance is measured?

François-Henri Bennahmias agrees: “A lot of companies are moving in that direction through sustainability reports — Moncler, Chanel, Audemars Piguet and Kering, for example. Things are improving. Once the intention is there, implementation takes time. At THMG, the first environment is the human one. One step at a time. Without giving too much away, we are going to be highly disruptive in the way we approach distribution, and that will have a positive impact on our environmental footprint.”

“Without giving too much away, we are going to be highly disruptive in the way we approach distribution, and that will have a positive impact on our environmental footprint.”

Transparency

Another key issue is transparency, increasingly demanded by end customers — especially younger generations — and closely watched by investors. Where does THMG stand on this? And who exactly are the investors behind the group?

“I own 100% of the holding company,” François-Henri Bennahmias replies. He continues: “THMG will advise and support companies across seven divisions: Watchmaking, Jewellery, Fashion, Lifestyle, Art, Services and Talent Management. Each entity within the holding company will remain separate. We have begun raising funds for the various brands, and employees will also have the opportunity to take a stake. Once everything is finalised, barring any major surprise, the investors will mainly be private individuals.”

On the subject of transparency, Bennahmias also discusses some of THMG’s early setbacks, particularly in watchmaking, following rumours of a possible acquisition of De Bethune: “That rumour was true, but the deal did not go through. We lost almost eight months because of it, but in the end I took it as a clear sign that I needed to create my own brand from scratch — something my partners confirmed. That is how N3W5 came about.”

“That rumour [about the acquisition of De Bethune] was true, but the deal did not go through. We lost almost eight months because of it, but in the end I took it as a clear sign that I needed to create my own brand from scratch — something my partners confirmed. That is how N3W5 came about.”

How do you measure purpose?

How do you define a “caring” or responsible business today — and how do you measure it? From a financial standpoint, Bennahmias describes it as “a company that can finance itself, carries as little debt as possible, and whose profits allow it to grow”. He continues: “But how do you measure people’s happiness? Everyone has their own definition. You therefore have to accept — and even encourage — upward feedback, evaluation coming from the ground up. Then you have to find the right balance between developing, sharing and maintaining equilibrium.”

He mentions employee turnover and the use of recycled materials as concrete indicators, but for now says no more. The choice of Elvis & Kresse as the first company to join THMG’s incubator — alongside the seven divisions already mentioned — may, however, say more than it seems.

Elvis & Kresse enters the incubator

Elvis & Kresse is a British accessories company founded in 2005 that works exclusively with reclaimed waste materials. It is best known for high-end leather goods made from decommissioned fire hoses, beginning with those used by the London Fire Brigade. The company operates according to a “net positive” philosophy and donates 50% of its profits to charities and good causes — including, fittingly, the London Fire Brigade. Elvis & Kresse has also established a regenerative farm in Kent, where circularity lies at the heart of the model.

Reached by phone, co-founder Kresse Wesling explains: “What is extraordinary about our business is that we use waste. Thirty million tonnes end up in landfill every year in the UK alone. On top of that, as part of our regenerative approach, we are organised to clean more water than we use, generate more renewable energy than we consume and sequester our own carbon emissions. The fact that resources are finite means that, eventually, the playing field will shift in our favour. Industry will ultimately have to catch up.”

She adds: “Our work is an attempt to repay our debt to nature. The debt is too great ever to be fully repaid, but this is the work of our lives.” Their model goes so far that they even create art from leather offcuts supplied by Rolls-Royce or Mulberry — whose CEO, incidentally, was one of their earliest clients. It is worth remembering that art is also one of THMG’s divisions.

For François-Henri Bennahmias, “the brand has enormous potential. Their raw material costs virtually nothing and requires no extraction. Their business is still very small today, at around one million pounds in revenue, but THMG will act as an accelerator for their development. And if they want to give away 50%, or even more, of their profits, all the better. To me, this is no longer simply a luxury brand; it is an alternative with genuine meaning. It breaks with convention, and that is exactly THMG’s playing field. We have already learned a great deal from them.”

THMG’s incubator is conceived as a two-way exchange, with different visions feeding and enriching one another. Kresse Wesling confirms: “We are meeting THMG again in July and are confident they can create a huge opportunity for us to reach new clients and new talent, and in doing so increase our positive impact even further.”

Reinventing luxury

Could giving away 50% of profits therefore become an objective for THMG? Bennahmias answers without hesitation: “Absolutely.” In this emerging vision of luxury and business, he goes further: “It isn’t even really about luxury anymore. It’s about intelligence and adapting to the world we live in today. It also raises the question of knowing when enough is enough. My dream is to do what Brunello Cucinelli does and pay my employees 20% above the market average as soon as possible.”

Is this, then, the heart of THMG’s vision: for luxury to become net positive, contributing not only to the well-being of its employees but to society more broadly? His answer is unequivocal: “That is the dream. But I am a very practical person, almost a peasant in that sense. Net positive means having an impact beyond the boundaries of the company. My immediate goal is to step away from operational management as quickly as possible so that I can focus on coaching and continue exploring new alternatives. In ten or twenty years, I would like people to look back at us and say: they really did invent a new kind of business.”

“My dream is to do what Brunello Cucinelli does and pay my employees 20% above the market average as soon as possible.”

N3W5: THMG’s watchmaking venture

The group is currently developing the following brands: N3W5 for its watchmaking division, Viiala for electric bicycles within Lifestyle, Avalon for the security of watch and jewellery collections within Services, and a jewellery brand due to be announced in October. Other verticals, including Art and Talent Management, are still being developed.

The big news this summer is therefore the creation of the N3W5 watch brand. What is the concept? The name clearly evokes a compass. François-Henri Bennahmias confirms: “We are our own compass in a world that is constantly changing, and one of our objectives is to bring together talent from all over the world. But the brand’s vision goes even further. When I gave my speech after receiving the Aiguille d’Or at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2019, I paid tribute to all the suppliers working behind the scenes, without whom success would not exist. I want to celebrate that expertise. We must not forget that Swiss watchmaking has a serious problem: it is growing in value while collapsing in volume. And the more growth comes from higher average prices, the further watchmaking moves away from its industrial know-how. That is a real danger. We need volume.”

He sums up the ambition: “The objective is to create volume at our own scale: 2,000 watches in the first year across two collections, and eventually, I hope, 10,000 or 20,000 watches, with prices around CHF 20,000. The major difference with N3W5 is that THMG will give suppliers who wish to do so the opportunity to become shareholders in the brand, with complete transparency.”

For the industry, the model is highly unusual. N3W5’s first collection will be unveiled at Dubai Watch Week 2027. Distribution is expected to provide the next major break with convention. Bennahmias remains deliberately cryptic: “Brands have spent a great deal of time focusing on the outer shell. We are going to focus much more on people… and tear down the walls.”

We will have to wait until 2028 to see what THMG’s idea of a new kind of company ultimately means for watchmaking. For now, one thing is clear: Bennahmias has no intention of returning to business as usual.

“The major difference with N3W5 is that THMG will give suppliers who wish to do so the opportunity to become shareholders in the brand, with complete transparency.”