Jerome Lambert took an unlikely career step down from Richemont's CEO to leading one of its 29 brands—he said he just wanted to return to ‘the job I loved'
We've seen boomerang CEOs and bosses shift to board roles. But in Jerome Lambert's case, moving on looked more like a return to his roots as he went from leading sprawling watch major Richemont to overseeing a single brand under the Swiss company.
Lambert spent nearly six years as group CEO at the watchmaking giant until last May. He was then made group COO in June 2024 and, from January, was appointed CEO of Richemont's Jaeger-LeCoultre brand.
While examples abound of boomerang CEOs who return to the top job after departing, such as Volvo's CEO Hakan Samuelsson and UBS' Sergio Ermotti, Lambert's slide from the apex of the corporate pyramid to a lower rung in the hierarchy is uncommon.
But he says it's a job he volunteered for.
'This opportunity is both a privilege and a homecoming to the craft and heritage that have shaped my career,' Lambert said of his return when it was announced in November.
He was the financial controller and CFO at Jaeger-LeCoultre prior to his first stint as its CEO, a role he held for 11 years between 2002 and 2013. He also worked at another Richemont brand, the luxury stationery and bag maker Montblanc.
'It was a privilege to be able to ask Richemont's new CEO [Nicolas Bos] if I could come back to the job I love for a second time,' Lambert told the Financial Times in an interview published Tuesday, ahead of the annual Watches and Wonders trade show in Geneva.
To be sure, Lambert's role change came amid a broader reshuffle within Richemont's brands following the retirement of Cartier CEO Cyrille Vigneron. Louis Ferla, previously chief at Vacheron Constantin, took over Vigneron's role. Nicolas Bos, meanwhile, went from being CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels to leading Richemont.
Lambert previously had to navigate the ebbs and flows in luxury watch and jewelry demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2019, the first year he presided over Richemont, the company's sales and profit rose 27% and 20%, respectively.
That figure softened before recovering in 2021 when a shopping spree drove luxury profits to record highs. The following slowdown impacted Richemont, too, but the company has begun showing early signs of recovery thanks to strong Asia performance.
The story was slightly different over the 11 years that Lambert last led Jaeger-LeCoultre, one of Richemont's specialist watchmakers with nearly 200 years of history and 400 patents. During the 2000s the company honed its focus on affordability while respecting its nuanced horology.
Lambert took a classic watch line like Reverso, introduced in 1931, and introduced versions with innovative twists, including the display trio watch, Reverso Grande Complication à Triptyque.
While it looked like Lambert had moved on from Jaeger-LeCoultre, it's clear Richemont wants him to shepherd the brand like back in its glory days.
According to a February report by Morgan Stanley and LuxeConsult, the Jaeger-LeCoultre underperformed the Swiss watch market last year. It slipped from 10th to 14th in the list of the top 20 Swiss watch brands by sales from 2017 to 2024.
Lambert's return is set against a different backdrop than before—but in a good way, he notes.
'Being a rare, old watch is no longer sufficient to express value. Because of that, I believe we are all being pushed to new boundaries in terms of offering greater value,' he said. Lambert added that watchmaking is no longer gatekept in one or a few countries, opening up more doors than earlier.
Representatives at Richemont didn't immediately return Fortune's request for comment.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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