Luc Perramond is leaving La Montre Hermès to take over as president and chief executive officer of Ralph Lauren Watches and Jewelry, effective in February 2015.
“I am very excited by this new challenge, in particular as I will be working directly with Mr. Ralph Lauren himself, one of the great designers of our time,” Perramond said in an e-mail on Thursday, adding that he would move from the Swiss city of Neuchâtel to Geneva for the job.
Ralph Lauren Watches and Jewelry is a joint venture with Compagnie Financière Richemont, the parent of watch and jewelry brands including Cartier, Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Piaget, IWC and Van Cleef & Arpels.
The watch division at Hermès International has been under sustained pressure this year due to falling demand from Asia. As of Sept. 30, watch sales at the luxury firm were down 9.6 percent at constant exchange rate.