Zenith Watches Lays Off 70 Of 250 Employees

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed)
Jun 12th 2009 at 4:01PM

"Bleak times" at Zenith, LVMH frowns. First they lose some employees, then they lose their CEO Mr. Nataf, and now more employees out the door. 70 to be exactly. Recently, the people at Zenith were informed of the planned layoffs as part of a planned reorganization to assist the troubled watch maker maintain through "the crisis." Zenith of course is not alone during these difficult times where watch and jewelry sales for the entire LVMH group are down about 27% from last year. Zenith didn't provide specific figures for its own annual performance, but all evidence indicates things may be worse for them.

New CEO Jean-Frederic Dufour is expected to make some radical changes, including with the core line of watches - where Nataf's design decisions have been controversial to say the least. Zenith is a proud brand with a great history so I expect that any cleverness injected into a brand revitalization will focus on historical strength and creating a classic style focused line for next year when things should be better for the brand, and the watch market overall. The pictured watch is the Zenith Class Traveler Open El Primero Multicity Alarm.

Via WorldTempus (in French).

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com

Tags: downsizing, firings, layoffs, LVMH, watch, zenith