Audemars Piguet's Former CEO Unveils His New Independent Watch Brand

The man who turned the Royal Oak into a billion-dollar cultural juggernaut is launching a private venture built on an entirely new compass.

A Radical Pivot to the Collective

François-Henri Bennahmias is not interested in a quiet retirement. During his quarter-century at Audemars Piguet, including a decade as chief executive officer, the former professional golfer transformed a traditional Swiss manufacture into a cultural juggernaut. He pulled in over 2.3 billion Swiss francs in annual revenue by the time he exited and turned the Royal Oak into a certified pop-culture currency. After stepping down from Audemars Piguet and letting the dust settle, Bennahmias is launching his own independent luxury watch brand under his multi-industry holding company, The Honourable Merchants Group.

The new venture is called N3W5, an alphanumeric styling that translates to the four cardinal directions of North, East, West, and South, and is pronounced simply as News. Backed by roughly 30 million Swiss francs in private funding, the brand represents a deliberate pivot from the heavily corporate, hype-driven mechanics of modern luxury watchmaking. Bennahmias initially attempted to purchase established independent outfits like De Bethune, but when those negotiations fell through, he decided to build a collaborative creation hub entirely from scratch.

An Ecosystem Beyond the Brand Name

What distinguishes N3W5 from the typical luxury start-up is a core philosophy inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, specifically his reflection that what is essential is invisible to the eye. In an industry that usually buries third-party suppliers, engineers, and artisans deep within non-disclosure agreements, Bennahmias is positioning his brand as a collective ecosystem. The craftsmen and component makers will be celebrated publicly, and their names will share the stage with the product itself.

The talent pool assembled for N3W5 includes legendary master enamelist Anita Porchet, who is being granted complete creative freedom over her designs alongside an equal share of the profits. Master engravers Pierre-Alain Lozeron and Kevin Vatteau are handling the hand-work, while Yann von Kaenel oversees traditional guilloché decoration. For the structural elements, the collective draws on specialized Swiss component heavyweights, utilizing Biwi and Werthanor for cases and straps, alongside dial expertise from Metalem and LM Cadrans.

The Ten Year Roadmap

The timepieces themselves will make their formal public debut at Dubai Watch Week in late 2027, with retail deliveries commencing in 2028. The rollout strategy outlines two distinct inaugural collections. The first chapter will introduce a traditional round case design, followed in 2028 by a cushion-shaped silhouette. Both lines will be powered by new movements engineered explicitly for the brand by specialty firms Alpine Précision, Régence Production, and TimeForge. This includes a proprietary, multi-patented caliber that incorporates an advanced spatial pivot mechanism.

Bennahmias is targeting a highly competitive tier of independent haute horlogerie, with entry-level prices starting at 20,000 Swiss francs and extending up to 60,000 Swiss francs. Unlike ultra-limited independent labels that produce only a handful of pieces a year, 

N3W5 has ambitious production goals, aiming to scale up to several thousand watches annually and project a total of 10,000 watches across its first ten years. Rather than relying on traditional, high-budget marketing campaigns, the brand intends to leverage the vast network of serious collectors Bennahmias spent decades cultivating. By shifting the spotlight from corporate branding to the actual human hands shaping the metals and movements, N3W5 is betting that true connoisseurs are ready for a new compass.