François-Henri Bennahmias returns with N3W5, a new watch brand
The former Audemars Piguet chief has reportedly secured CHF 30 million from private investors, with designs due at Dubai Watch Week 2027 and sales from 2028.
François-Henri Bennahmias, the former chief executive of Audemars Piguet, is launching a luxury Swiss watch brand called N3W5, WatchPro reported this week. The venture sits within his new company, The Honourable Merchants Group, described as a platform for curated luxury products and collaborations beyond watchmaking alone, and is reported to have secured CHF 30 million from a group of undisclosed private investors. The name, pronounced 'news', is drawn from the four cardinal points.
N3W5 will open with two collections, one round-cased and one cushion-shaped, built on two new dedicated calibres, one of them protected by patents. Mechanical watches will start at CHF 20,000, with higher-end pieces reported at around CHF 60,000. Designs are due to debut at Dubai Watch Week in 2027, with sales beginning in 2028 and a target of several thousand watches a year.
The structure is as notable as the founder. Monochrome reports the brand is conceived as a collaborative hub that credits its suppliers openly, naming partners including dial makers LM Cadrans and Metalem, case and bracelet specialists Biwi and Werthanor, enameller Anita Porchet and movement makers such as Alpine Précision and TimeForge. Bennahmias, who ran Audemars Piguet as annual sales grew from about CHF 500 million to CHF 2 billion, says the aim is to focus on 'the silent expertise, the creative decisions and the people whose contributions shape exceptional objects'. It is a deliberate inversion of the logo-led model he helped perfect with the Royal Oak.
What to watch is who else backs the venture as it moves towards launch, and whether a supplier-forward brand priced from CHF 20,000 can build the waiting lists that sustain modern independent watchmakers, in a segment where established names such as Rolex and Patek Philippe absorb most spending. A CHF 30 million commitment to a 2028 sales start is also a bet that the current softness in Swiss watch demand will have cleared by then.
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