This week on The Business of Watches, we’re in La Chaux-de-Fonds to speak to Pascal Béchu, who heads not one, but two Swiss watchmaking brands, Angelus and Arnold & Son.
Pascal Béchu, the CEO of Angelus and Arnold & Son
They’re both specialized, low-production, high-horology watchmakers, with very different back stories. While Angelus is a historic Swiss brand known for its repeaters, chronographs, and long power reserve movements, Arnold & Son celebrates the work and innovation of one of history’s most important (British) watchmakers, John Arnold.
While quite different in their product and strategies, the two brands share the same parent company in Japan’s Citizen Group, and both work closely with movement maker La Joux-Perret, with whom they share manufacturing and office space in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Pascal Béchu is in charge of both marques. He talks about the history and the future for both brands, some recent successes in the form of celebrity clients for Arnold & Son, and a GPHG prize for Angelus. He also discusses prices and the impact the strong Swiss franc and the soaring price of precious metals are having on corporate strategy and planning.
And a quick bit of housekeeping, this conversation was recorded just before Watches & Wonders and the new novelties launched by both brands, including the Angelus ‘Tinkler’ quarter repeater, so these new watches are not discussed on the podcast.
But first, we round up the latest business news with the most recent financial results from Richemont that showed surprising resilience in the U.S. market and the early effects of the war in the Middle East.
There’s plenty of watch business and strategy to discuss, and we hope you enjoy the conversations. Be sure to leave any thoughts or questions in the comments section, and we’ll do our best to respond. Want to subscribe so you never miss an episode? This new show is being published to the original Hodinkee Podcasts feed, so you can subscribe wherever you find your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or TuneIn.
Show Notes
3:55 Arnold & Son
4:36 John Arnold (Fondation Haute Horlogerie)
4:55 Longitude Act 1714 (Wikipedia)
6:56 Arnold & Son Tourbillon Chronometer No. 36 (GPHG)
7:10 John Arnold and Abraham-Louis Breguet (WatchAffinityUK)
7:52 John Roger Arnold (Antiquarian Horology)
8:00 The British Masters (Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry Oct. 2000)
10:20 Angelus Watches
11:07 Angelus Heritage
12:48 Historic Swiss Brand Angelus Is Back And Presents The U10 Tourbillon Lumière (Quill & Pad)
15:10 Angelus La Fabrique
16:59 The Strange Allure Of The Monopusher Chronograph (Hodinkee)
18:32 Angelus Instrument De Vittesse (GPHG)
19:10 Angelus Télémètre Yellow Gold (GPHG)
22:09 Angelus Flying Tourbillon Titanium Blue
30:00 Angelus Tinkler (released at Watches and Wonders 2026)
30:48 Ed Sheeran Named One of Time’s Most Influential And Wears a Patek and Arnold & Son in photos (Hodinkee)
33:30 Arnold & Son Globetrotter
34:27 Arnold & Son DSTB
35:50 Arnold & Son Constant Force Tourbillon 11
43:50 The Business of Watches Podcast: La Joux-Perret CEO Jean-Claude Eggen
