Audemars Piguet (AP) recently named Stefanie Ng to lead its operations in Southeast Asia, India and Australia. She succeeds Jonathan King, who departed the brand in April 2019.

Having started her career at Swatch Group, Ms Ng joined AP in 2012 as marketing manager for the region, where she helped execute projects like the Royal Oak 40th anniversary exhibition and a giant floral clock at Gardens by the Bay.

The past two years have been formative for the brand, both in Asia and the wider world, as it has steadily trimmed its third-party distribution while growing sales within its own stores, making the marketing efforts of Ms Ng and her team vital, particularly with the launch of the all-new Code 11.59 collection earlier this year.

As chief executive, Ms Ng will work alongside two board members of AP, which is unusual amongst Swiss watchmakers in having shareholders resident in Singapore: Oliviero Bottinelli, whose family inherited its stake from former AP chief executive Georges Golay (1921-1987), and Sunil Amarasuriya, who was once the distributor for AP in the region and acquired a minority stake in 1990.

The Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 tourbillon made for Only Watch, which sold for a record 1m Swiss francs at the charity auction in November

Though the watch industry in the region, like that back home in Switzerland, is dominated by men, it’s noteworthy that two of the most important brands – coincidentally both family owned – are now run by women.

The Patek Philippe subsidiary for SE Asia, Geneva Master Time Marketing, has been led by Deepa Chatrath since 2013. It was Ms Chatrath and her team who were largely responsible for the smash-hit Watch Art Grand Exhibition that took place in September in Singapore.