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Well time is money, as the old saying goes, and for luxury watchmakers, time can be a great deal of money indeed.

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Now for Tag Heuer, it means setting itself apart from the crowd.  

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The company relies on celebrity ad campaigns to woo high-end consumers.

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Now Tag's CEO Jean-Christoph Babin says it's all part of buying into a lifestyle of desires and dreams.  

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It's part of our Luxury Week series.  

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Monita Rajpal sat down with the company's boss.

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In our segment, we had really, I mean, to create desire since [for] years and years.  

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If you look at the watch industry statistics, 

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our segment has never grown more than three to four percent per year,  

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and Tag Heuer has grown above 20 percent every year, which mean[s] that we have managed as a brand because of our innovations,  

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because of our communication -- we're mentioning Brad Pitt, Tiger Woods, Uma Thurman, Maria Sharapova -- 

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to create probably more desire and dreams than many other brand[s].

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But it's also about survival, too, in a very competitive industry.  

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Granted, you have a heritage, but the reality is you have to make money.  

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Where do you see your focus or your energies being focused in this, in this day and age, in the world right now?

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Well first, geographically, you know, we are [a] global brand.  

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Worldwide in value, we are number three or number four.  

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There are no official statistics, so it's a guess, but we know we're there.  

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In most countries, in the U.S., we are number two.  

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In Japan we are number three.  

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So let's say in most countries we're on the podium, which mean[s] that we cannot overlook one region to the benefit of another.  

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We'll invest in the States, and we must invest in the States, because a luxury company cannot just stop investing in the States because it's harder.  

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I would say it's the other way around.  

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This year in the United States, in terms of media impressions, so contact with the consumer, 

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we will double our media impressions this year, 2.4 billion, against 1.2 [billion] last year.  

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So, when times are tougher, Tag Heuer is a company investing more.

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Why?

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Because we know that when time[s] are tougher, to trigger dreams, to trigger consumer interest, obviously you need to work harder.

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Why is the luxury industry important?

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You know, go to Egypt.  

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Look at the Egyptian art.  

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Or to Persia, and you will see that ever since mankind exists,  

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once you have climbed the nice little pyramid and fulfilled the basic needs for survival, human being[s] want beauty.  

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Human beings want something going beyond functionality, and this is the birth of art and this is the birth of luxury.