Swiss luxury watchmaker Rolex has hired Alexander Troller as its first general counsel in the company’s almost 120-year history.

Troller joins from Swiss dispute resolution specialist LALIVE, where he was a partner covering a range of civil, commercial and criminal matters. Troller brings decades of litigation experience advising on international and domestic law, with a focus on asset recovery, commercial transactions, disputes, estates, insolvency, white collar crime and employment across sectors including finance, natural resources and infrastructure.

He will start his new role at the Swiss watchmaker in January, based in Geneva.

Rolex makes high-end wristwatches, with a new Rolex Deepsea model retailing from around £14,000.

Domitille Baizeau, LALIVE’s managing partner, said: “This newly created, highly prestigious position is testament to Alexander’s great talent. His contribution to LALIVE is immeasurable, both as a managing partner for over 10 years and as a leading practitioner. He leaves one of the largest and strongest litigation teams in Switzerland. Alexander will always remain a close friend of the firm, and we wish him all the very best at Rolex.”

Troller spent more than 27 years at LALIVE, joining back in 1997 from BNP Paribas where he was a legal structuring officer. He was also previously a legal counsel at legacy Swiss fragrance business Firmenich, having started his career as a junior associate at BNP Paribas during a first spell with the French bank.

Earlier this year, Rolex was fined €91m by the French Competition Authority for the watchmaker’s selective distribution agreement that the authority said restricts competition.

In other recent luxury moves, US luxury cosmetics group The Estée Lauder Companies in August hired Rashida La Lande as GC from US food giant Kraft Heinz, replacing Deirdre Stanley, who left earlier in the year. And in February, luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group confirmed interim chief legal officer Tom Mattei as its permanent legal chief following the departure of Hannah Kim to Circana.

Meantime, in other in-house watchmaker moves, in April Swiss smartwatch-maker Garmin named its first GC in more than 25 years with the promotion of associate GC Josh Maxfield, replacing outgoing GC Andrew Etkind.