• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, April 8, 2015

While Tiffany & Co. may be a global luxury brand, these days it’s flexing its Gotham City superpowers, announcing an agreement to sponsor the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Biennial through 2021. The ever-controversial show, a collection of contemporary American art that regularly causes angst, anxiety or outrage in the art world, will make an especially big splash in 2017, the first time the exhibition is to be held in the museum’s new location in the meatpacking district, scheduled to open next month. 

The announcement follows Tiffany’s launch last week of a New York-inspired watch,  the Tiffany CT60 to honor founder Charles Lewis Tiffany, who it says invented the New York Minute. (The company put up the nine-foot Atlas clock outside its New York flagship back in 1853.)

"Tiffany, like the Whitney, was born of a spirit of  innovation and devotion to creativity, so to partner with the Museum at this exciting moment in its history, is significant for both these great New York City institutions,” says Frédéric Cumenal, Tiffany’s CEO. (The watch is Swiss, inspired by a Tiffany & Co. gold watch given to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945. See the video celebrating its New York roots here.)

But recent months haven’t been easy for Tiffany, which recently reported fourth-quarter results that were softer than expected. Between a stronger U.S. dollar and economic challenges in Europe and Japan, comparable sales results were mostly flat, and the company warned investors it is likely to see net sales fall 10% in dollars next quarter, in part because of ongoing weakness in the U.S., especially in New York.

“According to management, the Americas business is being impacted by decreased tourist spending (due to the strong dollar), particularly in the New York City flagship,” writes Ike Boruchow, an analyst who follows  the retailer for Sterne Agee, noting that some 40% of that store’s sales are typically to foreign tourists. “The segment also likely suffered from an unbalanced marketing campaign that successfully drew attention/demand to the new "T" collection, but failed to translate to sales in the rest of the store.”

Still, he says, “the Tiffany brand remains strong,” and the T Collection, which has earned the highest-ever average transaction size for a new Tiffany collection, continues to do well. But sales of silver jewelry priced at $500 and under are soft, “attributed to a lack of product newness and marketing focus, as well as macro pressures on the sub-$500 customer.”