Europa Star Europe 6.12 Dec./January

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THE WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL WATCH MAGAZINE EUROPE

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N° 316 6 / 2012 Dec. / Jan.

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ARTS & WATCHES SIHH previews NEW SECTION: SERVICE, PLEASE!

In 1839 Vacheron Constantin created several machines, among them the famous pantograph, a mechanical device which meant that for the first time in history principal watchmaking components could be reproduced with total precision, raising the quality of its timepieces once again.

This invention carried the brand into the future and would revolutionise Swiss watchmaking.

Faithful to the history for which it is renowned, Vacheron Constantin undertakes to maintain, repair and restore all watches it has produced since its foundation: a sign of excellence and confidence which still today gives the manufacture its reputation.

Malte Small Seconds Caliber 4400 AS 18K 5N pink gold, Power reserve of approximately 65 hours, Hallmark of Geneva, Hand-wound mechanical movement, Silvered dial, sand-blasted, Applied hour-markers in 18K gold Ref. 82130/000R-9755

6 EDITORIAL europa star

Mixed signals R Pierre M. Maillard Editor-in-Chief Children are not the only ones who like to play at being scared. These days there are so many examples, in both film and literature, of post-apocalyptic tales that it seems as though everybody likes to scare themselves. You only have to listen to all the rhetoric about the Mayan calendar predicting the end of the world (scheduled, we remind you, for 21 December 2012, just as this issue is published) to see this. The end of time has, in fact, become a very lucrative market.

right. Swiss watch exports did indeed decline for this month. The fact that this decline was minimal (-1.5 per cent) doesn’t really change anything. For many observers, this first decline was indeed a sign that the downward spiral had begun. But then in October exports rebounded considerably, up 13.2 per cent to CHF 2.1 billion. This pushes the probable total for 2012 beyond the CHF 19.3 billion reached in 2011, a record year in itself.

So, we might again think that all is well in the best of watchmaking worlds.

Unfortunately, however, this is not the feeling among subcontractors, whose

The watch industry is no exception. For several months, the darkest prophecies have been mounting. Everyone— including us—was saying that China’s appetite for watches would wane drastically. With the rest of the world in intensive care, we would see what we would see. And, then bang. At the end of November, the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, basing their predictions on an expected increase in exports, announced that “2013 will be a record year”. We don’t know which way to turn.

In September, everything seemed to indicate that the prophets of doom were

order books, which logic dictates should be overflowing, are far from full. Undoubtedly, the reason for this disparity is the increase in the average sales price combined with a decline in volume. The drop in volume, at 2.7 million pieces, was 3.4 per cent in October.

But over the same period the value shot through the roof, up 17.1 per cent for watches selling for more than CHF 3,000. All together, the average unit price at export for a Swiss watch increased from CHF 590 in 2011 to CHF 680 in 2012. During the month of October, the watches that decreased most by volume (down 10.3 per cent)

were the less expensive pieces, those selling for under CHF 200.

What do we conclude from this jungle of mixed signals?

First of all, that no one is a prophet and that the worries resulting from the fears of a catastrophe, so apparently appreciated by our civilisation, are often the fruit of our own projections. We must also realise that the gradual abandon of the low and even mid-range categories by the Swiss watch industry is unavoidable. But this abandon may not be as painless as we might think. Over the medium term, we could actually

see a weakening in the Swiss industrial fabric. Worse still, these forsaken lands will not remain fallow for long.

Want an example? The (Sino-)Belgian Ice-Watch has just provocatively opened a flagship store in the heart of Geneva.

A crime of lese-majesty? We hear that the watches are flying off the shelves…

TO BREAK THE RULES, YOU MUST FIRST MASTER THEM. F O R 2 0 1 2 T H E R O YA L O A K R E I N V E N T S I T S HERITAGE AS THE ORIGINAL RULE-BREAKING HAUTE HOROLOGY SPORTS WATCH. THIS ICONIC PIECE CELEBRATES THE PURPOSEFUL ROYAL OAK STRONGBOX ARCHITECTURE, AND THE ARTISANAL FINESSE AND ELEGANCE OF THE ENGINE-TURNED “GRANDE TAPISSERIE” DIAL. THE USE OF 18 CARAT PINK GOLD CREATES A DISTINCTIVE PRESENCE, AND IS OFFSET WITH A CROWN OF DIAMONDS OF ULTIMATE PEDIGREE. EACH STONE IS INTERNALLY FLAWLESS AND PERFECTLY MATCHED, AN ALLURING MASTERY OF BOTH WATCHMAKER’S AND JEWELLER’S ART, AND SIGNATURE AUDEMARS PIGUET.

ROYAL OAK IN PINK GOLD WITH DIAMOND-SET DIAMOND SET BEZEL.

10 CONTENTS europa star

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THE WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL WATCH MAGAZINE EUROPE

N° 316 6/2012 DEC./JAN.

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SIHH Audemars Piguet: Interview with François-Henry Bennahmias Cartier’s new manufacture chronograph Piaget’s strident voice from a slender body Richard Mille’s support for road safety Roger Dubuis leads the way in self-sufficiency

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GALLERY Geneva shows previews

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SIHH (continued) Panerai’s celebration of classic yachting Baume & Mercier’s seaside odyssey continues

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GALLERY Geneva shows previews

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SIHH (continued) Ralph Lauren’s Sporting World Time in steel

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ICONIC BRANDS TO THEIR CLIENTELE ONLINE

65 66 69 71 72

DIGITAL-LUXURY.COM WORLDWATCHREPORT.COM

COVER STORY Chanel – When watchmaking and jewellery combine their effects ARTS & WATCHES Introduction: Is watchmaking an art?

The cultural track – A discussion with Franco Cologni Vacheron Constantin – Creating a dialogue between art and artisanal Handing down talent and experience – The Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative Girard-Perregaux – Paying tribute to Le Corbusier Hermès – Imaginary time Greubel Forsey – Microscopic art MB&F’s M.A.D. Gallery Cultural patronage: miraculous manna Cinema Paradiso: Watches and cinema

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CONNECTING

EDITORIAL Mixed signals

NEW SECTION: SERVICE, PLEASE! Introduction Reinventing customer service at Piaget Letter from China: Customer Care in China Opinion: Patek Philippe Letter from France: The Chinese salesgirls at Galeries Lafayette

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WORLDWATCHWEB® An updated look at the Chinese luxury watch market in 2012

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RETAILER PROFILE BTC, Egypt

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EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISERS’ INDEX

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LAKIN@LARGE The face of adversity

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PREMIERE TOURBILLON VOLANT by Chanel The 28.5mm by 37mm Première Tourbillon Volant model features a case constructed on two levels that allows for numerous possibilities of precious stone setting. The minute attention to detail paid to this piece can be seen in the delicate diamondset hands and the diamond-set cabochon of the camellia flower that rotates once every minute in the 6 o'clock position. This is mounted on a flying tourbillon powered by a manually-wound TDC10 movement with 40 hours of power reserve. The exceptional level of finishing on the movement includes hand chamfered, drawn and circular-grained components as well as Côtes de Genève decoration.

CHANEL Place Vendôme 18 75001 Paris / France Tel. +33 (0)1 40 98 50 00 www.chanel.com

Europa Star HBM SA 25 Route des Acacias P.O. Box 1355 CH-1211 Geneva 26 Switzerland Tel +41 (0)22 307 78 37 Fax +41 (0)22 300 37 48 www.europastar.com contact@europastar.com © 2012 EUROPA STAR Audited REMP / FRP 2012 The statements and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily Europa Star.

THE RALPH LAUREN STIRRUP WATCH 18K ROSE GOLD LARGE MODEL. MANUFACTURE MOVEMENT. SELF-WINDING CHRONOGRAPH. 261 COMPONENTS, 48-HOUR POWER RESERVE. SWISS MADE.

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12 COVER STORY europa star

When watchmaking and jewellery combine their effects…

CHANEL’s approach to watchmaking relies on intangible stylistic codes originally set down by Mademoiselle Chanel. They are at the heart of its profound identity involving simplicity of forms, rigour of colours, and authenticity of materials. When these pure architectural forms, these clean colours favouring black and white and these uncompromising materials combine with diamonds and precious gemstones, the exceptional results speak for themselves.

Diamonds and precious stones reinforce the architectural purity of the form, illuminate the richness of the colour, and emphasise the boldness of the material. Watchmaking and jewellery seem to come together, not in an artificial manner, but rather in a natural combination that results in one remarkable and, therefore, timeless object.

RPierre Maillard

The Première Flying Tourbillon offers a spectacular and poetic example of the precious fusion between fine watchmaking and high jewellery. The 228 diamonds (approximately 7.7 carats total weight) that are set in the 18carat white-gold case and bezel underscore, in a brilliant and vivid manner, the clean lines of the case of the Première collection, inspired, as we know, by the geometry of the Place Vendôme and the famous stopper of the CHANEL No. 5 perfume bottle.

ners have been truncated, conferring upon the piece additional dynamism and lustre. The case’s two-level architecture allows for a multitude of stone-setting variations. Thus, for example, the lower part of the case can be set with vertical, rectangular baguette diamonds along the entire edge, except in the cut-off corners that are highlighted by square-cut diamonds, while the side of the bezel can be set with round diamonds. Or, alternatively, the bezel can be set with baguette diamonds, with or without coloured stones that, by mixing their fiery brilliance, come together to create new harmonious combinations. The possible variations and combinations are endless.

On the edge of the case, a large crown is also set with baguette and round diamonds.

In this jewellery version, however, its stylised geometry is seen on two levels. The middle case is surmounted by a bezel that majestically frames the black ceramic dial. The cor-

This rigorous magic of jewellery allows the light fully to play its role in highlighting the floral sculpture that rotates on the dial. It is a flying tourbillon in the form of a camellia

T

whose interlocking petals are carved in metal, while its diamond-set heart is surrounded by a semi-transparent lacy net, giving the flower its delicate texture. This ethereal camellia makes one rotation per minute and the petals indicate the passing seconds. The hour and minute hands are placed slightly off-centre, higher on the black dial, and are also set with diamonds. This in itself represents quite a feat given the size of the diamonds and the slenderness of the gold hands.

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environmental conditions—and carbon transformed into diamond over the mists of time, produces an exceptional effect. With the J12, CHANEL’s cult timepiece (and the first to give high-tech ceramic its letters of nobility), the use of diamonds and precious stones only enhances the well-balanced architecture while accentuating its easily recognisable design.

The J12—whether simply set with diamonds on its bezel or radiant when fully paved with diamonds—clearly demonstrates the extent of the piece’s versatility. Always different, yet still the same, the new watch increases these effects due to the unchanging design of its case and bracelet that lend themselves perfectly to the new and rich unions that marry ceramic, white gold, yellow gold, round or baguette diamonds and precious coloured gemstones such as emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.

The timepiece evokes high jewellery, of course, but it also represents a wonderful example of prestige watchmaking. This poetic and mysterious camellia is a flying tourbillon whose cage—devoid of an upper bridge, but containing the regulating organ of the watch (in other words, the escapement, balance, and balance spring)—seems to twirl around weightlessly. It is a true timekeeping exploit, developed in collaboration with the Swiss constructors, engineers, and master watchmakers at Renaud & Papi (APRP), the advanced research and development unit of the Audemars Piguet manufacture.

With the Première Flying Tourbillon, CHANEL offers women a true mechanical timekeeping complication and demonstrates that the rigour of its stylistic approach also works well with the most luminous poetry.

An interplay of materials Another fascinating fusion of two materials that would, at first glance, seem unlikely is the union of high-tech ceramic and diamonds. The marriage of this high-tech composite material—which is hard, silky, and resistant to harsh

An example of this type of union is the new version of the J12 that combines 18-carat white gold, cognac (or pink) sapphires, and high-tech titanium ceramic. The unique colour and glow of this highly scratch-resistant titanium ceramic is obtained by adding titanium to the ceramic itself, which is then polished using diamond powder. The result is a special luminosity, whose soft and subtle reflections combine perfectly with the delicate radiance of the 36 cognac (or pink) baguette-cut sapphires, set all around the bezel (for a total weight of approximately 6.1 carats). On the dial, twelve diamonds mark the passage of the hours. Powered by an automatic mechanical movement, this J12 is available in cases measuring either 38 mm or 33 mm in diameter. Water-resistant to 50 metres, it has a case back and a triple fold-over clasp in titanium.

Another subtlety is the 18-carat white-gold crown that is set with a cognac (or pink) sapphire cabochon. [References: H3125 for pink sapphires and H3295 for cognac sapphires] Another jewellery version of the J12 is an 18carat white-gold model that is fully paved with

COVER STORY 13

1,018 diamonds (~ 11.9 carats). An amazing example of brilliance and sparkle, the full-diamond pavé-setting dramatically emphasises the strong and clearly defined lines of the J12’s case, bezel, dial and the links of its supple bracelet.

The black dial is surrounded by diamond pavé, while twelve black diamonds make up the hour markers. Its crown is set with 12 diamonds (~ 0.07 carat) and is surmounted with a pointed onyx cabochon.

Water-resistant to 50 metres, this supremely jewellery version of the J12 is equipped with a high-quality quartz movement and is available in the three sizes of 38, 33 and 29 mm in diameter. [Reference: H2919]

14 COVER STORY europa star

Exploring the secret of Mademoiselle Privé Inspired by the plaque that was on the door of the private workshop of Mademoiselle Chanel, “Mademoiselle Privé” is the name that CHANEL has given to a new collection of pure and essential watches that lend themselves to the creation of majestic dials evoking the highest level of creativity possible.

Highly classical, the perfectly round case of the Mademoiselle Privé is thus devoid of lugs and is mounted on an integrated strap. With its clean lines, this disc is perfect for snow setting, but it also permits a variety of other exceptional work to be carried out on the dials of this new collection.

The best example of this decorative work has been inspired directly by the famous and sumptuous Chinese Coromandel screens that still decorate the apartment of Mademoiselle Chanel. The person to whom the French house turned for the difficult task of reproducing some of these particularly refined Coromandel screens in grand feu enamel is Anita Porchet, the most reputed specialist in the field of enamelling on watches. Porchet works on a finely engraved base, which is then covered with an exceptionally deep and rich black enamel. The task requires not only a great level of artistic skill but also demands an intimate knowledge of the secrets of grand feu enamelling. This work means that she must apply one colour at a time, since each colour needs its own firing time and tempera-

ture, as the colours change during the operation. At each step, all of the hard work runs the risk of being compromised due to a mistake in the firing.

Each timepiece is thus unique, inspired by a different scene drawn from the Coromandel screens, whose name is engraved on the gold case back.

Surrounded by a case entirely set with snowset white diamonds, which gives the piece a silky look, mounted on a black Mississipiensis alligator leather strap, the dial of the Mademoiselle Privé is surmounted by two simple open-worked hands. The result is a magnificently highlighted dial that befits its status as a true work of art.

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A mind full of symbols The perfect circle of the dial of the Mademoiselle Privé lends itself to all sorts of variations in poetic and jewellery design. Constellations, comets, stars, camellias, feathers… So many motifs directly inspired by Mademoiselle Chanel’s mind full of symbols, so much savoirfaire finding a unique expression, so many different approaches to highlight the precious artistic skills involved in this collection that reveals the entire mindset of CHANEL. In this manner, La Plume pays homage to the “Bijoux de Diamants” collection of Mademoiselle Chanel, a collection born in 1932 out of a visionary look at freedom and modernity. It was in this collection that the feather motif appeared for the first time, in the form of a sumptuous brooch.

At the same time detailed, open-worked, voluptuous, and ready to fly away, La Plume offers

an infinite level of creativity, like the most daring of precious pieces. In this case, it is an enchanted feather that is designed on the black enamel dial of the Mademoiselle Privé collection. Sculpted in relief in 18-carat white gold, the feather motif is decorated with grain-set and invisible-set diamonds and pink sapphires that create a subtle gradation of colour. The pink lacquer applied to the tips of the feather underscore its delicacy. The 37.5-mm 18-carat white-gold case is covered in snow-set diamonds and pink sapphires.

Powered by an automatic mechanical winding movement with a 42-hour power reserve, the Mademoiselle Privé Plume is mounted on a black Mississippi alligator strap with a diamond-set fold-over clasp.

The favourite flower of Gabrielle Chanel, the camellia, is honoured in another creation that elegantly combines stone setting with a mother-of-pearl sculpture. Composed of a

COVER STORY 15

dozen different elements, it is a true carved mother-of-pearl flower, with hand-sculpted petals that are each a different shape.

Assembled as a very delicate inlay, these petals make up a camellia that marvellously evokes the smoothness and softness of the original flower.

This splendid camellia blooms on a black onyx dial set with seven diamond hour markers, and evokes subtle reflections that breathe life and femininity into the watch. Two floralshaped hands, entirely cut out, complete this exquisitely refined painting, a work of art enclosed by an 18-carat white-gold case set with diamonds and driven by a high-precision quartz movement. This Mademoiselle Privé is mounted on a black satin strap and a buckle set with diamonds. O For more information about Chanel click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

for the new emperors

Montres DeWitt SA - Geneva - info@dewitt.ch - www.dewitt.ch - +41 22 750 97 97

revolutionary by tradition

18 ARTS & WATCHES europa star

IS WATCHMAKING AN ART? A S P E C I A L A R T & WA T C H M A K I N G S E C T I O N

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Is watchmaking an art? Is it the 12th Art, as was ceremoniously proclaimed during the last Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix?

It all depends on the definition attributed to the word “art”, a notion that changes over time. During the Middle Ages, the seven “liberal arts” taught in the centres of higher learning were grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. Among all these disciplines, only music is considered today to be an “art”, or more precisely, a fine art, whose definition is to “to produce something for its aesthetic value”.

- Without a doubt, watchmaking is “fine”, but is it also one of the “fine arts”?

- Yes, if we accept that the result is “fine”.

- No, if we consider the conditions under which this “art” is practiced.

As Franco Cologni reminds us in an interview granted to Europa Star, the essential principle of art is the freedom of a creator. An author,

painter, sculptor, musician and dancer are, in principle, free to act or create as they wish, without being concerned with anything other than their own expression. Yet, we must qualify this definition. Not only has this freedom not always been the rule (consider, for example, the painters of the Middle Ages, whose subjects had necessarily to be religious) and still is not universal even today, but we must also not forget that art, so praised for its freedom, is itself also dependent on a market, in this case, the art market. Its freedom is a managed freedom. And if the recognition of the “market” is a long time coming, the artist, without any audience, is reduced to creating in the shadows. This freedom is even more restricted in the case of the architect, who can only create to order, and the filmmaker, who, even before creating, must convince his financial backers.

The line between what is Art and what is not (or not entirely) depends on the use that we make, or will make, of the created product. A painting, a poem and a piece of music have no other object beside themselves. They are there to be seen, felt and heard. A watch, on

the other hand, as beautiful as it may be, as close as it may be to an “objet d'art”, maintains its essential practical function, which is to tell the time. If it is sometimes “nearly” an objet d’art, it is nonetheless still a slave to the function that it was designed for. Herein lies all the difference.

Still, in a thousand different ways, watchmaking seeks to approach the status of an artistic activity. This may mean employing still more “artists”—the famous Métiers d'Art—by moving further away from the single essential feature of the watch (see, for example, the mechanical sculptures of MB&F in this issue) or by moving closer to the art market thanks to the spectacular auctions that are trying to establish veritable market values for timepieces like those for artists. In this regard, does the recent sale by Sotheby's of the Space Traveller's Watch by George Daniels, which went for more than double its highest estimate to reach the record sum of more than CHF 2 million, give the English watchmaker the status of an “artist”? In other words, does an object reach the status of art when its value is disconnected from its use? O

1st Prize in the Classic Category

Tissot Le Locle Automatic Chronometer

Classic watch with an automatic COSC certified movement, 316L stainless steel case, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal and water resistance up to 3 bar (30 m / 100 ft).

IN TOUCH WITH YOUR TIME Get in touch at www.tissot.ch The winner timepiece of the International Timing Competition, “Tissot Le Locle”, portrays the innovative and traditional values of the brand. It pays tribute to the people of Le Locle who allowed Tissot to begin their exceptional journey nearly 160 years ago, providing them with the experience and skills they have today.

This prize is therefore dedicated to all of those who contributed to the expertise that remains unique to Switzerland.

20 ARTS & WATCHES europa star

The cultural track A DISCUSSION WITH FRANCO COLOGNI ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ART AND WATCHMAKING RPierre Maillard

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“Guru of Haute Horlogerie”, “Cardinal of the Richemont Group”—the description of the role(s) played by Franco Cologni in the vast reorganisation of Swiss watchmaking are indicative of his very special place in the galaxy of personalities—or characters—that make up the watchmaking landscape. Contrary to many others, Franco Cologni does not come from the world of finance, trade or engi-

neering, the breeding grounds for watch company managers. He hails from the theatre and the university, Milan University to be precise, where, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he taught “The history of theatre and the performing arts”, covering everything from Greek tragedies to Broadway. At the same time, he was a journalist for a major daily newspaper, writing reviews for films and the theatre. At that time, there was nothing to indicate that Cologni would become the éminence grise of the world’s second largest luxury group, which he largely helped to build. As a student of the theatre, however, he learned, in his own words, that “there is no show without an

audience. And, that even if the audience is responsible for a show’s success, it can only be achieved with a team effort. And, theatre is a team effort. This is exactly what we find in the métiers d'art [artistic craft professions], which together contribute to make an exceptional object.”

We asked Franco Cologni if he believes watchmaking to be the twelfth art, as people are saying. His response was quite direct: “Watchmaking is not an art per se, but rather art that is applied to watchmaking. That is the difference. The ‘artist’ enjoys creative freedom, while the ‘designer’ works in a sort of controlled freedom, forced to respect the rules—rules of

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& WATCHES 21

“The ideal case—a magnificent history, preserved knowledge, and particular affinities with the cultural world” the product and rules of the brand. His ‘art’ is closely tied to the predetermined function of the product. He may stray from this function, but he cannot forget it.Also, a designer does not ‘sign’ his work like an artist does. A designer’s work is collective and does not belong to him.

If watchmaking is an art, you could say that it is a minor art.”

Three lives

luxury product is, by the nature of things, a cultural object. It has a tangible value and an intangible value because it is the fruit of a culture, of a particular sensibility, that has developed over time, taking on one face here, another there. It is a product constructed of cultural layers. This is its intangible value. What can best express this value if not know-how, if not the artisans who work on it, with a deep knowledge passed down over generations.”

Franco Cologni has several lives, which retrospectively shed light on his words from other perspectives. After the theatre and the university, in a booming Italian economy, he became an entrepreneur without, however, deviating from his aesthetic preoccupations. He began transforming “beautiful quality objects into luxury goods: watches, pens, leather goods, and cigarette lighters”. Thus, Cologni created John Sterling, the flattest lighter in the world on a “base”, as we would say of a movement in watchmaking, of a Dupont, Dunhill or Cartier.

When Cartier and Alain-Dominique Perrin passed into the fold of Richemont, Franco Cologni was asked to work with the brands and their respective cultural concepts. “Only with the CEOs who accepted this cultural track,” he explains quickly looking you straight in the eye with his blue “serial-killer” (as he sometimes likes to call himself) gaze and a cat’s grin. “Often the problem is not so much the brand but the person who manages it. His

“Cartier!” He succeeded in making Italy the world’s second largest market for Cartier lighters, an endeavour that did not go unnoticed by Robert Hocq and Alain-Dominique Perrin, who had just launched the famous collection of Les Must de Cartier. In 1973, Franco Cologni was invited to come aboard. We all know the rest… or do we really?

“What did I bring to the table?” he muses.

Before answering, while collecting his thoughts, he says, “I brought together luxury and culture,” then continues more specifically, “a

or her intimate understanding of the brand’s essence is central because a brand is a cultural entity, an enduring entity…”

With the brands that listen to him—or sometimes are forced to listen to him, for their own good—Franco Cologni reveals his “system”.

It basically consists of two words: long term.

“If I am a ‘guru’ of anything, it is only of the long term. This allowed me to propose to the brands long-term strategies based on luxury, and adaptable to the precise codes of each brand”. His work with Vacheron Constantin,

The cultural track

for example, represents “the ideal case—a magnificent history, preserved knowledge, and particular affinities with the cultural world”.

In the framework of this cultural strategy, Cologni returned to his first loves—writing and publishing beautiful books featuring the historic heritage of the brands. And, very importantly, he started the SIHH and founded what would become the current Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie.At the same time and what is lesser known, he also started the Creative Academy in Milan, which belongs to Richemont, and launched the “Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d'Arte” [Cologni Foundation for Artistic Craft Professions].

Towards a new Renaissance Born in 1995, the Foundation is a “non profit” organisation, and Cologni is the president. His goal is to encourage a “new Renaissance” in the métiers d'art, which he refers to as “the intelligence of the hand”. Even if it is all about

passing on and perpetuating know-how, this foundation is not at all a conservatory. Its scope is wide. To the traditional skills that we know in watchmaking, jewellery and haute couture, Cologni adds the chef, photographer, vintner, editor, typographer and the designer, among others. “The intelligence of the hand” is in perpetual evolution. It may be nourished by past practices, but it is also open to new ways, seeking to preserve its vitality while maintaining the sense of its history and the depth of its roots. The programmes are many,

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and include teaching, training, research, demonstrations, conferences, exhibitions and publications, as well as a beautiful series of basic works on these various professions (see www.fondazionecologni.it).

“Everyone is coming over to the artisanal,” he observes, happy to have been the first to realise this. He sees a turning point in society offering new economic opportunities. “The notion of artisanal, of the métiers d'art, fine workmanship and the quality of the product are returning to front and centre. In the vast game of redistribution that is globalisation, Italy—although aging and crisis ridden—has an enormous role to play in this domain where it has deep and ancient cultural roots.

Against the flow of the run-of-the-mill, we must create beautiful objects, justified by their great quality. When the painters of the 18th century came to make their ‘grand tour’ in Italy, it was as much to see the beauty of the light as it was to return with small artistic treasures in their trunks. Passing on this historic intelligence of the hand is also an economic responsibility for the future of young generations, for their employment, and for the future prosperity of a nation. In 2013, the Foundation is thus launching a major project: ‘100 apprentices for 100 master artisans’. We want to bring generations back into contact.”

Slow Food It is not surprising then that the Cologni Foundation for Artistic Craft Professions collaborates with the Italian movement called Slow Food. Far from restricting itself to be a simple reaction to Fast Food, the Slow Food movement advocates a change in civilisation, which could very well start with the stomach

and with the art of eating together. “Take the chef,” explains Cologni. “This is an artful profession that, like all the others, is a collective endeavour. Eating bread starts with the farmer, followed by the miller, then the baker and finishes with the person who puts it on the table. The same is true for wine. Food is energy for life. So, eating good, simple, local food, that is to say made with selected ingredients that come from the area, involves a chain of artistic craft professions. It is the opposite of fusion. I hate that,” he adds with a smile. “We need to have the authentic, the well-made and the real. It was Pope Paul VI who used to say that ‘beauty is the splendour of truth.’”

Still discussing our definition of what is and what is not art, we ask Cologni if the idea of aesthetics necessarily encompasses that of ethics. Isn’t the latter term included in the first? “Yes, since being truthful is being ethical. Being real is being correct. The problem is that, today, there are no ethics because there is no truth. The truth is dissolved in a multitude of subjectivities. All the aesthetics are mixed up because all the ethics are mixed up. We need to look for the splendour in the real.”

The Salière by Cellini As its symbolic emblem of promoting the “real” values of artisans in all domains, of giving rise to new vocations, of encouraging the passing on of knowledge, and the entrance of young people into the artistic professions, the Foundation chose a work of art that is at the crossroads of art and the artisanal, the Salière

by Benvenuto Cellini. A magnificent and precious object, this salt holder was created

between 1540 and 1543 by the famous sculptor and goldsmith, Benvenuto Cellini. Two symbolic figures are placed on either side of the salt and the pepper. Pepper represents the food of creativity, the piquant that stimulates the body and the mind. Salt is a useful foodstuff that flatters the aesthetic, serving as a preservative for food while also giving it taste.

“The Salière by Cellini sums up our objective,” continues Cologni. “Cellini himself was both a great artist and a ‘designer’, a goldsmith.

Not only that, but he also had a boutique and sold his pieces directly to his clients. Cellini was the beginning of what eventually became the luxury industry. Today, this industry must travel the road in the opposite direction; it must rediscover its own roots. Doesn’t this salt holder, evoking art and the artisanal, answer your question?”

Art or artisanal? Isn’t the question a little hollow, after all? As Franco Cologni reminds us, “I said at the beginning that the artist was free. This statement is not really as true as that. The freedom of an artist is also limited— in olden days, by his patrons, whether the prince or the church, today by the gallery owner and the piece’s market value. For an artisan, the limitations will be the brand for which he works and the use of his ‘work’. But in both cases, the value of an object, whether art or artisanal, will be the result of a relationship between the creator and the customer. It is the desire of the latter to obtain the piece that will determine the price. It is the client that determines the value in the marketplace.

So, from this point of view, there is no difference between art and artisanal.” QED, as we say when, after the conclusion of a demonstration, it returns to its starting point. O

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Creating a dialogue between art and artisanal

LES MASQUES

RPierre Maillard

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Born in 1755, well before the era of industrialization, in Geneva, a city well known for the excellence of its precious jewellery artisans, Vacheron Constantin is certainly well placed to talk about the Métiers d'Art so closely tied to its genetic patrimony. And, it is a patrimony that the quartz crisis of the 1980s threatened, but one that was revitalized starting in 1992 with the launch of a series of collections devoted to promoting excellence in the artisanal crafts.

Confining itself, in the beginning, to the traditional skills of enamelling and engraving, these dedicated collections later became thematic collections involving a more direct dialogue with the world of art. They are about creating a “dialogue”—the word is now out there—between art and the artisanal, between art and watchmaking.

To learn more, Europa Star met with Julien Marchenoir, who manages the marketing, communication, product strategy, and the patrimony of the Geneva manufacture.

Julien Marchenoir

Mutual enrichment One of the best and most fruitful results of this dialogue between art and watchmaking is unquestionably the Les Masques collection, introduced in 2008. Too often, watch companies act as if they are incorporating art into their pieces by merely reproducing a pre-existing work of art on the dial. In Les Masques, the approach goes much farther because it touches on not only the decorative aspect, but it also requires careful reflection as much from a technical point of view as from a design standpoint.

“We often speak of the dial as the face of the watch,” explains Julien Marchenoir, “and thus we wanted in the beginning to literally base our approach on ‘faces’ that were works of art.

We then discovered the exhibition, L'Homme et ses Masques, organized by the BarbierMüller Museum, in Geneva, dedicated to the so-called ‘primitive’ and tribal arts. Impressed by the beauty and power of these masks, representing so many civilizations, we decided to engage a real dialogue between this ‘primitive’ art and the artisanal crafts that we practice today. We wanted to go beyond a mere reproduction, and create authentic objects of

art drawing from and mixing various sources.

The masks that we selected (twelve in all, spread over three years in three collections of four masks—from Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Oceania—each in a limited series of twelve watches) were meticulously and sumptuously reproduced, using noble materials, in three dimensions to be identical to the original, including the cracks and patina. They were placed at the centre of the dial. To free up this centre, we eliminated the hands and positioned the time indications in off-centred windows, thus at the same time innovating in terms of the mechanical movement. In addition, we reproduced, on the sapphire crystal dial, texts drawn from Michel Butor’s book, La Voix des Masques. Mechanical timekeeping, artisanal art, tribal art, and literature thus come together to create a unique object, one that is totally original, whose objective is to incite the most intense artistic emotion possible.”

Quality and depth of emotion The aroused emotion, or more precisely, the quality of this emotion (the word itself, tarnished, is used in all types of marketing efforts)

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is undoubtedly one of the most obvious signs that an artisanal work can achieve the status of a work of art. In this regard, the experience of the enamel expert, Anita Porchet, is particularly instructive as to the depths that this dialogue can reach.

“We are patrons of the Paris Opera since 2007,” says Julien Marchenoir, “and we wanted to meet a challenge: to recreate, in miniature painting on a miniscule dial of a few square centimetres, the 200 square metres of the Opera’s ceiling and its 180 figures painted by Marc Chagall. The ceiling was meticulously studied for a month and a half, and then Anita Porchet got to work, which lasted more than two months, working seven days a week. The enameller studied the paintings of Chagall so closely that she virtually became on intimate terms with the painter. She wanted to uncover even the particular vibration of his strokes, going so far as to discover a form of anxiety, transmitted directly by the artist’s brush. This intimate and deep understanding of the work is felt in the piece that exudes, in its own turn, an emotion that is truly artistic.”

And, the work on the case magnifies the painting on the dial by reproducing in miniature engraving the twelve different nymphs

that encircle the ceiling, and that serve as the hour markers.

MARC CHAGALL & L’OPERA DE PARIS

LA SYMBOLIQUE DES LAQUES

Cultural dialogues Another collection, La Symbolique des Laques, launched in 2010, demonstrates the fertility of a dialogue that weaves together different cultures, but with a common goal of achieving artisanal excellence. Between Switzerland and Japan, between watchmaking art and the art of lacquer, the collection reveals a beautiful coherence, a necessary condition to obtain the status of a work of art.

Using a lacquer technique that is undoubtedly the most sophisticated in the world, the ancient Maki-e in collaboration with the 350-year-old company, Zohiko,Vacheron Constantin wanted to establish a close dialogue with traditional Japanese culture. Thus, faithful to the duality that we find in Japanese cultural objects, the top and bottom of the watch were both lacquered. They paired flora and fauna, as, for example, the pine tree and the crane, the bamboo and the sparrow, the plum tree and the nightingale. Combined, these pairs express the “complete message” transmitted by this symbolic dual motif. In the same manner, the movement, which occupies the central part of

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the dial, was treated with ruthenium, in a “zen” fashion, insists Julien Marchenoir, “in order to not interfere with the decorative motif.”

On the level of these cultural exchanges, we can also mention the recent collection, Les Univers Infinis, which draws attention to the art of guillochage, with motifs inspired by the famous Dutch artist, Maurits Cornelis Escher.We already know the decorative geometric technique of guillochage, but we perhaps know less about some of the great guillochage artists who have created figures by criss-crossing their engravings.

Thanks to this rare artisanal technique, mastered in-house,Vacheron Constantin has drawn inspiration directly from the works of the Dutch master—a genius when it comes to trompe l'oeil, plays on perspective, and visual illusions—to give new and hitherto unknown dimensions to the arts of guillochage, engraving, enamelling, and even stone-setting.

Can we call this art? It is all in how we look at such pieces. But, there can be no doubt that the borders—quite often artificial—between art and the idea of “doing” and the artisanal, are blurred and finally end up by merging. O For more information about Vacheron Constantin click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

LES UNIVERS INFINIS

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Handing down talent and experience From left to right:

RPierre Maillard

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What a line-up! Just imagine, side-by-side, writers, filmmakers, actors, musicians, dancers and artists such as John Baldessari, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Trisha Brown, Sir Colin Davis, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Brian Eno, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, William Forsythe, Stephen Frears, Sir Peter Hall, David Hockney, Rebecca Horn, Anish Kapoor, Jiríˇ Kylián, Toni Morrison, Mira Nair, Youssou N’Dour, Jessye Norman, Martin Scorsese, Peter Sellars, Álvaro Siza, Wole Soyinka, Julie Taymor, Saburo Teshigawara, Kate Valk, Mario Vargas Llosa, Robert Wilson, Zhang Yimou and Pinchas Zukerman. What unites them, beyond the continents and their respective arts? They have all been mentors in the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

Created in 2002, the goal of this unique programme is, according to Rolex, to “make a contribution to global culture”. It is in keeping with the brand’s tradition of “supporting individual excellence”—a tradition that has found applications in marketing with its many advertisements over the decades honouring personalities well known around the world for accomplishments in their respective fields, as well as in the Rolex Awards for Enterprise.

For over 35 years, this programme has supported innovative personal initiatives around the world with the aim of “improving lives or protecting the planet’s natural and cultural heritage”. Since their creation in 1976, the biannual Rolex Awards have received 30,000 applications from 154 countries and have awarded 120 prizes.

The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative is, in a way, the younger brother of the Rolex Awards, although it covers only culture. This year, it has added architecture to its line-up consisting of dance, cinema, literature, music and the visual arts. Every two years, a new advisory board of distinguished artists and arts practitioners creates a list of potential mentors for each discipline. Rolex approaches them and, if they agree to take part, the company works with them to establish a profile of a young protégé they would like to work with.

This process is important because each mentor is asked to spend a minimum of six weeks of his or her precious time with the chosen protégé.

The young artists, the future protégés, cannot apply directly to the programme. A panel of experts for each artistic discipline selects a certain number of potential candidates from around the world and encourages them to submit an application. After examination by the panel members, three potential protégés are proposed to each mentor, who then meets them individually before making the final choice.

Dance: Eduardo Fukushima (Brazil), selected by Mentor Lin Hwai-min (Taiwan) Brazilian dancer and choreographer Eduardo Fukushima, 28, graduated in communication of the physical arts from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo in 2011. He trained with many of Brazil’s leading figures in contemporary dance and created his first solo piece in 2004. More recently, he was acclaimed for Between Contentions (2008) and How to Overcome the Great Tiredness? (2009/2010). Both pieces follow a line of investigation that starts from gesture and movement.

Film: Sara Fgaier (Italy), selected by Mentor Walter Murch (United States) Italian film editor Sara Fgaier, 29, studied history of film at Bologna University and taught herself the elements of her profession. Her first editing job was Pietro Marcello's La bocca del lupo (The Mouth of the Wolf, 2009), a hauntingly poetic, award-winning documentary. In 2011, she edited Marcello’s Il silenzio di Pelešjan (The Silence of Pelešjan) and Michele Manzolini and Federico Ferrone’s Il treno va a Mosca (The Train to Moscow).

Literature: Naomi Alderman (United Kingdom), selected by Mentor Margaret Atwood (Canada) British author Naomi Alderman, 37, graduated from Oxford in 1996 and received a Master’s in creative writing from the University of East Anglia in 2003. Three years later, she published Disobedience, a novel about the tensions and accommodations between religion and modern life, for which she won the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers and, in 2007, was named The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year.

Published in 10 languages, the book was followed by The Lessons (2010), which investigates the power and problems of wealth, and the forthcoming The Liars’ Gospel, a novel about Jesus from the perspective of the Pharisees.

This personal choice forms the basis for the notion of mentoring because, unlike an academic environment that operates with a topdown approach, this programme provides a veritable exchange, a real dialogue, between artists of different generations and different cultures. The goal is to help protégés

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Music: Dina El Wedidi (Egypt), selected by Mentor Gilberto Gil (Brazil) Egyptian singer/songwriter Dina El Wedidi, 24, started composing songs when she was young and during university in Cairo where she studied oriental languages. El Wedidi’s songs are infused with the political concerns of Egypt. From 2007 to 2010, El Wedidi worked as a singer and actress with the El Warsha Theatre Troupe, exploring Egyptian folklore and performing in such unlikely places as a Cairo prison. During this period (2009 to 2010), she also performed classical Egyptian and Arabic songs with the Habayebna band, before establishing her own band in 2011.

Theatre: Michal Borczuch (Poland), selected by Mentor Patrice Chéreau (France) Polish theatre director Michal Borczuch, 32, received Master’s degrees from both Kraków’s Academy of Fine Arts and Ludwik Solski State School of Drama, where he currently lectures. Since 2005, he has been directing plays in Polish theatres and at international cultural festivals, beginning with works by modern Polish playwrights and moving to the classics. He is known for mould-breaking productions that often challenge popular trends and tastes. Among his most recent adaptations are Brand. The City. The Chosen Ones (2011), and Hans, Dora and Wolf (2012), inspired by Sigmund Freud.

Visual Arts: Mateo López (Colombia), selected by Mentor William Kentridge (South Africa) Colombian visual artist Mateo López, 33, spent a year studying architecture at Javieriana University but graduated in fine arts from the University of the Andes. His early studies in architecture equipped him to consider drawing in terms of time and space, and three rather than two dimensions. López is known for setting up his studio in public and for using memories of his personal journeys in his work, which is a trademark of his installations. The installation Viaje sin movimiento (Travelling without movement, 2008-2010) was acquired by New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

develop and affirm their own voices, rather than merely reproducing something, as inspiring as it might be.

The chosen mentor for this discipline is Kazuyo Sejima. She is one of the most remarkable figures in contemporary architecture and was recently awarded the Pritzker Prize, the “Nobel Prize” of architecture, together with her colleague Ryue Nishizawa, with whom she founded the agency SANAA in Tokyo. It was with this agency that she designed the Rolex Learning Center at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne. Rolex was the principal private sponsor of this “library of the future” in the shape of a long wave.

The protégé whom she chooses—an ongoing process whose outcome is yet to be determined at the time of writing—will work with Kazuyo Sejima on the project Home for All

that she launched with other famous Japanese architects. Its goal is to provide much-needed housing for those affected by the tsunami that struck the Japanese coast in 2011.

From a financial point of view, each selected protégé receives a grant of CHF 25,000 for the mentoring year, as well as funds for travel and other expenses. At the end of the year, the protégé is given another CHF 25,000 to be used for a specific project. As for the mentors, they each receive an honorarium of CHF 50,000 for their participation in the programme.

New this year in the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative is the inclusion of architecture.

Kazuyo Sejima

For this edition of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, Kazuyo Sejima joins her colleagues from other disciplines, who are Margaret Atwood (literature), Patrice Chéreau (dramatic art), Gilberto Gil (music), William Kentridge (visual arts), Lin Hwai-min (dance) and Walter Murch (cinema). O For more information about Rolex click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

The Rolex Learning Center (EPFL)

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Paying tribute to Le Corbusier RPierre Maillard

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Before taking over Girard-Perregaux, the late Gino Macaluso studied architecture. Obsessed his entire life by an art that had always inspired him, Macaluso would surely be delighted to know that his descendants were building upon his passion by creating a superb trilogy dedicated to Le Corbusier.

This trilogy came about not just because of mere chance between a manufacture established in La Chaux-de-Fonds and one of the city’s most famous native sons (Le Corbusier was born there in 1887 as Charles-Edouard Jeanneret). Especially since before becoming a visionary architect who decisively transformed 20th-century architecture, Le Corbusier trained as an engraver-carver at the school of art in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

After a long formative voyage throughout Europe that would take him as far as Istanbul, Le Corbusier returned to his native town and

established himself—without an actual diploma —as an architect. His first project was a house intended for his parents, the Villa Blanche.

Recently restored, this is the location that Girard-Perregaux chose to present its Trilogy.

The Trilogy pays tribute to three aspects of the multi-faceted Le Corbusier: the young engravercarver inspired by Art Nouveau; the architect and furniture designer who sought “space, light, and order”; and the pioneer of urban planning, the king of concrete.

These three “facets” of the famed architect are expressed by remarkable and very original

VINTAGE 1945 – LA CHAUX-DE-FONDS

VINTAGE 1945 – PARIS

VINTAGE 1945 – MARSEILLE

dials, which share the common case of the perfectly proportioned Vintage 1945. The first watch, the pink gold Vintage 1945 Le Corbusier – La Chaux-de-Fonds, offers a superb reproduction, in mother-of-pearl inlay, directly inspired by one of his early creations.

The second watch, the Vintage 1945 Le Corbusier – Paris (the city that was his home from 1917), pays tribute to his novel proposals, notably his furniture made of steel, leather and skin, and his human-scale Modulor. This watch offers a hand-engraved steel dial with a calf leather bracelet.

The third watch, the Vintage 1945 – Marseille, whose dial is made of concrete [a world’s first, to our knowledge, in timekeeping] honours the famous Radiant City, a vast reinforced concrete housing development that Le Corbusier built in Marseilles between 1947 and 1952.

This lovely Trilogy demonstrates the rich relationships between art and timekeeping. O For more information about Girard-Perregaux click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

A SWISS HISTORY OF TIME

Perpetual calendar, every possible date complication, yback chronograph function and tachymeter scale – the complexity and functionality of the Manero ChronoPerpetual are hard to match. An impressive timepiece, whose date will require no correction until the year 2100, when the Gregorian calendar calls for the omission of a leap year. www.carl-f-bucherer.com

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Imaginary time

ities. “The projects that we support are essential for the brand because they are in resonance with our universe,” Dumas goes on to explain.

RPierre Maillard Exploring unique territory: turning time upside down

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“The dialogue between contemporary creativity and our artistic craft professions is vital for us. It is a source of invention, new challenges and discovery, without which we risk resting on our laurels, remaining trapped in a certain routine. The projects that artists bring to us are a true challenge for our craftsmen, first seemingly insurmountable, but they allow us to push the limits of our expertise,” says Pierre-Alexis Dumas, artistic director of Hermès.

Here, he is not talking about watches, one of the fourteen categories of products that the brand offers, but rather the scarves—the famous Hermès scarves, those precious printed silks that were born in 1937.

Under the designation of Hermès Editeur, some of these scarves are entrusted to wellknown contemporary artists, such as Josef Albers, Daniel Buren, and Hiroshi Sugimoto.

But what Pierre-Alexis Dumas is saying is true for all the brand’s categories, including watches.

“With a humanist tradition, Hermès has always been close to the world of culture. A company

CAPE COD GRANDES HEURES

that just earns money is really quite poor unless it can also enrich itself on the human and cultural level,” he adds.

This proximity to art and culture is also expressed through the Fondation d'entreprise Hermès, which works to promote artisanal know-how, support artistic creativity and promote access to education and training, as well as supporting endeavours that favour the preservation of biodiversity. In the artistic domain, the foundation is active in the plastic arts, photography, the dramatic arts and design.

Exhibitions, artist residences, support for the performing arts, meetings, awards and scholarships make up the generous menu of its activ-

Philippe Delhotal, director of design at La Montre Hermès, agrees. “In comparison to other watch brands whose perimeter is clearly defined, the creative territory of Hermès is immense, since this proximity to contemporary creation is carried throughout our fourteen crafts. All of these generate designs that can inspire us in watchmaking. To give you an example, the very innovative use that we are making of enamel, with its very contemporary motifs, was inspired directly by our other professions. Inside the watch boundaries, however, our watch division needed to define its own particular territory. In the process, the Grandes Heures timepiece played a central role.”

Remember? Introduced in 2008, the Cape Cod Grandes Heures re-invented “a new choreography of time” by offering different speeds according to the time of day. On the dial, the hour indications are no longer simply placed at regular intervals but are moved closer together or farther apart in order to give the impression that time is accelerating or slowing down.

Thus, 8 and 12 o’clock are closer together, while “temporal pauses” are added between 12 and 4 o’clock and between 6 and 8 o’clock.

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ARCEAU TEMPS SUSPENDU

These positions correspond to various ways to live the hours—all relative—of the day.

“Based on this founding watch, Hermès has marked out its own particular watch territory, which is imaginary time, the time to take time, we could say,” Delhotal explains.

Introduced in 2011, the Arceau Temps Suspendu timepiece allows its owner to “suspend” time by making it disappear (the hands move into a position that does not point to a time) and reappear (the same hands return instantly to

IN THE POCKET Hermès’s adventure in the world of watchmaking began in 1912. A photograph from that period, now famous, shows the young Jacqueline Hermès, daughter of Emile Hermès and grandmother of Guillaume de Seyne, current chairman of the board of directors of La Montre Hermès, wearing a small pocket watch wrapped in leather around her wrist. A totally original creation, it was a completely “logical” creation for the saddle maker that Hermès was, and still is today.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of this watch, which is among the very first wristwatches in the world, Hermès decided to re-issue the piece.

Ingenious, inventive, original, and perfectly finished (an entire week of work by hand is required to produce the strap holding the watch), the watch features the new H1837 movement and a palladium case mounted on a Barenia calf leather bracelet. It will unfortunately only be available in a limited series of 24 pieces in stores from March 2013, at a price of CHF 33,000. The In The Pocket timepiece, wearable by men and women, should fly off the shelves. Hopefully, Hermès will decide in the future to make more of these beautiful watches.

the exact time regardless of the time that has passed). This unique timepiece not only made a big impression on its debut, but it also positioned the unique watch style of Hermès squarely in the art of watchmaking.

Choreography of time Exploring the “choreographic” possibilities of displaying time, La Montre Hermès is quite naturally inspired by contemporary dance and, in return, has also inspired it. One could

thus attend a superb presentation of contemporary dance at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, in London (which will be presented around the world). Its title, Time in Motion, clearly describes the relationship between the arts—music (art unfurling over time) and dance (the art of movement in space)—and watchmaking. More specifically, this programme was created to highlight the advances made by La Montre Hermès in terms of movement: in this case, the mechanical movements that the brand developed in exclusive collaboration with Vaucher Manufacture (of which Hermès owns 25 per cent).Two beautiful in-house movements, the H1837 and the H1912, were presented. Decorated with a fine H design on the oscillating weight and the bridges, featuring a double barrel delivering a constant force, and an in-house escapement, these two movements equip the Dressage and Arceau, respectively.

Created in 1978, La Montre Hermès has grown with infinite patience, in order to gradually acquire the necessary expertise to practice the art of watchmaking to the full. And, it practices it well—both technically and aesthetically. Today, watchmaking by Hermès can fully develop within its own clearly defined space, which nobody can contest. O For more information about Hermès click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

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Microscopic art RPierre Maillard The result, which has the name Art Piece 1, can be seen at the SIHH in January 2013. It has already been presented, however, in various stages of completion at the International Contemporary Art Fair in Paris, the famous FIAC, and at the Contemporary Art Fair in Shanghai. What we will find is a painted micro mask, embedded inside the crown and visible thanks to an optical system.

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Willard Wigan is a well-known artist, honoured by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007 as a “Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire” for his services to art. Wigan’s work is really quite particular. He is a microsculptor. His pieces are so small that they fit in the eye of a needle or on the head of a pin. To be able to sculpt these pieces of microscopic art, which are less than 1/13 the diameter of a grain of rice, he works with a scalpel and a microscope, while using the legs of a fly as a brush. He also uses such bizarre materials as spider web mixed with gold or Kevlar.

This extreme artistic discipline also demands great physical discipline. To create his micro sculptures,Willard enters into a meditative state in which he controls his breathing and is thus able to sculpt between two heart beats. The amazing result cannot be appreciated with the naked eye. It is only under a microscope that we discover a group of camels walking through the eye of a needle, the skyline of Manhattan, or reproductions of Michelangelo’s David, Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, or even a fulllength portrait of Prince Charles or Mike Tyson...

When Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey learned about Willard Wigan five years ago, they immediately thought that a meeting with this sculptor creating microscopic art and their own microscopic mechanics might lead to creating something together, something in which art and timekeeping would find common ground, a sort of co-creation in other words. The word “co-creation” is quite apt since the complex insertion of a micro sculpture into a timepiece requires architectural and technical modifications necessitating research and innovation.

Shanghai is where Greubel Forsey recently inaugurated a new type of store, the Time Art GalleryGF, located at the prestigious Bund 18.

As its name indicates, this gallery aims to create bridges between art and watchmaking. In addition to the collection of Greubel Forsey timepieces, other pieces by exceptional watchmakers such as Philippe Dufour and Vianney Halter can be seen, both of whom exemplify in various ways the art of timekeeping, whether in terms of spectacular finishing or amazing architecture. This new type of gallery also allows Greubel Forsey to exhibit contemporary artists and, in this case, their first co-creation with Willard Wigan, a clear example of how art and watchmaking can work perfectly together. O For more information about Greubel Forsey click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

Master Series

masterpieces

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TITONI LTD. Sch端tzengasse 18 | 2540 Grenchen | Switzerland | Phone +41 32 654 57 00 | www.titoni.ch

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“In watchmaking , there are not enough egoists”

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Art or design? Art or artisanal? What differentiates a work of art from a design object?

Where is the boundary? To find answers to these questions, we talked with Max Büsser, the founder of MB&F, in a place that is known for blurring the borders, the M.A.D Gallery.

MAD stands for Mechanical Art Devices, while Gallery refers to the first boutique opened

by MB&F, in Geneva. The M.A.D Gallery sells the brand’s famous Horological Machines and Legacy Machines, but it also exhibits other very unique mechanical works and photographs from around the world. One example is the extraordinary motorcycles created by the Japanese designer Chicara Nagata.

So, is it art or is it design?

“Art exists in an egoistic dimension,” affirms Max Büsser, “while design is in an altruistic dimension. In other words, an artist ideally must not think about pleasing others, but only about expressing what he has in himself. A designer, on the other hand, must think of others, of the use that they will make of his creation. In the beginnings of watchmaking, the artistic part was important in terms of decoration and the actual invention. Then came industrialisation and the watch turned into an object for the masses. But, since the 1970s and the appearance of the quartz movement, mechanical timepieces have become technically obsolete. We can thus state categorically that, from that moment, the mechanical watch should only be created as an art object, either as a one-of-a-kind creation or as a series, as artists do. But, alas, there are not enough real egoists in the watch industry,

photo: Denis Hayoun

RPierre Maillard

meaning people who think not in terms of the market, but rather and above all about themselves, about their own creation, without being worried if they please or don’t please.

All the ‘designers’ exhibited in this gallery have in common this egoistic approach. They are thus artists.”

So, can we classify MB&F in this category?

“From our first steps,” Max Büsser continues, “we have sought to create in an ‘egoistic’ manner. Our approach has nothing to do with

any type of market study, but is the result of a much more personal and intimate introspective research. When, for example, we introduced the very extreme HM4 Thunderbolt, we asked ourselves ‘who is going to be able to buy this thing?’ And, while it succeeded well beyond our expectations, it was not because of any calculated effort, but rather because it apparently ‘spoke’ about itself, it ‘touched’ the sensibilities of many people. Like a work of art does.”

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The inner case

The new “egoistic” machine We find this lack of a calculating mentality in the process involved in creating MB&F’s new “machine”, the HM5, which brings together two distinct worlds. “Let’s look at the 1970s,” adds Büsser. “At that time, if someone had asked the question ‘what will you be wearing in 2012?’ no one would or could have predicted the mechanical neo-classicism in vogue today. We were sure that people would be living on the moon and that they would be wearing electronic machines on their wrist, devices that would represent a complete rupture with the canons of traditional timekeeping. Since I have always been fascinated by the futuristic lines invented during this period, which we find, for example, in cars such as

An Amida watch as it appears in a 1976 Europa Star advertisement

the Lotus Esprit designed by Giugiaro, the Lamborghini Miura, and the Lancia Stratos designed by Bertone, I decided to look at the most innovative watch designs of that epoch.

I noticed that brands such as Girard-Perregaux, Bulova and Mido had designed pilot’s watches with streamlined cases and slanted dials, that could be set back to facilitate reading the time in bright light. Among these brands, Amida— which quickly disappeared—had created the Digitrend, a totally hybrid watch whose simple mechanical movement (a Roskopf) powered the fake LED made of plastic! The HM5 ‘On the Road Again’ is inspired directly from this timepiece.”

As if it drove right off the pages of the 1970s, the HM5 ‘On the Road Again’ evokes all the design codes of the supercars of the period: angular lines, rear spoilers, low-slung exhaust systems… But these characteristics are not just an allusion by the designer (Eric Giroud), they have a function. The spoilers can be raised up thanks to a sliding pusher situated on the side of the case. In this way, they let light into the inside of the case, light that will charge the Superluminova numbers located on two discs, which are placed flat under the spoilers.

Yet, these numbers are displayed vertically in the groove—the “dashboard” if you will—of the case crafted in zirconium. To succeed in this endeavour, a sophisticated and highly precise optical glass was specially developed in the form of a reflective prism made of sap-

The prism

phire crystal that bends the light 90 degrees and magnifies the numbers by 20 per cent.

Also useful, the role of the two small exhaust systems is to remove the water that could enter by the partly-opened spoilers.

In this miniature chassis, we find a second case, a sort of complex casing that ensures the water-resistance of the movement. Developed on a Sowind (GP) base, by the constructors Jean-François Mojon and Vincent Boucard of Chronode, this automatic movement features bi-directional jumping hours (thus adjustable in both directions) and minutes. It can be viewed through the transparent sapphire crystal case back.

To sum up, is this an “egoistic” or an “altruistic” watch? Is it an artist’s watch or a designer’s timepiece? The very recent Public Prize of the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie in Geneva, which was given to MB&F’s Legacy Machine 1, demonstrates that the public sometimes votes for an “art object” designed “egoistically” by big kids inspired by their superheroes or by Jules Verne. O For more information about MB&F click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

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Cultural patronage: miraculous manna RAntoine Menusier

I

It was a cold wintry day in 2005, in Bienne, a medium-sized, protestant town at the foot of the Swiss Jura mountains. A chilly fog coming off the lake enveloped the quiet town, a town that is nonetheless the nerve centre of the Swiss watch industry, a town where ostentation is sinful and work is elevated to a form of destiny. The contrast could not have been greater for Christine Albanel, president of France’s “Public Establishment of the Museum and National Estate of Versailles”, the Château of Louis XIV, the Sun King.

This high-ranking civil servant had been invited to lunch by Nicolas Hayek, the king of Swiss watchmaking, and the man responsible for bringing the industry back to life in the 1980s.

He was the founder-owner of the Swatch Group and was mourned by an entire nation on his death in 2010. Only a motive with some crucial premise could explain why such a person, the future Minister of Culture under Nicolas Sarkozy, would come to this austere country: money. And it was a noble motive— to sign a contract of cultural patronage with the Breguet brand.

A car was sent to pick up Ms. Albanel, who flew from Paris to Basel-Mulhouse airport, to take her to Bienne, home of the Swatch Group’s headquarters. She was welcomed by Emmanuel Breguet, seventh generation of the illustrious dynasty of inventors founded by his ancestor, Abraham Louis. Born in 1747 in the Swiss town of Neuchâtel, of protestant parents, he established his workshop in Paris, where he became very successful, even creating a unique watch for the queen, Marie-Antoinette.

Now, two and a half centuries later, a representative of the French Republic was in Bienne to discuss business with the genius SwissLebanese entrepreneur. Everything went well.

They took lunch in Hayek’s private dining hall along with Emmanuel Breguet, brand manager for Breguet in France, who is also the brand’s historian and curator of the Breguet museum and archives, located on the Place Vendôme, in Paris. Breguet Watches, the prestige brand of the Swatch Group, is now managed by Marc A. Hayek, grandson of the late patriarch.

It was a “very simple meal, in a simple setting, and it did not last long,” confides the direct descendant of Abraham Louis. The Breguet brand, with the Hayek family’s own financial backing, thus became one of the patrons of the Château de Versailles, which needed donations for its restoration work. But how did this

come about? The unfortunate consequences of a climatic event that happened during the summer of 2003 attracted the attention of the president of the Swatch Group. An exceptional heat wave killed a 300-year old oak tree, the botanical pride of the Château de Versailles, the oldest tree on the estate. Planted under the reign of Louis XIV, it was the tree under which Marie-Antoinette would later take shade.

Nicolas Hayek heard about the tree and wanted to obtain a piece of the dead stump to make boxes for watches. He sent two emissaries to Versailles, Christian Lattmann and Vincent Laucella, both today Vice-Presidents of Montres Breguet SA, who were joined by Emmanuel Breguet. “Christine Albanel was very kind to us. Seeing that we were genuinely interested in Marie-Antoinette, she told us that she was looking for a patron to restore the Petit Trianon, which was the queen’s place of refuge and was now in a state of muchneeded repair. That was the beginning of our collaboration.”

Nicolas Hayek made a donation of €6 million and became the exclusive patron for the renovation of the Petit Trianon as well as the French Pavilion, also in Versailles, an exquisite stone residence built during the time of Louis XV for the lovely Marquise de Pompadour, the king’s favourite. Breguet and its president were

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awarded the coveted title of “Grand Mécène du Ministère de la Culture” [Grand patron of the Ministry of Culture]. Today, a reproduction of the famous watch made by Abraham Louis Breguet for Queen Marie-Antoinette rests in a case made from wood from the legendary oak tree. The Breguet manufacture in L’Abbaye has some of this wood, a gift from the Château de Versailles. The reproduction of the watch and its case “are often travelling around the world” according to Emmanuel Breguet, who gives no further details.

Alain Baraton, chief gardener at the Trianon estate and the Grand Parc of Versailles, who also gives advice on gardening on a weekend radio show for the public station France Inter, remembers vividly the visit by Nicolas Hayek to the royal grounds. “He attended the extraction of the large oak tree. He had a lively look about him and a sparkle in his eye. He wore three or four watches on each wrist, from each of the brands he owned, so that nobody got jealous, he said,” Baraton recalls.

Patronage and communication A patron, as defined by the Collins English dictionary, is a person who sponsors or aids artists, charities etc. Major Swiss watch brands sponsor prestigious sporting events. Rolex is one of the emblems of the Wimbledon tennis tournament and the brand of choice of Swiss champion Roger Federer. Audemars Piguet was, in 2009, co-sponsor of the fastest flying trimaran in the world, the Hydroptère.

Cultural patronage, however, is a bit more discreet. “This type of patronage is a form of communication that pairs well with our company,” explains Emmanuel Breguet. “It corresponds with the roots of our history and our desire to support projects that are perennial.”

Being patron of the restoration of the Petit Trianon and the French Pavilion are not the brand’s only sponsorships. It also provided €4 to 5 million to the department of art objects at the Louvre Museum in Paris in order to reopen a series of magnificent rooms that have been closed for many years. More recently, the brand, whose cultural sponsorship activities are for the moment confined to France, gave a gift of €60,000 to the Marine Museum on the Place Trocadéro in Paris, which helped to equip a room dedicated to the Fleet Air Arm, recalling that Breguet was also the watchmaker of the Navy and the Air Force. This type of support, not surprisingly, also involves something in exchange, such as “lifetime” tickets to the historic buildings in question or even the possibility to use the prestigious locations free of charge for events.

The thing being sponsored always has a close relationship with the image conveyed by the watch brand. In this way, Hublot, from the LVMH group, among the top in large luxury divers’ watches, financed—by the intervention of its president, the Swiss Jean-Claude Biver— an exhibition devoted to Antikythera, the famous astronomical mechanism from ancient Greece. The exhibition took place at

the Musée des Arts et Métiers, in Paris in 2011 (see Europa Star 6/2011).

History, for watch groups, is a rich vein, a stratum that is seemingly inexhaustible. A current trend in the French capital is for large businesses to participate in the renovation of historic façades. Their names appear in large letters on sheets covering the scaffolding.

Nothing could be less discreet. It is no longer a question of sponsorship, but rather of purchasing prime advertising space. Anyone who was in Paris at the beginning of 2012 could not help but notice a giant sheet depicting Swatch watches, extending over an entire section of the renovation work being conducted on the Conciergerie, where Marie-Antoinette was imprisoned before being beheaded at the guillotine…

In Bienne, the Swatch Group is not very forthcoming about this type of activity. “These operations are part of the brand’s basic marketing mix. The same principle is applied around the world,” says a spokesperson at its headquarters in Bienne. The French Ministry of Culture, which sold the “Conciergerie” space on the north façade of the current Palais de Justice, is more open. “The Swatch Group used the space for advertising during the months of October 2011 and February 2012 in exchange for a payment of €507,200,” it explains.

“This support by the group financed 20 per cent of the cost of the restoration of the façade on the Quai de l’Horloge (this also included restoring the clock, the first public clock in Paris). The other partners that have provided funds for this restoration are Dior, Apple, Samsung, VW and BMW.” This type of blatant display has upset many purists, who see this as an unacceptable— and too visible for their taste—intrusion of the marketplace into the French national heritage. Under the Ancien Régime, the kings used the money of their subjects to finance artists and major works. The Republic has done the same for a long time. Today, however, the coffers of the State are empty. They beg for charity. O

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Cinema Paradiso: watches and cinema RKeith W. Strandberg

T

IME. It’s one of life’s most elusive things. For their entire history, watchmakers have been trying to control and regulate time, while the art of film focuses on capturing moments in time. In both watches and films, the best results are those efforts that are timeless.

Watches as symbols Watches and clocks have been used as symbols throughout the history of film. Remember Harold Lloyd hanging from the giant clock in the 1923 silent film “Safety Last”? In more recent movies, “Back to the Future” is a masterpiece of manipulating time and using imagery regarding time.“Nick of Time” with Johnny Depp used clocks and watches throughout, as it was a movie that unfolded in “real time”. “Memento” i Left to right: Harold Lloyd in “Safety Last” Daniel Craig as James Bond Diane Kruger wearing Jaeger-LeCoultre

and “Pulp Fiction” played with the way time is presented in movies.

In a way, every watch in every movie is a symbol—if only a symbol of what kind of character the actor is. In “Made of Honor”, for example, Patrick Dempsey wears a JeanRichard Tourbillon in just about every scene. It’s not so much a statement on time, it’s more of a statement about him—he is a successful businessman, able to wear such an expensive watch.

In the James Bond movies, Bond has always worn an elegant, yet rough-and-tumble timepiece to reflect his personality. In the recently released “Skyfall”, Daniel Craig wears an Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean and, this year being Bond’s 50th anniversary, Omega has created a special Skyfall Limited Edition Seamaster Planet Ocean for the occasion.

Product placement Watchmakers know that one of the best ways to get you to picture yourself wearing a special timepiece is to place one on the wrist of the star of a popular movie.

As awareness of fine watches increases, and watch brands become savvier about marketing and promotion, watches are being show-

cased more and more in Hollywood. Whether these watches are on the wrists of the heroes (or villains) in the latest blockbusters or sparkling on the red carpet, watches are definitely ready for their close-ups.

In the best product placements, watches are key components to the definition of character in movies. After all, characters are defined by the choices they make: words, jobs, clothes, actions, cars and yes, watches.

Product placement is good for movie producers because it helps defray expenses. "No matter what size the budget of the movie, it is hard for producers to justify spending $30,000 on a watch or even $5,000, for that matter, and we always need more than one for safety," says Doug Harlocker, propmaster. "So the exchange of exposure for the use of goods is a very gratifying relationship—the production value of the movie is heightened without costing an arm and a leg."

Watch placement can happen any number of ways. Many watch companies have representatives who work to place watches with studios and production companies. Sometimes, a production company will approach a watch brand about using its products for a particular pro-

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ject. At times, product placement is about historical accuracy, as in the movie "Pearl Harbor", for example,Touchstone Pictures wanted something authentic and Hamilton Watch was a major supplier to the US military during World War II. The result? A huge close up of a Hamilton watch, worn by Josh Hartnett, in the final cut of the movie.

Another example is the Omega Speedmaster "Moon Watch", which played a part in the real Apollo 13 mission—the astronauts used it to time the start and stop of the engine on re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere—it was the only correct choice of watch for Ron Howard’s "Apollo 13".

Some watch brands have relationships with actors who wear their products, and when that actor is in a movie, he or she can help get the watch in front of the camera (John Travolta, a Breitling ambassador, wore his Breitling in “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3”).

On “Ocean's Twelve”, propmaster Harlocker carried around at least $250,000 worth of watches with him every day to satisfy all of the actors' characters. Brad Pitt, for instance, wore a Breitling Emergency, a Chronoswiss, a whitegold Rolex, a Patek Philippe and a Hermès at different times throughout the movie. George

Clooney wore a classic Hamilton in every scene.

"I could not have provided those watches without the help of the manufacturers," Harlocker admits. “Brad Pitt, after being exposed to that Breitling, purchased a half dozen of them for his co-stars on ‘Oceans Twelve’. In a perfect world, the actor will appreciate the product, wear it in the movie and in real life.”

Ann Roth, costume designer on “Julie & Julia” and many others, is obsessive about getting the watch right for each character on her projects. “I can hold up a movie set for hours choosing the right watch,” she says. “I choose the watch based on the character. For example, Ralph Fiennes needed a watch for his character in ‘The English Patient’. He was Hungarian royalty in the 1920s, got involved in the Royal Geographical Society, lived in London and Egypt, so the watch he wore had to be really particular, I wanted the watch that guy would wear. I found it in London, in a second hand shop, but I needed two of them, so I had a watchmaker make me another one. I am very particular about the watches that characters wear, as they say so much about them.”

John Myhre, the production designer on “Nine” and other features, is interested in how a watch “helps with the story telling process,”

he says. “It’s a major definition of a person’s character. I will meet with the property master and we’ll look at all the watches. The choice of watches for movies is very important and the right watch makes perfect sense, like the Hamilton in ‘Amelia’. She wore a Hamilton in real life, so it’s genius.”

Some placements are chosen by the cast and crew, some are paid for and still others are a joint marketing effort—it all depends on the movie, the brand and the situation.

“We do not financially support placements or the gifting of merchandise for participation and have been forced to turn down opportunities because of this,” says Larry Pettinelli, president, Patek Philippe NA. “Therefore, and in most cases, directors, producers, propmasters and stylists who have a genuine appreciation for the timepieces and our brand approach our team. These individuals ultimately decide that the inclusion will lend credibility to the story line or characters involved. We scrutinise every opportunity and only commit to those that reflect our company values.”

When product placement works, it is much better than any advertising a company could do. The impact is greater, because the audience is caught up in the plot of a great movie.

“Product placement provides third party endorsement for audiences,” adds Pettinelli.

“If it occurs in an organic and appropriate setting, the results can serve to reinforce our brand message. The most successful placements for us have occurred when a timepiece becomes a natural part of the character or scene.”

It's also possible that a watch supplied for a movie or TV show and worn during the shoot will never appear on screen, despite everyone's best efforts. After all, movies aren't edited with watch placement in mind and what was a great shot for the watch might not make it into the final edit.

Watch creation for movies The Hamilton watch that featured in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey

The Terminator wears Audemars Piguet

Some watches, like the watch in Stanley Kubrick’s "2001: A Space Odyssey", are designed specifically for films. Hamilton Watch

High Performance – Smart Handling.

The new EQW-A1110DB with SMART ACCESS

Lap-Timer

EQW-A1110DB-1AER With SMART ACCESS and its electronic crown switch, you can easily activate the wide functions of your EDIFICE watch – such as the Lap timer for the measurement of up to 10 lap times.

• SMART ACCESS technology • Radio signal reception (EU, USA, Japan, China) • Solar powered • Stopwatch • Solid stainless steel band • World time • Alarm • Water-resistant up to 10 bar

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Electronic crown switch

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The Hamilton watches featured in the “Men In Black” series

Special award watches

by Jaeger-LeCoultre

Company was commissioned to make the "2001" watch, a special multi-timezone timepiece for the film and the company never even considered selling the watch commercially, as it was too complicated (for the time). In 2006, Hamilton finally made a limited edition reinterpretation of this watch, 30 years after the original film. How limited was this timepiece?

You guessed it, 2001 pieces.

"For Russell Crowe in 'Master and Commander', I contacted Breguet to duplicate a watch that they had made in the 1700s to use in the film,” Harlocker remembers. “They took it on as a challenge and delivered a magnificent pocket watch absolutely authentic to the period at no charge to us. What did they get out of it? Well, people saw that movie and saw Russell using it. It is a strong association.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger has worn Audemars Piguet watches in movies for quite some time, including "End of Days", the "Terminator" series and more. For "End of Days", Audemars Piguet created a new Royal Oak Offshore.

Schwarzenegger even worked with the company on the design of the watch.

Impact on sales Though watch manufacturers are reluctant to say that the appearance of their product boosts sales dramatically, watch retailers do

mention that an increase of interest and awareness, if not sales, occurs.

Hamilton Watch has had a host of movie tieins, the most successful and visible being their involvement with the "Men in Black" movies— where they took a classic Hamilton design and put it on the wrists of the two leads, Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith.The result? The watch became a sales leader.

Retailers report customers coming in and asking for the watches by the name of the movie or the character, not even knowing the brand name.

Next time you're at the cinema, or just watching TV at home, pay attention to the wristwatches that the characters wear. If you can barely see the wristwatch, chances are it's not a product placement. If you can see the brand clearly, and the watch itself has its own tight shot, then it's more than likely a product placement.

As watches continue to increase in popularity and visibility, you can expect to see more placements in the movies and TV.

The red carpet Red carpet events are the height of Hollywood glitz and glamour—a showcase of entertainment’s elite—where the stars come out to shine and where high-end designer fashion takes to the spotlight. It is the stage on which

the crème de la crème of luxury retail flex their muscles in an all-out star-studded advertising affair. And, now, more than ever before, watchmakers are figuring prominently in red-carpet looks across the awards season landscape.

How it started When “Who are you wearing?” became a common question shouted by reporters and photographers, brands hustled to provide the answer.

Fashion designers and jewellery companies were the first to respond, with watches coming a little later to the party. After all, women get most of the attention with their colourful and unique dresses, and most women don’t wear a watch with a beautiful gown. Watch companies have recently been working hard to change this by putting their watches on both celebrity men and women.

“The problem is that actresses’ arms are normally not covered so they don’t want to wear a big wristwatch,” says Jérôme Lambert, president of Swiss watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre, a long-time sponsor of the Venice, Abu Dhabi and San Sebastián film festivals and others.

“We have some beautiful tiny watches, and these watches can fit quite well on the red carpet. More and more actresses are considering watches, rather than going with huge

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Niels Schneider wearing Chopard

Jude Law wearing Chopard

diamond necklaces, bracelets and earrings, as there is a lower insurance risk.

“For men, we are getting more and more actors, directors and producers wearing our watches,” Lambert continues. “The JaegerLeCoultre brand is getting much more awareness, and creating strong relationships with creative people, and that’s how we have been able to get our watches on the Red Carpet.”

Harry Winston has perhaps the longest history of working with celebrities—it was in 1944

that Harry Winston began to solidify his reputation as the “Jeweller to the Stars”, when the brand became the very first jeweller to dress an actress, Jennifer Jones, for the Academy Awards. The red carpet tradition, with both jewellery and watches, is still very much a part of the company today.

Chopard has been involved in an official capacity with red carpet events for more than 15 years, starting with jewellery and going into watches, most visibly with the Cannes

Film Festival. "I have always loved film, and it was in 1998 when I was asked by the Cannes Film Festival’s president, Pierre Viot, to redesign the coveted Palme d’Or that Chopard became the Official partner of the Cannes Film Festival,” says Caroline Scheufele, co-president and artistic director of Chopard. “Our involvement with these prestigious events solidifies our love for the art of film and beautiful jewellery and watch creations.”

Piaget has also been quite visible on the red carpet. Explains Larry Boland, president, Piaget North America, “Piaget watches and jewellery have always been a favourite of high-profile individuals and the brand has a longstanding love affair with cinema and the arts. Dressing celebrities exposes us to new audiences and helps attract new consumers and brings glamour and excitement to the brand and strengthens our relationship with Hollywood.”

Swiss watchmaker Baume & Mercier launched an advertising campaign a few years ago that featured Andy Garcia, Teri Hatcher, Ashton Kutcher and other red carpet regulars. “This campaign caught the attention of both consumers and professionals in Hollywood and inspired many to make Baume & Mercier their timepiece choice for everyday wear as well as

Emmanuel Chriqui wearing Baume & Mercier

Bianca Balti with Fawaz Gruosi of de Grisogono

Owen Wilson wearing Piaget

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Harrison Ford at the Hamilton “Behind the Camera” awards

Nicole Kidman for Omega

Leonardo DiCaprio for TAG Heuer

for special occasions,” Rudy Chavez, president, Baume & Mercier North America, says. More recently, Baume & Mercier has become the lead sponsor of the Hamptons International Film Festival.

Hamilton Watch, in addition to being very active in product placement around the world, is the official sponsor of the “Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards”, held in Hollywood and Beijing. “The recognition of these offscreen talents is underlined with the presentation of the awards by leading actors, actresses and other movie professionals, who are wearing our watches,” says Sylvain Dolla, CEO, Hamilton International. “Celebrities attending the Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards come because they want to support one or more honourees they worked with on different projects.”

Boland says. “If celebrities make a request and we are able to accommodate them, we do.

Other times, we are captivated by the performance of a certain star, or we feel that they exemplify the ideals of the brand, and we let them know it would be our pleasure to dress them in Piaget.”

Working with actors and celebrities isn’t easy, as they are notoriously demanding and know what they like and want. “When a client selects a piece of high jewellery or a fine watch, they are looking for something very meaningful and very unique,” says Frédéric de Narp, president, Harry Winston. “It is an extension of who they are—their personal style, taste, and even comfort—so it’s about finding something truly exceptional just for them. This intimate and highly personalised approach allows us to give the clients we work with the complete Harry Winston experience at the highest level.”

Some companies set up suites where the celebrities or their representatives come in to choose what watches and jewellery they will wear. Other times, they will come into the LA offices or boutiques of a brand to make their choices.

“At Cannes for example, the celebrities like to come to our suite at the Hotel Martinez to choose for themselves, while other times the

celebrity works with a stylist who comes to us to see the entire collection and selects a few items from there,” says Fawaz Gruosi, president of watch and jewellery company de Grisogono.

Do red carpet placements have any effect on sales? There is no empirical data, but the general consensus is that it certainly helps awareness, and these placements certainly can’t hurt.

“When a famous celebrity is seen wearing one of our watches or a piece of jewellery, we will often see an immediate increase in demand,” Piaget’s Boland says. “Celebrities can also spark trends. When Rihanna wore a classic gold Piaget Polo in her music video, ‘Take a Bow’, and on the red carpet, it quickly became popular with fashion editors and other celebrities.

“Sometimes the pieces worn on the red carpet are on loan and sometimes they have actually been purchased by the celebrity,” Boland continues. “Once a person wears a Piaget timepiece or jewellery, they often fall in love with it, and buy it.”

Because of the efforts of watch companies, more and more actors, directors and producers are wearing watches on the red carpet.

"The trend on the red carpet for men is classic and timeless,” Boland adds. “It's why you're seeing Hollywood's leading men wearing dress watches again. The actors are choosing

Dressing the stars Watches or jewellery on celebrities might have gotten there in a number of ways. Sometimes, the celebrities themselves, who might be fans of the brand, request to wear a piece or the agent/manger/stylist makes the initial contact, looking to borrow a watch or a piece of high jewellery for their clients. In other cases, the brands reach out to celebrities.

“We love to dress friends of Piaget,” Piaget’s

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them back from realising the brand’s potential.

“Therefore we decided to balance our communication and added Brad Pitt to our ambassadors team,” Babin details. “He strongly contributed to developing our Carrera line as an icon. Now Leo and Cameron do the same thing. Thanks to them, we can say today that we are not a sports brand anymore, but a luxury brand inspired by sport.”

Other cinematic efforts

Cameron Diaz for TAG Heuer

Rolex mentor Martin Scorsese with protégée Celina Murga

slim, elegant dress watches to complete their looks. Our Black Tie Collection and Altiplanos are in huge demand during awards season because they are so discreet and slip easily under the sleeve of your tux.”

film. Of course, we have James Bond, the character, and Daniel Craig, the actor, as ambassadors so our connection to the franchise is very strong.”

TAG Heuer also uses actors successfully, like Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz and Leonardo DiCaprio.

“Buying a luxury watch is not only about buying a product but also about buying a dream,” says Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO, TAG Heuer.

“A relevant ambassador contributes to create a universe, a lifestyle, a success story around a specific range.

“Actors and celebrities help to attract attention within a wide offer and allow the brand to differentiate itself from others,” he continues.

“In a given magazine where you can have up to 50 pages of advertising, it is key to stand out from the crowd. Of course the first leverage to do so is the design of the watches, but a famous icon such as Leonardo DiCaprio or Cameron Diaz makes it more special and creates a recall in consumers' minds.They will also generate storytelling and, as a consequence, editorials. Finally, during events, celebrities bring their glamorous aura and generate a general feeling of prestige.”

In the past, TAG Heuer used athletes as ambassadors and this resulted in achieving great success as a sports watch brand. TAG Heuer felt that this designation was holding

Actors as ambassadors As long as celebrities have been celebrities, they have been associated with selling products. There are many companies, like Baume & Mercier, TAG Heuer, Roger Dubuis, JaegerLeCoultre, Breitling and more, who actively use actors as ambassadors.

“Omega ambassadors play an important role— they bring a human face to the values of the brand,” explains Stephen Urquhart, President of Omega. “Because our ambassadors have generally achieved great international popularity and success, they bring instant worldwide recognition to Omega—something that cannot be easily matched through traditional marketing channels. Our culture loves celebrities and working with people who are not only well-known but remarkably talented and public-spirited is an essential part of our marketing mix.

“We can certainly point to our association with James Bond as a success story. Each time a new film is released we clearly see a renewed interest in the Seamasters 007 wears in the

Montblanc focused on cinema with its recent “Beauty of a Second” short film contest.

Presented in 2011, Montblanc asked the public to submit one-second videos, reinforcing the value of time and Montblanc’s place in it.

To raise its brand awareness in films and media even more, Hamilton Watch has partnered with film schools around the world, spreading the Hamilton message to writers and directors before they even get into the industry. In exchange for funds to buy equipment, Hamilton has these students producing short works that it uses on its website and in its promotions.

In 2009, Hamilton began working with the Osaka Communication Arts School in Japan.

In addition, they are working with other schools, including Webster University in Geneva, Switzerland and other premiere communication schools around the world.

Rolex has been working in cinema with its Mentor & Protégé program. Some of the luminaries who have been involved with the program include Martin Scorsese, Zhang Yimou, Walter Murch and Stephen Frears [See Pierre Maillard’s article on the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative in this issue].

There are many ways the watch industry and the entertainment world work together. As consumers continue to get bombarded by thousands of media messages a day, brands will continue to find new and inventive ways of standing out from the crowd.

And you can bet that means more involvement in entertainment. O

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Plate Tableware or part of a watch movement?

Discover the world of Fine Watchmaking at www.hautehorlogerie.org

Plate | The plate which bears the various movement parts and in particular the bridges.

The dial is usually affixed to the bottom side of the plate. The plate is pierced with holes for the screws and recesses for the jewels in which the pivots of the movement wheels will run.

The Foundation’s Partners | A. Lange & Söhne | Audemars Piguet | Baume & Mercier | Bovet | Cartier | Chanel | Chopard CHRISTOPHE CLARET | Corum | De BETHUNE | Greubel Forsey | Harry Winston | Hermès | Hublot | IWC | Jaeger-LeCoultre | Montblanc Panerai | Parmigiani | Perrelet | Piaget | Richard Mille | Roger Dubuis | TAG Heuer | Vacheron Constantin | Van Cleef & Arpels | Zenith

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SIHH 51

“Audemars Piguet: infusing a new way of thinking” RInterview conducted

take, but the important thing is how fast we can correct this mistake. From this point of view, the crisis offers us an opportunity. It forces us to make the difference, to weather it as well as we can, to be the best possible. The crisis is a wake-up call!

by Pierre Maillard

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François-Henry Bennahmias, the new ad interim CEO of Audemars Piguet, may be young (48 years old), but he knows the brand by heart.

Not surprising since he has worked there for 18 years. A former high-level professional golfer, he joined Audemars Piguet in 1994 and started his career in the French market before being sent to Singapore and Malaysia, then notably to Australia. During this period, he continued to have responsibilities over various European markets, namely Germany, Spain, Italy and Switzerland. In 1999, however, he was transferred to the United States to launch the brand in this market where it was in a “bad position”. We know the rest: thanks mostly to strong media efforts and partnerships with popular personalities (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jay-Z), Audemars Piguet became an icon in the USA. In light of his success, the family “board” of the Swiss brand looked to Bennahmias when it needed to replace Philippe Merk, who was leaving for reasons of “strategic differences.”

Europa Star: You declared a short time ago that “the brand had rested a little too much on its laurels”. What does this phrase conceal?

Was Audemars Piguet in a bad situation?

François-Henry Bennahmias: Upon my arrival, the brand had enjoyed ten years of pure happiness—ten years of development and of opening new markets. Even the crisis of 2009 did not affect Audemars Piguet too

ES: You define your new strategy as being both “a return to basics and an absolute respect for the brand”. What does that mean in concrete terms?

François-Henry Bennahmias

much. Sales were down 12 per cent compared to other companies that suffered 30 per cent declines or even more. So, at that time, the feeling was to say: it’s all working, we are there! But this is a dangerous attitude because it tends to make you overconfident, and therefore you no longer question what you are doing. But, one is never “there”. All the more so since we are heading into more difficult times. Yet, difficult periods are interesting, since they force us to be more reactive.

No, not “reactive” since that means that you are already late. The right term is “proactive”.

ES: This is a word that does not exist in the French language…

FHB: This is undoubtedly not by chance…

But it is this way of thinking that I want to absolutely infuse in all of our teams. We must dare and we must move forward, without fear of being wrong. We can always make a mis-

FHB: Above all, it means that we must be quality-oriented in everything we do, in all aspects of the brand—product, distribution, service. Insisting on quality rather than quantity involves a whole series of direct consequences, whether upstream on a purely technical level for products whose reliability must be totally irreproachable, or downstream in our relationships with retailers and end consumers. This has led us to rapidly take concrete measures: resizing our distribution network to offer each of our partners a complete palette of products in sufficient numbers; and pausing the release of new products in order to re-establish the brand in the strongest and most precise positioning. The race to always introduce new products is absurd. Watchmaking is not the fashion industry. The public does not live glued to every new watch that comes out. It must digest the offer. And, this offer must be the clearest possible. The collections must be cleaned up and we must be able to say: the Royal Oak is like this; the Millenary is like this. Having said that, we are well balanced in terms of the number of references we have.

ES: You have used an enigmatic expression in saying that Audemars Piguet “should become

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the watchmaking Apple”. It is difficult to understand exactly what you mean by this…

FHB: Ah, but it is simple. We want to create our own standards, as Apple has done in computing. By drawing inspiration from other industries that innovate and work in other ways than the unchanging methods employed by the watch industry, we are going to innovate and travel new roads, especially in terms of service, roads that are in the DNA of the brand, but that will make the difference. I don’t want to say more for the moment, since that would be premature, but we will have a very remarkable new innovation coming in 2013 - 2014.

The Royal Oak Offshore Grande Complication, a contemporary 44-mm diameter titanium and ceramic watch teamed with a rubber strap, is an automatic minute repeater, splitsecond chronograph and perpetual calendar. Within this impressive horological accomplishment, the 648 parts sharing the 8-cm3 space allotted to the movement are finished with exemplary care. Contemporary finishes, such as sandblasting, are designed to highlight more traditional treatments such as bevelling or hand-drawn flanks. The parts are partially visible through the transparent sapphire dial and by a fitted exhibition back. The latter in particular provides a view of the solid gold oscillating weight featuring a black coating serving to accentuate the overall contemporary touch that the watchmakers have chosen to give this threepiece limited edition.

ES: Is it an advantage that Audemars Piguet is a family-owned brand in the current situation where there are strong pressures being exerted in the marketplace?

FHB: Yes, most certainly. It is an enormous advantage. Not only do we not have to worry about the pressures of the stock market, but also the fact that we are a more modest ship gives us greater manoeuvrability [Editor’s note: even so, this year the brand’s turnover was CHF 600 million with 1200 people aboard].

Our ship is not as difficult to handle as an enormous cruise liner. That is one reason.

Another is the extraordinary card that we are holding, a trump card to play with the major retailers. Everyone feels and suffers the pressure exerted by the large groups. These retailers tend today, therefore, to favour the independence of the brands they deal with. And how many brands, regardless of size, are able to generate a turnover of more than CHF 2 million per retailer? You can count them on the fingers of one or perhaps two hands.

Audemars Piguet is one of them. I will let you do the maths…

ES: What is the average price of a watch?

FHB: Around CHF 30,000. For a retailer, this means he sells 70 watches a year to reach the sales figure I just mentioned.

ES: Another sensitive question is that concerning the integration of production, especially these days given the pressure on movements and assortments. Where is Audemars Piguet in regards to this?

FHB: Over time, we want to integrate the few metiers that we still don’t master. This year, we are putting into place a production unit that will be devoted to all of our Royal Oak dials, which are the strong identifying features of the product. Moreover, we have just announced a major investment of more than CHF 30 million on the construction of a new building in Geneva, for Centror, our unit that makes cases and bracelets. As for the famous assortments, we are working on it (smiles). Patience.

ES: On a more personal level, what motivates you the most in your new position?

FHB: Without any hesitation, I can say it is the notion of teamwork. It is being able to succeed in infusing a new attitude into this large team, to push it forward, to bring out the best in the incredible talents that work here, and to encourage and reward initiative.

To sum it up, what motivates me above all is to transmit a new way of thinking. Moreover, I am, and will be, very present at the industrial core of our activity, in the workshops, in the production. I would like to infuse this change of mentality everywhere in the brand so that we are all “proactive” without being afraid. This is perhaps an approach inspired by my American experience. But, I also owe this approach to my German wife, who showed me that there is another way to work, without rigidity but with courage, in a shared and common manner. O For more information about Audemars Piguet click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

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Cartier’s new manufacture chronograph RPaul O’Neil

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Cartier will once again be presenting a number of exciting new products at the SIHH in 2013 but the brand understandably does not want to overwhelm us by presenting everything at the same time. But if the appetiser is anything to go by, the brand is once again set to surpass itself at the show in January, since Cartier has unveiled nothing less than its first in-house self-winding chronograph calibre, the 1904-CH MC. Aficionados will note the column wheel, which is carefully revealed through an open-worked bridge section visible through the transparent case back and sets the movement apart as a chronograph of distinction. But Cartier’s attention to detail went beyond this more visible confirmation of the movement’s quality.

The use of a vertical coupling, for example, ensures no loss of power and eliminates any jumps by the chronograph seconds hand when the chronograph is started or stopped.

Furthermore, the return-to-zero mechanism, which usually rotates, is in this case linear, which guarantees an instantaneous and precise return to zero, regardless of the pressure applied to the chronograph pusher. A degree of flexibility has also been incorporated into the heart cams on the chronograph counters themselves in order to reduce stress on their axles. The movement operates at 4Hz and, thanks to twin mainspring barrels, offers a power reserve of 48 hours.

The new movement finds its first application in a 42mm Calibre de Cartier case in stainless steel or 18-carat red gold with alligator leather straps or metal bracelets. Although the two chronograph counters at 3 and 9 o’clock con-

hour markers for the lower half, with a sectorial date aperture at 6 o’clock. The chronograph uniform is completed by an elegant railway-style minute track that is engraved on the bezel.

fer a slightly sportier touch to the dial, nothing of the traditional Cartier elegance is lost.

An oversized XII Roman numeral and the Cartier name dominate the top of the dial. The Roman numerals continue around the upper half of the dial, switching to baton-shaped

Signature elements such as the sword-shaped hands and the seven-sided crown adorned with a faceted blue synthetic spinel ensure that this new timepiece remains unmistakably Cartier and acts as a fine ambassador for Cartier’s new models in 2013. O For more information about Cartier click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

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Piaget’s strident voice from a slender body RPaul O’Neil

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Piaget has established a solid reputation as a leader in the manufacture of ultra-thin watch movements. After producing the world’s thinnest hand-wound shaped tourbillon movement and ultra-thin versions of some of the main watchmaking complications, the brand now reaches the pinnacle of thinning down the mechanical movement with the presentation of the world’s thinnest self-winding minute repeater movement in the Emperador Coussin Ultra-Thin Minute Repeater.

It has taken the company three years of development work to design and produce the 4.8mm thick Calibre 1290P with its 407 indi-

vidual components. Based on the Calibre 1200P, the world’s thinnest self-winding movement, it contains components whose size is difficult to imagine, some of which—at 0.07mm—are thinner than a hair’s breadth.

In spite of its size, the movement exhibits an exquisite level of finishing with bridges drawn and bevelled by hand with a file, a decorated platinum micro-rotor and polished pink-gold and rhodium-plated screws.

EMPERADOR COUSSIN ULTRA-THIN MINUTE REPEATER

The elegant mechanism is housed inside a 48mm diameter cushion-shaped case from the Piaget Black Tie collection. Fashioned in 18-carat pink gold, the case alone comprises 69 individual elements, yet it is only 9.4mm thick, making this the world’s thinnest selfwinding minute repeater timepiece. In the

absence of a dial, the ornate decoration on both sides of the movement can be admired through sapphire crystals on the front and back of the watch, with the 60 rays of the sunburst engine-turned pattern on the mainplate acting as the watch’s minute markers.

A minute repeater must, of course, be heard in order to be judged. Connoisseurs of this highly complicated mechanism will be able to appreciate the significance of the finer details that allow the hours to be struck in G sharp and the minutes in A sharp in the fifth octave at a volume of 64 decibels—just one decibel less than the level of an average conversation. O For more information about Piaget click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

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Richard Mille’s support for road safety RPaul O’Neil

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The latest high-tech timepiece from Richard Mille, which was presented at the annual awards of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) in Istanbul in December, is a collaboration between FIA president Jean Todt and Richard Mille. Dubbed the RM036 Jean Todt Limited Edition, it boasts a unique new mechanical g-force meter that measures the forces that drivers are subjected to on deceleration.

wound tourbillon. For extra rigidity, the main plate is made of carbon nanofibre and the components of grade five titanium and ARCAP. The g-force meter was developed exclusively for Richard Mille by Renaud & Papi, with whom the brand works closely on movement development. It is assembled directly on the main plate and can indicate g-forces of tens of g, with the scale on the meter at 12 o’clock indicating whether the deceleration is harmless (green), or whether it has reached a level that is critical for the driver (red).

Withstanding such strong forces naturally places greater requirements on the resistance of the mechanical movement that powers the watch—even more so in this case, since the RM036 movement in question is a manually-

Another particularity of this movement is that the entire time-setting mechanism is separated from the main plate, which means that it can be removed from the watch without touching the main plate and without removing the dial or the hands, since it can be accessed easily from the case back side.

This complex yet practical arrangement has a meticulous finish and is housed inside the typical Richard Mille case in grade five titanium, whose complex form requires 86 different pressing operations and 49 stamping operations followed by 20 hours of machine setting and 30 hours of programming on the three

principal components: case middle, bezel and back. After 255 machining operations and five hours of satin finishing and polishing, the finishing touch—the relief engraving of the Richard Mille name—requires a further 45 minutes.

Only 15 drivers will benefit from the unique gforce meter on this RM 036 Limited Edition Jean Todt model, since that is the extent of the limited edition. Richard Mille, however, helps the cause of road safety in a much wider sense, since Jean Todt will donate the profits from the sale of these timepieces to the FIA’s global “Action for road safety” campaign and the ICM Brain and Spine Institute of which he is a co-founder. O For more information about Richard Mille click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

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Roger Dubuis leads the way in self-sufficiency RPaul O’Neil

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A visit to the relatively modest premises of Roger Dubuis in Meyrin, on the outskirts of Geneva, reveals a text book example of what a true manufacture should look like. Not only is every step of the movement manufacturing process mastered internally but the brand is also the only one to certify its entire production with the Poinçon de Genève (Geneva Hallmark – see the article “Putting the seal on quality” in Europa Star 04/2012).

On presenting a selection of Roger Dubuis’s new products for the SIHH 2013, CEO JeanMarc Pontroué stressed that there should be two watchmakers for every other employee if a brand wants to claim a genuine status as a manufacture. In Roger Dubuis’s case, 160 of the total workforce of 250 are indeed watch-

makers. He also emphasised that 40 per cent more time is required to produce watches in accordance with the criteria for the Geneva Hallmark.

Excalibur The Excalibur collection will be the focus of the brand’s attention in 2013. It accounts for 30-40 per cent of total sales and is the number one seller in most major countries. The collection, launched in 2005 with a 45mm case and a double tourbillon movement, is distinguished by its grooved bezel, triple lugs, integrated strap and elongated Roman numerals on the dial.

Covering a wide price range from CHF 13,000 to CHF 550,000, the Excalibur collection offers gents’ and ladies’ models, with the former accounting for two-thirds of the collection and the latter the remaining third. It currently uses fifteen different Roger Dubuis calibres, a figure that will increase next year with the launch of three new calibres in the collection, in addition to a new material in a new 47mm case

diameter and one entirely new case. The 29 new references to be presented at the SIHH in January include new metal bracelets for the 36mm and 42mm case sizes—a first in the Excalibur collection. One such model in the 36mm case diameter is set with no less than 624 diamonds on the new bracelet in red gold, with a further 48 diamonds on the bezel (for a

THE MANUFACTURE Roger Dubuis really does master the entire production process in its facility in Meyrin, Geneva. It starts with the top-secret workshop where two employees produce balance springs behind secure, windowless doors.

The springs then arrive in a small escapement workshop, where the balance springs are fixed to the balance wheels and the pallet stones are fitted to the lever by hand, checked for position, then glued in place.

Elsewhere, milling and wire erosion machines produce movement blanks and individual components, while in a separate workshop that is unlikely to be found in any other watch factory, a whole department works on all components by hand to ensure that they meet the requirements of the Geneva Hallmark. Working to within the strictest tolerances, gear wheel teeth are polished, bevels painstakingly created by hand and the signature Celtic cross of the tourbillon mirror-polished by hand on a diamond stone, the abrasive surface of which actually feels smooth to the touch.

All the Geneva Hallmark components are then meticulously cleaned using a variety of methods before moving on to the assembly line, where watchmakers work in pairs (each one assembling a specific half of the movement), before handing the finished movement over to another watchmaker for adjustment.The movements are then tested to ensure that they meet the new precision criteria for the Geneva Hallmark (a variation of no more than 60 seconds over a period of seven days). Only once they pass this test are they cased up and tested for water resistance—also in accordance with the new Geneva Hallmark criteria.

EXCALIBUR CHRONOMETER

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EXCALIBUR CHRONOMETER-CHRONOGRAPH

EXCALIBUR 42 SKELETON TOURBILLON

total weight of approximately 4.78 carats).

This model is powered by the RD821 selfwinding calibre with small seconds display.

porting structure whose finish is reminiscent of wrought ironwork. This tourbillon is also a COSC-certified chronometer and is available with a case in red or white gold.

In the 42mm case diameter, Roger Dubuis presents a new chronometer-chronograph in stainless steel and with a blue dial. This model will be sold exclusively through the brand’s 20 own-name boutiques and is driven by the new self-winding RD681 chronograph calibre with a micro rotor, whose 280 components work in harmony to display the chronograph seconds centrally, the 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock and small seconds at 9 o’clock.

The Excalibur 42 Skeleton Tourbillon takes its cue from the popular 45mm Double Skeleton and shows off its distinctive, mirror-polished tourbillon cage in the form of a Celtic cross to maximum effect. Only the bare minimum of material has been left after the skeletonisation of the RD505SQ calibre, leaving a sup-

Undoubtedly the pièce de résistance in the batch of new Excalibur models presented by Roger Dubuis at the SIHH 2013, the Excalibur Round Table pays homage to the legend of King Arthur (after whose magical sword the collection is named) and the Knights of the Round Table. The scene is captured beautifully on the piece’s dial, with an enamel disc forming the table, around which three-dimensional sculptures of the twelve knights are seated, each with their hand-forged gold sword laid on the table to form the twelve hour markers.

The self-winding calibre RD822 powering this limited edition of 28 pieces displays only the hours and minutes. A wise choice, since the continuous movement of a seconds hand would disturb this exquisite sculpture.

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EXCALIBUR ROUND TABLE

Distribution Roger Dubuis currently has 20 own-name boutiques, the latest of which, located at the Macau Wynn casino, is the smallest of all. The brand is distributed in a further 170 doors worldwide, a figure that is unlikely to change much, according to Pontroué, who says “our growth will not come from increasing the number of points of sale”. He also proudly points out that, in a survey by the Richemont Group of 600 retailers, three Roger Dubuis stores came in the top ten in terms of customer service. The brand’s in-house design team have created a relaxing lounge-style environment for the own-brand stores, where customers can relax on comfy sofas surrounded by bookshelves—so much the better for an unhurried examination of the intricate finish of the brand’s timepieces. O For more information about Roger Dubuis click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

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BIG BANG “ZEBRA BANG” by Hublot With this new model, Hublot continues the animal-print theme that it started with its Leopard Bang and Boa Bang models. The 41mm case is in black ceramic with a distinctive zebra print dial and strap, with diamonds, colourless topaz and black spinels completing the monochrome look of the watch, powered by the HUB4300 self-winding chronograph movement, which offers a power reserve of 42 hours. This is a limited edition of 250 pieces but with two other models (also limited to 250 pieces each) available in red gold or white ceramic.

ACADEMIA SECONDE RETROGRADE SERENITY by De Witt The imposing 43mm diameter angular case of this piece (which is available in white or rose gold) plays host to an original 30-second retrograde second display in the 6 o’clock position.

Calibre DW1102 is used to power this function—a mechanical self-winding movement that offers 42 hours of power reserve.

GRAND LANGE 1 “LUMEN” by A. Lange & Söhne The German brand famous for its big date display betters its own innovation by presenting the first glow-in-the-dark big date display in this new limited edition of 100 watches.A semi-transparent smoked sapphire crystal dial acts as the perfect background for the highly visible, offcentre time, small seconds and power reserve indications housed in a 41mm diameter case.

Powered by the manually-wound Lange manufacture calibre L095.2, it boasts a power reserve of 72 hours.

SPIDOLITE II TITANIUM BLUE by Linde Werdelin This limited edition of 75 pieces is the first in a series of three new SpidoLite II models. Its 44mm x 46mm case has been modified slightly but maintains its lightweight design and the ability to accommodate the unique Linde Werdelin instruments. Set apart by the galvanic blue tone of its skeletonised dial, with bright orange numerals and hour markers, the SpidoLite II Titanium Blue is powered by the LW 04 calibre—a self-winding movement that is custommade for the brand by Concepto and offers a 42-hour power reserve.

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SIHH 59

Panerai’s celebration of classic yachting RPaul O’Neil

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Panerai watches have such a distinctive look, rooted in the brand’s historic ties with the Italian navy, and a cult following that one may justifiably wonder whether this places certain restrictions on the freedom of its designers.

But this conundrum is neither new, nor does it pose any apparent problem to Angelo Bonati, President of Officine Panerai. Earlier this year, Europa Star put this very question to him.

“We consider Panerai a brand that has an enormous potential for the future,” he replied.

“Somebody asked me the same question twelve years ago. My answer is still the same: we have an enormous potential to explore, why change? It’s true that we don’t have a big square to draw our watches on. We have a narrow street, but this means that you have to be more creative.”

The latest expression of this creativity is a special edition dedicated to the Panerai-sponsored Transat Classique 2012, which has seen a fleet of classic yachts racing in a number of regattas around the world in 2012, travelling 4,000 miles in yachts that are, in some cases, over a hundred years old.

The Luminor 1950 Rattrapante 8 Days Titanio, identified by the reference PAM00427, bears all the usual Panerai hallmarks, such as the Luminor case, the sleek black dial and Panerai’s trademarked crown protector. The lightweight case in brushed titanium, with a contrasting polished titanium bezel, houses the Panerai P.2006/3 calibre, which is a hand-wound splitseconds movement with a double column wheel that offers a power reserve of eight days (dis-

played on Panerai’s typical linear gauge in the 6 o’clock position). Since the patented crown protector takes up most of the right-hand side of the case, the two chronograph pushers are located at 8 o’clock for the chronograph and 10 o’clock for the split seconds.

With the logo of the Panerai Transat Classique 2012 engraved on the case back, this special edition is fitted with a personalised Panerai

rubber strap and large brushed titanium buckle and is supplied with a second strap and the tool required to change it. Issued as a limited edition of 200 pieces, it will be available mainly in the 45 Panerai boutiques worldwide, as well as at a small selection of specialist watch shops. O For more information about Panerai click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

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Baume & Mercier’s seaside odyssey continues RPaul O’Neil

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Baume & Mercier has changed a lot over the past few years. While the brand’s outward identity is now characterised by the appealing seaside escape images inspired by the Hamptons on the eastern tip of Long Island in New York State, an enormous amount of work has been going on behind the scenes to make its distribution more exclusive. The latest new collection, which Baume & Mercier will present at the SIHH 2013, continues the seaside theme with a name taken from the affluent seaside suburb of Cape Town, South Africa – the Clifton.

Inspired by an historic model found in the company’s museum, the Clifton slots perfectly into one of the main axes of the brand’s product strategy, as Baume & Mercier’s CEO Alain Zimmerman explained to Europa Star. “We work along two main lines: Firstly, we have a balanced offer between gents’ and ladies’ models, which is an historical strength of the brand. Secondly, we also keep a balance between classic and sporty models.”

The Clifton The new Clifton collection is firmly positioned in the classic segment, with a carefully reworked interpretation of the round case of the 1950s original that inspired it. “The original piece caught our eye for three reasons,” says Mr. Zimmerman. “The first is that it has a strong design signature, for example with the recessed lugs.The second is the purity of the dial and the third is the ‘chimney-style’ bezel, which is on two levels and gives the watch a vintage look.”

The 41mm stainless-steel case of the new

gents’ Clifton model houses a self-winding Sellita SW260-1 movement with a personalised oscillating mass, circular-grained bridges and black and rhodium-plated screws. Visible through a sapphire crystal case back, the movement provides hour, minute and small seconds display at 6 o’clock, as well as a date window at 3 o’clock. Despite a high level of attention to detail that includes elegant applied Arabic numerals, blued-steel hands and a new folding clasp that does not have to be inserted into the holes of the alligator leather strap (and thus reduces wear on the strap and allows better adjustment), the collection has an aggressively positioned entry-level price of 2,500 Swiss francs. The aim is to appeal to customers looking to trade up into the luxury segment. Or, as Mr. Zimmerman explains,

“someone who will progress from a watch that he may have purchased spontaneously to what we could call a ‘real’ watch. Someone who makes this step wants a watch that will last, so they need a classic design. They want a mechanical movement and they want to be able to see it. These are the considerations that went into the design of the watch.”

Nevertheless, Baume & Mercier also reaffirms its fine watchmaking credentials with an 18-carat red-gold version of the Clifton. Slightly larger at 42mm diameter, it has a more rounded, “chevé”-style sapphire crystal and a domed dial that more closely mimics the 1950s aesthetics of the original model. It is powered by the manual-winding La Joux-Perret calibre 7381, with 90 hours of power reserve, whose

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circular-grained main plate and bridges with Côtes de Genève décor are visible through a transparent sapphire crystal case back. Smaller 39mm Clifton models, as well as a moon phase variation, are being kept under wraps for presentation at the 2013 SIHH in Geneva.

More exclusive distribution The sweeping changes at Baume & Mercier over the past few years have included a drastic reduction in the size of the brand’s distribution network. “Over the past few years we have massively reduced our distribution network, from around 3,000 to around 1,600,” says Zimmerman.

As a result, the brand is in a phase of construction that is incomparable with other more established brands within the Richemont group and suggests an above-average potential for growth. While the brand has been traditionally strong in markets such as the USA (for many years, Baume & Mercier was the only watch brand other than Patek Philippe to be carried in all Tiffany stores), other regions, such as Asia, still require a lot of work. Even with Europe, there is still room for improvement. “In the UK we are far behind the level that we should be at,” explains Zimmerman.

“We have practically had to start from scratch and need retailers who will give us the space.”

“Our business model is different as well,” he continues. “We have a different positioning in terms of price and in terms of distribution, since we are focused more on wholesale, while other brands in the group are more focused on retail.”

Meanwhile, plans to expand the Clifton collection are already in the pipeline. Look out for a version with two different dials at the SIHH, as well as some new ladies’ models in the Linea collection. O For more information about Baume & Mercier click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

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SPIRIT MARK 2 by Speake-Marin Peter Speake-Marin has completely redesigned the Spirit Pioneer model using a new case, dial and movement. The dial alone is as complicated to produce as an enamel dial, requiring the use of different moulds to produce a face that can be bonded to a tradi traditional dial plate. man numerals, hour markers and minute track in Sup The finished dial has bold Roman SuperLuminova, dable display when viewed against the light-absorbing matt m black producing a clearly readable 2mm case in stainless steel houses a new TT738 calibre movement moveme with background. The 42mm unidirectional automatic winding that offers a 120-hour (5 day) power reserve.

TRANSFORMA RIVAGES

by Parmigiani Conceived with the exploits of brand ambassador Bernard Stamm in mind during the Vendée Globe solo round-theworld yacht race, this timepiece can be used as a cockpit instrument or worn as a pocket watch or wristwatch. Its 43mm case is in matt black carbon, with a titanium support. It is powered by the PF334 calibre movement with ¼ second chronograph function, which has a power reserve of 50 hours, and comes with a choice of black calfskin or waterproofed alligator leather straps with a titanium folding clasp.

CHALLENGE JET LINER CARBON by Cvstos Cvstos combines cutting-edge technology with traditional manual crafts to produce its first Tonneau case with carbon inlays.

After the carbon sections are cut by laser, they are inlaid, lacquered and polished by hand in the 53.7mm x 41mm case, which is available in titanium or 18-carat red gold.The Challenge Jet Liner Carbon is powered by the Cvstos CVS3250 calibre selfwinding movement and has a 42-hour power reserve.

UR-210 by Urwerk This 53.6mm x 43.8mm machine in titanium and steel features a unique indication developed by Urwerk. At the top left-hand corner of the dial is an indicator that displays the winding efficiency over the past two hours. Using this, the wearer can adjust the winding efficiency of the UR-7.10 calibre self-winding movement using a selector on the back of the watch.Turbines coupled to the movement, which offers a power reserve of 39 hours, manage this function, while Urwerk’s patented revolving satellite complication displays the time around the bottom half of the dial.

OCULUS V.01 CHRONO “THE DEVIL INSIDE” by Valbray Only six models of this “diabolical” chronograph will be made, with a case in grade five titanium with a red-gold DLC coating. The diaphragm system hidden beneath the dial allows the wearer to choose between a sombre black dial on which only the black hands and the distinctive red seconds hand in the form of the devil’s trident can be seen and the fully open display with the chronograph counters. This model is powered by a self-winding chronograph movement that offers 44 hours of power reserve.

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SIHH 63

Ralph Lauren’s Sporting World Time in steel RPaul O’Neil

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After concentrating on the Art Deco 867 collection at last year’s SIHH, for the 2013 edition Ralph Lauren Watch & Jewelry turns its attention to a democratisation of the Sporting World Time collection, with a new brushed stainless-steel version in dark blue tones.

The Sporting line was one of the debut collections presented at the SIHH in 2009, together with the Slim Classique and Stirrup models, and has evolved to encompass the Classic, Automotive and Chronograph models. The most recent models to be launched were the Sporting World Time pieces, inspired by Ralph Lauren’s love of travel and exploration, which have until now only been available with precious-metal cases in yellow and white gold and with classic white or black dials.

In the new model, the familiar 45-mm case, with its six visible screws fixing the bezel to the case, is in brushed stainless steel. It extends the collection and remains unmistakably Ralph Lauren with its transferred Roman numerals and railway-style minute track around the circumference of the deep-blue varnished dial.

The function after which the watch is named, the world time indicator, remains relatively discreet in the 6 o’clock position below the power reserve display at 10 o’clock and the date sub-dial at 2 o’clock and above an aperture in which the city corresponding to the second time zone is displayed. The day/night indicator, found in the 9 o’clock position on the sub-dial, is equally discreet. A simple press on the pushbutton at 10 o’clock is all that is needed to change the time zone, while a separate hidden corrector at 2 o’clock is used to correct the date.

This complication is driven by the RL 939 calibre movement, which was developed by JaegerLeCoultre for Ralph Lauren. The self-winding movement boasts a high-quality finish of Côtes de Genève and circular graining, as well as a 40-hour power reserve, and operates at 28,000 vibrations per hour. A cobalt blue alligator leather strap completes the vibrant blue aspect of the piece, which is water resistant to 100 metres. O For more information about Ralph Lauren click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

www.baselworld.com

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SERVICE, PLEASE! 65

Service, please!

A NEW SECTION IN EUROPA STAR

I

vice when it is difficult to find the necessary qualified watchmakers whose training is so expensive? How can a brand improve the quality control of products in a climate where the pressure to continuously come out with new ones is so great? Is the number of watches returned exploding? Should a brand distribute the component parts for repairs to third parties, or try to control everything in-house?

In the world of watchmaking there is a continent, somewhat obscure, on which the media projectors rarely cast their light—much too rarely. What we are talking about is “service”.

The press is full of talk of brands and the excellence in their know-how, technology, design and products. Yet, once the product is sold, it often seems like that everything stops there. So many comments come to us from customers who are profoundly disappointed, even sometimes disheartened, by the way in which their preferred brand manages its aftersales service. Unacceptable delays, risky repairs and prohibitive prices are among the complaints that we hear.

Worse still, it is apparent that not all clients are equal, depending on where they live.

When reading the very instructive Letter from China by Jean-Luc Adam, who manages our office in Shanghai, it is quite clear that aftersales service in China is at best vague and at worst non-existent. Too busy filling the shelves of retailers and trying to put a watch on the wrist of every Chinese citizen, many brands have sub-contracted the less glamorous side of their business—after-sales service—to companies that deal indifferently and anonymously between “watches in plastic and watches in platinum”.

It is a danger for them to be so concerned with the client before the sale but then forget about them afterwards. Having quality aftersales service is a question of trust, of longterm growth and ultimately of the survival of the brand.

The side-effects of this reprehensible negligence are beginning to be felt. Chinese blogs are full of Kafkaesque stories, sometimes to the point of forcing certain brands to backpedal to silence the growing rumours. Brands run a real risk in neglecting after-sales service.

There are a number of questions to be answered and numerous obstacles to be overcome in order to set up a satisfactory after-sales service. Should it be considered as a “profit centre” or as a costly ethical obligation? How can a company build good and efficient ser-

These are the questions, among others, that we discuss in this new and, henceforth, regular section in Europa Star, that we inaugurate with this issue. We will provide both good and bad examples, since not everything is as bleak as we have just described. Good practices exist and, let’s be honest, customers must also assume their share of responsibility when things don’t run as smoothly as they should.

While all car owners are aware that they must regularly take their vehicle in for servicing, it is not always the same for owners of watches, whose “engines” run 24 hours a day. But explaining to a client who has just spent thousands of dollars on a watch that he must regularly have his timepiece serviced—and that it will cost him—is not the most enviable task. This information should naturally, however, be part of the “before-sales” service.

Service is a long chain that begins at the factory, continues with the retailer, and then is carried out in the anonymous workshops where the products are sent. More transparency in the operation and nature of after-sales service will by no means hurt the watch industry. Quite the opposite. Providing better transparency by revealing the good and the not-so-good practices is a modest “service” that Europa Star aims to offer to the watch community. O

66 SERVICE, PLEASE! europa star

Reinventing customer service at Piaget RKeith W. Strandberg

S

Some companies see after sales service as a grudging obligation, one they would rather not fulfil. Sure, they’ve sold the watches, but they don’t really want to see them come back.

For Piaget, the attitude is something altogether different. Europa Star was fortunate enough to talk with Piaget’s director of customer service, Didier Théraulaz, about how the brand handles this critical part of the watch business.

Attitude is important “After sales service is not the first priority in terms of turnover sales, but it is a priority for the clients and the image of the brand,” says Théraulaz. “In the structure of the company, customer service is under the direct responsibility of the CEO, Philippe Leopold-Metzger. I report directly to Mr. Leopold-Metzger—what he wanted when he created this department, customer service, was to change from after sales service to something more client-oriented.

“Usually, in the industry, after sales is very passive,” he continues. “Ordinarily, watch com-

panies design, produce and sell watches, wait for quite a while, then sooner or later the client will come back with a problem. We wanted to be more proactive. For the client, after sales service can be a very negative experience, and as a result, it’s not positive for the brand’s image. We want to take this negative and change it into a positive.”

Starting with the sale

Didier Théraulaz

Education about service starts at the time of sale. “Our goal is for the sales professionals to be at ease explaining why service is needed, and why it is an asset of Piaget. When the client buys from Piaget, we want to use after sales as a tool in creating a relationship with our clients.

“Regular service helps to preserve the value of the watches over time and we believe that it is good for our brand image.

“Now, we inform the client when we sell a watch with a leaflet that explains service, that the watch will need maintenance sooner or later.”

In addition, Piaget regularly mystery-shops its boutiques and retailers to make sure their sales associates handle service clients appropriately and are able to convey the key messages when talking about service. The point is for Piaget to proactively communicate with its clients about watch service, trying to head off a problem before it occurs.

“Either we can wait until a problem occurs and the negative experience follows, or we can contact the client three years after purchase and remind him he bought a Piaget watch and as a mechanical product, it needs maintenance,” Théraulaz details.

The maintenance service costs a set amount of money. If the watch is working fine, Piaget

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SERVICE, PLEASE! 67

“Our objective is to deliver a good quality repair, which is not always easy, because every watch is unique, and each watch has a different story. “ makes sure it is still waterproof, checks the oils, and if there is nothing special, Piaget only invoices for a maintenance service. Should something more serious be found, a representative of Piaget contacts the client to explain the situation.

Piaget just started this programme of contacting its clients, and by no means has the response

watches, but in order to have control over such a crucial process, Piaget has invested in its own service centres.

“Piaget has about 60 full time technicians all around the world in our own service centres, so we can do the maintenance locally, and we try to turn a regular complete service around in 30 days,” says Théraulaz. “If the watch has

been overwhelming. “The rate of return has been limited, but at least it is starting to work,” Théraulaz admits. “More and more the clients are responding to it. The response rate will never be 100 per cent, but it is getting better.

Piaget acknowledges that the company, and the industry in general, has to do a better job of educating watch owners about the need for regular, preventive service. “That’s why we have created this leaflet so our sales associates can talk about the service needs of the watch,” Théraulaz says. “It’s not easy, however, to talk about maintenance when we sell a watch, while keeping the dream alive.”

to be sent back here to Switzerland, it takes much longer. We want to do as much of the service in the local markets, and we manage to do 95 per cent of the service and repairs locally.”

Explaining the need for time is important, as clients are used to same day service with their cars and other products. “The turnaround all depends on the work needed and the spare parts required—we might have to order the parts from Switzerland, for example,” Théraulaz explains. “Usually, our clients have several watches. When they buy from Piaget, it’s usually not the first luxury watch they buy. We started proposing a replacement watch to the clients, but most of them didn’t need it.

“Our clients are less interested in the lead time, but what they expect is that if we say it will be one month, we have to respect the deadline we set,” he continues. “If after sales

Piaget service centres Piaget operates 22 service centres around the world, plus the service centre at the headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Some retailers are equipped to service and repair Piaget

is already a negative experience, taking longer makes it worse.”

Quality first Turnaround time is an important concern, but so is getting service and repair right the first time. “Our first priority is the quality of the repairs,” says Théraulaz. “Our objective is to

deliver a good quality repair, which is not always easy, because every watch is unique, and each watch has a different story. Our watchmakers have to be trained on a number of different movements—we have 30 different movements in our current collection, but we have 130 movements in the history of Piaget that need to be worked on. We have trainers throughout the world that train our watchmakers locally. The quality of the spare parts is assured, because as an integrated manufacture, we can reproduce whatever we need, we don’t rely on external suppliers for the movement, the case, the bracelet or for most of the components. We have documentation as well when we create a new product.

When the first piece hits the market, the technicians are ready to service it. For some products, we need special tools, and these are developed during the development of the

68 SERVICE, PLEASE! europa star

“For a watchmaker, developing new movements is a very good job, but when maintaining watches, one watchmaker does the entire work.”

Institute of Swiss Watchmaking (IOSW) schools in Shanghai, the USA and Hong Kong.

watch, so these are sent to our repair centres.

We also have the customer service department integrated in the development of new products. We don’t want to repeat any current or past issues in future products.”

According to Théraulaz, Piaget has had no trouble finding watchmakers to work in after sales service, as it’s a challenging and very

Customer service is about meeting the continuing needs of Piaget’s customers. “The fact that we are able to care about our products and client, rather than just being interested in

interesting area of concentration. Unlike serial production, every watch that comes in to be serviced is different, and figuring out what the problems are is a bit like solving a mystery.

“For a watchmaker, developing new movements is a very good job, but when maintaining watches, one watchmaker does the entire work,” he details. “Usually, the watchmakers we have in service are among the best in our company. They have to know so much, and they have to treat each watch as a special story. We can attract qualified people because the job is very interesting, there can be surprises, and it is really challenging. I discovered that the watchmakers like what they do because it’s not always the same.”

In the countries where Piaget is seeing a shortage of watchmakers, the brand in partnership with Richemont and Wostep has developed schools to train their own watchmakers—

the money, is a positive message,” Théraulaz says. “We don’t look at customer service as a profit centre—what we want in the end is to cover the cost, we want it to be break even, which is not the case yet. After sales service is costly—the infrastructure, the stock, the personnel, the support team, the documentation, the training and more.

“Our commitment to customer service shows to our clients that we will be here 20 years from now to service their watches,” he continues.

“We can service almost 100 per cent of the products sent back to us for service. Recently, we had a high jewellery watch sent back, and it was destroyed—we couldn’t even figure out what happened to it. It had to come back here to the manufacture in Switzerland, and we prepared the estimate, and it was so high, several hundreds of thousands of Swiss francs, but it was a high jewellery product already. We sent

Continued contact

the estimate, explaining the reasons. The client first said no, then five months later came back to us to give us the go ahead. The result was that the watch was almost like new. The restoration can be seen as an expensive service, but when the client receives it back, it’s like a new watch.”

Piaget will soon introduce a new box designed specifically to deliver watches back to clients

after service. This is just another example of Piaget’s commitment to making the customer service experience a pleasurable one.

Opportunity rather than obligation Customer service can be seen as a drain on resources, but at Piaget, “everyone agrees that we have to invest in customer service,” Théraulaz says. “Now, we are developing a new quartz movement, because with the old quartz movement we had some after sales service problems linked to the obsolescence of the technology. We have the resources to do this. I have never been forbidden to do an investment to improve our service. We recognise that this is a priority.” O For more information about Piaget click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

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SERVICE, PLEASE! – LETTER FROM CHINA 69

Customer care in China: Does anyone really care?

For the happy Chinese owner of a “Swiss Made” watch, the dream quickly turns to a nightmare when after-sales service is required. This is a scandal that the brands have swept under the carpet, almost…

Jean-Luc Adam, head of the Europa Star bureau in Shanghai, reports his own experiences, along with those of Chinese customers, when confronted with the difficulties in obtaining after-sales service for watches in this country. Since the aim of this article is not to criticise any particular brand or group but to draw attention to a widespread deficiency, we have deliberately removed the names involved in these examples. But we have no doubt that those in question will know who they are.

RJean-Luc Adam

T

Today, in the West, the client is king, but his accession to the throne has been a battle over several generations. First of all, it passed by the consumer protection laws (more guarantees), then by a competition among manufacturers (more services) and finally by the saturation of the markets (more brand loyalty).

After-sales service, maintenance and even recycling are more and more integrated into the product and the industry approaches the client as a partner to be respected.

In China, this same process did not take place, primarily because access to mass consumption occurred not only in a different political context but it also happened quite recently and much too brutally. In three decades, the nongmin (small farmer) left his lands to become a citizen of a growing metropolis, sitting at the wheel of his Baoma (BMW) with an Oumijia (Omega) on his wrist. At the end of 2012, China counted 2.7 million millionaires and a rising consumer middle class of 700 million.

Quickly, it became clear that demand largely exceeded supply, thus reversing, right from the start, the relationship between the seller and the buyer. This is why the after-sales service disparages the client.

Personal experience Before discussing the experience of the Chinese, I would like to convey my own experience, since it gives a Western viewpoint of the problem.

After four years in China, I have had to deal with

after-sales service of large brands on several occasions involving various consumer goods.

The first surprise, don’t bother going to the brand’s store. After-sales services are always grouped together in a customer care centre, generally one office per city. It is a large room where you wait an eternity before your number is finally called. Since the usual minimum contractual guarantee of six months has generally expired, you must pay for the repairs. Yet, I have always been positively surprised by the estimate and the repair time. But this is understandable, since the parts and labour are Chinese.

For example, I paid CHF 30 to replace the 13inch screen of my notebook computer.

In the consumer electronics sector, the personnel are generally competent because they repair computers, TVs and smart phones by the millions. In the automobile sector, the level deteriorates because of the complexity of the product and rather poorly trained employees.

The national and international manufacturers have, however, provided computer-assisted maintenance and repairs. Since the cars are made locally, the replacement parts are quickly available.

The exception, Swiss watches According to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, from 2005 to 2011, exports have increased 57 per cent to reach a total of CHF 19.3 billion. And, it must be pointed out that this success is largely due to Chinese clients (who also purchase a lot in Hong Kong). Swiss watches are the industrial exception since they are not manufactured in China. In addition, at a certain level, the product tends more towards art than micro-mechanics. Finally, faraway Switzerland, which wants to control every-

thing itself, is already overloaded with work.

In China, these reasons affect the after-sales service of the brands in all sectors.

Let’s begin with the mid-range sector and my faithful Swiss watch whose leather bracelet tore apart. I was surprised to discover on the Internet that the problem is recurrent for this model and that buyers are concerned about the mediocre quality of the leather.

I printed out this “evidence”, added the international guarantee certificate and went to the Xiujiahui neighbourhood in Shanghai, where the only customer care centre for the brand is located. Here, I was surprised to see that the centre deals with clients from many brands of the same group, ranging from entry-level watches to sophisticated Haute Horlogerie timepieces. “Just imagine the scandal if the VW group received clients of Bugatti and Bentley in the same workshops as those of Skoda and Seat,” says my neighbour, visibly annoyed with his lovely automatic.

Number 921, it’s my turn! In front of me, behind a window, Tina Tang receives me coldly. “No, you have to pay for that,” she says without even listening to my arguments. When I showed her the guarantee card, she bluntly says, “You bought it in Hong Kong, so in any case…” I could hardly believe my ears. I tried to explain to her that this was no way to treat a client, but Ms. Tang literally sent me packing by asking the security guard to escort me to the door… That was my first experience in 2011.

Return to the scene of the crime For this article, and somewhat apprehensively, I returned to the same customer care centre of the same group, taking a new quartz watch, but one that had stopped. It was the perfect

70 SERVICE, PLEASE! – LETTER FROM CHINA europa star

specimen to verify the points of contention— very frequent it seems—between watch owners and after-sales service centres. At the reception, the employees do not carefully examine the condition of the watch, as the technical specification sheets suggest they do, but rather they systematically indicate everywhere that the watch is “scratched”, thus avoiding any liability.

A pleasant surprise this time, the waiting room had been entirely renovated and enlarged, with the plastic benches and the austere ambiance replaced by designer sofas and cosy decorations. Number 1049, my turn. The surly Ms. Tang had disappeared along with the furniture. In her place was a row of smiling young women. But the anonymous employee did indeed write “scratched” on all the lines of the repair sheet. I couldn’t fault the diagnosis: “It is the battery”. It cost a reasonable 30 yuan (about CHF 4.50) and I had to wait half an hour to get the watch back, an acceptable time.

Meanwhile, the room filled up and the waiting times got longer. Behind the counter, a blue tinted window provided a glimpse into the repair section, where the employees were clearly all Chinese. To sum it up, although the group has clearly improved its service, it still makes no distinction between clients, regardless of whether they have paid hundreds or hundreds of thousands of yuan for their watch.

Reassuring to ensure the sale There are many brands and groups which, on their websites, claim to have dozens of “customer service” centres in China. The majority of these, however, are mono-brand boutiques that are capable of doing only minor repairs.

In reality, the main groups only have three true repair centres in the vast nation of China, in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. So, too bad for the other 218 cities with more than 1 million inhabitants each. And, even more dis-

turbing, the centres do not all have the same level of competence. According to a fan of our Weibo page, a centre in Beijing was incapable of solving a problem relating to the display of the power reserve on his very expensive and robust automatic. The watch had to be sent to the centre in Shanghai, thus meaning another two months of waiting.

In fact, the repair centres of the large groups are Chinese-Swiss collaborations. Yet, this SinoSwiss marriage does not always have to be the case, as exemplified by Rolex (and Tudor) and Patek Philippe, which manage their own aftersales service directly.

For your X, go to Y! The following examples describe the misadventures that two other clients experienced with two prestigious Swiss brands. On July 14, 2012, Tiange Li paid 287,100 yuan, the equivalent of CHF 43,000, for a prestigious classic watch that he bought in a store in the city of Qingdao, before returning to his home in Harbin. Barely 12 days later, he called the store because one of the gold pins in the bracelet kept coming out. It was a “small” problem that could have led to more serious consequences.

Strangely, the store in Qingdao never informed him that the brand also had a boutique in Harbin. Worse still, they advised him to repair the watch at a boutique belonging to brand Y, a competitor brand, which did have a store in Harbin. Li did not understand why brand Y should be dealing with brand X watches, so he refused. Then, he was advised to mail the watch to Qingdao, but given the price of the piece, Li did not want to take the risk. When he looked at the watch’s guarantee, he discovered that the date of purchase had been drawn over. “Oh, our salesgirl likes to draw,” was the response Li got over the telephone. Distraught and filled with doubts on the quality and origin of his watch—was it really new?—Li completely

lost confidence in the Chinese network and decided to clarify the situation directly with the Swiss manufacturer. Will he be successful?

Another story involving a beautiful gold watch costing more than CHF 20,000 generated more than 214 pages of comments in the forum of the famous Chinese website, www.iwatch365.com, before the brand finally decided to do something to help the owner—and then only on the express condition that he would cease and desist speaking about this affair. The story involves a certain Mr. Z, who noticed at midday one day that the hands of his watch were not aligned: the minute hand was four minutes out! At the mono-brand store in Shanghai, the professionals explained to him, “This is normal for a mechanical watch.” Considering this answer to be unacceptable, this brand aficionado had his watch sent to the service centre. After several days, with no answer, he called the centre, and was informed that the watch had been returned to the store, along with the invoice. Invoice? Mr. Z was not about to pay one cent for such a problem, all the more so since the watch was still under guarantee.

When he got the piece back, it had clearly not been repaired since the hands were still not aligned. Yet, the summary repair order stated: “There is no problem with the watch.” When he contacted the brand’s general management they refused to follow up on the matter. For Mr. Z, the shock was severe, the disillusionment profound. It was inexplicable that they should refuse to repair a fault that was so blatant. Left hanging out to dry by the brand, he decided to tell his story on a specialised Internet forum, where he discovered that he was not the only one to be (mis)treated this way. After more than 2,000 comments, the brand’s management finally realised the scale of the problem and agreed to reimburse Mr. Z, but only on condition that he agreed, in writing, to remain quiet on this subject. O

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SERVICE, PLEASE! – OPINION 71

Thierry Stern’s opinion on customer service in China

RJean-Luc Adam

D

During the inauguration of the Maison Patek Philippe last November in Shanghai, Thierry Stern, the CEO of the prestigious Swiss brand, publicly expressed his opinion on after-sales service in China. “In the luxury industry in China, notably for watches, there are enormous numbers of complaints, for three reasons. The first is that the brands do not pay enough attention to after-sales service. If they did, it would mean a huge cost. They do not want to invest or get involved. The second reason is that it takes a lot of time to repair a watch and Chinese clients generally have no patience. As for the third reason, this relates directly to the watch industry, which suffers from a lack of qualified watchmakers. The problem is already apparent in Europe, but in China, it is extremely difficult to find experienced employees. This is why Patek Philippe decided to create two centres for after-sales service, with a team of 20 people in Shanghai and 20 to 25 in Beijing. It represents a colossal, but necessary, investment. In addition, we are creating a training centre for watchmakers in Shanghai, taught by experienced watchmakers from Geneva. This is how we can maintain

the same level of after-sales service abroad as we have in Switzerland.”

Will the after-sales service situation improve in China? “That is difficult to say, since the brands are not facing up to this reality. On the other hand, Patek Philippe is a family brand that wants to preserve its generations-old reputation. It is our priority mission. With this in mind, after-sales service is capital in our eyes. I might add that, today, nearly all the brands repair only watches that are less than 30 years old.

Beyond that, it has become impossible. At Patek Philippe, we consider this policy unacceptable, which is why we have the capability of repairing all our models, irrespective of when they were made. It also explains the very high prices that our timepieces fetch at auction. This capability, however, requires an even larger investment.” O For more information about Patek Philippe click on Brand Index at www.europastar.com

72 SERVICE, PLEASE! – LETTER FROM FRANCE europa star

The Chinese salesgirls at the Galeries Lafayette RAntoine Menusier

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Profession: Watch salesgirl at the Galeries Lafayette. Origin: Chinese.

The Chinese watch salesgirl is a formidable commercial asset. All the more so in the legendary store on the Boulevard Haussmann in Paris, a store visited every day by hundreds of Chinese tourists who speak hardly any French or English. These tourists have not come to the City of Light to practice a language that is not their own, but rather to admire and to purchase its jewels. And this is why the Chinese salesgirls are so important.

Xiaoting works at the Swatch stand in the watch department, located on the ground floor of the large store with the Art Nouveau dome, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year and wants the whole world to know it. The young woman has been working at the stand for only a month. “I studied international business and am married to a French man,” she explains. “Before, I lived in Nancy (editor’s note: a city in north-eastern France), but this was not ideal for work.”

Around fifteen Chinese salesgirls, like Xiaoting, work at various watch sales points in the Galeries Lafayette. Not all of them speak French as well as she does. But speaking the language of Molière is not what is asked of them. The positions in the watch department are at least doubled up and divided according to the target customer. So the Chinese customer is served by the Chinese, and they are very busy. The tourists from the Middle

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SERVICE, PLEASE! – LETTER FROM FRANCE 73

“We need to take Chinese language classes in order to welcome Chinese customers, to convey technical terms, and to guide the clients inside the store.”

Kingdom make up 80 per cent of buyers and contribute 60 to 70 per cent of turnover in the watch section of the store, according to a French salesman.

The young Chinese women receive training for one or two days, which is given by their particular employer. The Swatch Group teaches them the fundamentals of watchmaking vocabulary at its office situated on the Avenue Kléber, in Paris’s 16th arrondissement. They get most training, however, on the job. They are quick learners and, at first glance, seem to manage quite well.Automatic, quartz, mechanical… The Chinese salesgirl at Hamilton knows the basic nomenclature. At the nearby competitor Tudor, a brand developed by Rolex, her colleague details the different metals and decoration—gold, steel and diamonds—then adds, “two years of international guarantee”.

The Chinese customers go right to the point.

“They know which watches they want, and they are not demanding like the French clients,” muses Xiaoting with a knowing smile. Her young French colleague then adds, “Most of the Chinese customers pay in cash, up to €2,000. They only want to know if the watch can go in water.” The Chinese buyer does not come to spend time pondering the various models. The tour bus is waiting for them outside the store. Often, they come with a shopping list of up to six or seven watches, all Swiss Made, of course, a sign of social prestige in Shanghai and Chengdu.

Buying watches in Europe rather than back home has its advantages for the Chinese. In Europe—in this case, Paris and the Galeries Lafayette—he can be assured of the authenticity of the products, more so than in China,

which is known for its propensity towards counterfeits. Also, the Chinese government levies rather heavy taxes on luxury goods. The most visited watch stand in the Galeries Lafayette is, it seems, that of Longines. “It is the brand’s third highest selling location in the world,” a salesperson assures us.The manufacturer in Saint-Imier can certainly thank its Far Eastern clientele for this distinction.

The phenomenon of the Chinese salesgirl is just as common in the “luxury” section of the store. At Louis Vuitton, an Asian-style Bond Girl has been with the brand for four years and in France for ten. She shares her time between the sale of watches and the sale of handbags, whose success with Asian clients is now well demonstrated. As with all nonEuropean Union foreigners, these feminine agents of the nation of the dragon, so useful in European commerce, are subject to certain quotas. “When a Chinese salesgirl does her work well, we can help her to obtain a longterm residence permit for France,” explains an employee at Chopard.

The sales point of the French manufacturer Michel Herbelin has yet to adapt to the influx of Chinese customers. But it is something they are thinking about. “We need to take Chinese language classes in order to welcome Chinese customers, to convey technical terms, and to guide the clients inside the store,” a salesgirl explains. “We prefer to train ourselves rather than hire a Chinese girl. This allows us to keep our staff.” This autumn, the French minister for industrial renewal, Arnaud Montebourg, a poster boy for the “Made in France” revival, praised the “Newport Watch Club” model of this brand from the Franche-Comté region.

How do you say “incorrigible French” in Chinese? O

74 WORLDWATCHWEB europa star.com

An updated look at the Chinese luxury watch market in 2012 REcho Zhiyue Zhou, China Digital Project Manager, Digital Luxury Group

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Winners monopolise but a market difficult for new players to crack In an immature market where awareness of many smaller brands is yet to be cultivated, the lucky winners enjoy greater dominance than in other markets. The top three players in China, Omega,

Top Five Luxury Watch Models in China

': ion llat ste on a 'C eg Om

The western region is waking up Maybe not surprising to those who have been following China for some time, the first significant trend our report reveals is that the western region is really waking up. To give some quick background, among three major economic regions in China, the west is known as the least developed, and the least “infiltrated” by luxury brands. Starting a decade ago and accelerating in recent years, the central government is giving the western region increasing strategic support to narrow the gap between the inland and coastal cities. Consequently, the economy of the west has started to boom, and luxury consumption follows with it.

Reflected in the luxury watch industry, we observed a clear increase in the share of luxury watch related searches in the west. In particular, the awareness of brand names, specifically, grows the fastest with a year-on-year increase of 8.4 per cent (as compared to 4.8 per cent in the eastern region). No doubt that it is just a matter of time before luxury watch brands all lunge for the west, just like they did years ago in the big eastern cities of Shanghai, Beijing, etc.

Rolex and Longines, seized 50 per cent of the total search volume share, while the top 10 represents an overwhelming 80 per cent share. Benchmarked against a mature market such as France, where the top three brands take only 31 per cent and the top ten take 64 per cent, the difference is clear. A similar market dynamism is also observed at model level, as the top five most searched for models capture over half of the search market share (see chart).

Ch an el

T

The topic of weakening luxury sales in China has been much discussed for some time now.

Adding to that the politically sensitive period of the government shift once every decade, which leads to a calming of extravagant gift-giving between officials, this year has certainly been an interesting and dramatic time to take a closer look at the luxury watch sector in China. The recently released World Luxury Index™ China: Watches, gives an opportunity to evaluate the rhythms of the market, the ups and downs of individual brands, as well as what is going on in the consumer’s mind.

(© Digital Luxury Group, 2012)

As this shows, the watch market in China is, for the moment, difficult for new players to crack. Unlike in the luxury fashion or accessories sector, where we have observed a trend that Chinese consumers are actually turning to those more understated, niche brands, watches are different. Consumers are still seeking the most well-known brands and models, possibly to feel more secure in spending such a large amount of money on an item that they will wear every day, and that their business partners and peers will see.

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Chinese consumers express clearer and more distinguished needs This year, volume for searches for specific watch styles (such as “classic” or “women’s”) has surpassed the volume of searches for price in China. Now the most common category of searches, the hunt for specific styles represents 8.6 per cent of total searches (the worldwide average of style searches being 1.5 per cent). This is a sign of a more sophisticated need expressed by Chinese consumers, as more and more people are searching for a Brand Name + Style , such as ”Rolex men’s watches”, or ”Longines classic watches,” instead of simply the brand name. Moreover, it’s also interesting to note the ”Chinese way” of approaching a brand: instead of first discovering the models as consumers usually do in a mature western market, the Chinese will seek to meet their own needs as a first request: men’s, women’s, couples etc.

Couples? It is worth noting the popularity of couples’ watches in China, which seems to be a the result of a particular consumer demand. So-called ”couples’ watches” or ”lovers’ watches” are a popular gift option for weddings, as well as an anniversary or Valentine’s Day gift between the couple themselves. Some brands have long sensed this demand and designed exquisite packaging to feature a pair of carefully selected watches matched for colour and shape.

Remember that Chinese speak Chinese!

The language barrier between English or French and Chinese is phenomenal, as more and more western marketers are now realising. However, it could become even more overwhelming for some watch brands who didn’t get it right from the outset. To ask your consumers to remember your Western name is hard in China. On the flip side, once a name is remembered, even if it’s not the official brand name, it can be hard to forget too. As an example, Hublot, which changed its Chinese name from ‘恒宝’ (Heng Bao) to ‘宇舶’ (Yu Bo) years ago, is still receiving over 50 per cent of brand name search queries under their old name. The implication of this could be more serious than you might think: it basically means the brand needs to double its efforts in search engine marketing in order to enable people who are looking for the brand online to actually find it.

WORLDWATCHWEB 75

Breakdown of Brand Name Searches for Hublot in China 宇舶 (Official Chinese name) : 3.70 %

恒宝 (Previous Chinese name) : 55.60 %

Hublot : 40.70 %

(© Digital Luxury Group, 2012)

The language issue does not only spring up at a brand name level, but goes much deeper at all levels of a brand’s marketing efforts, such as watch model names. Here the principle is either you as the brand create the name, or else consumers will do it for you. Omega’s De Ville collection has achieved enormous success in China. Among all the reasons for this, its carefully translated Chinese name may have been an important contributor. The Chinese translation of De Ville, ‘蝶飞’, whose pronunciation is close enough to the original, means ”flying butterfly” in Chinese, an easy-to-remember, yet extremely elegant name for the local audience. A counter (although not necessarily negative) example is for the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner, to which Chinese followers have given the name of “green water monster” (绿水鬼) for the green-dial version and “black water monster” (黑水鬼) for the black-dial version. It is, however, the official semantic translation for the model that is mostly used in the brand’s own press releases and news reports. O A free version of the World Luxury Index™ China: Watches is available for download at www.digital-luxury.com/chinawatches.

76 RETAILER PROFILE europa star

BTC Trading – Egypt’s leading watch retailer RKeith W. Strandberg

E

Egypt has been in the news quite a lot recently. As “Arab Spring” bloomed throughout the Middle East, the Egyptians rose up and demanded change, culminating in the first free elections in the country in many years. This upheaval, while good for the country and for the people, has been a challenge for all retail businesses in Egypt, and especially for discretionary purchases like watches.

In spite of the political upheaval and economic challenges, Egypt's leading watch retailer, BTC, has been able to survive, expand and thrive.

On a recent trip to Cairo, I had the opportunity of discussing business with Ayman Nassif, Managing Director of BTC Trading.

Europa Star: Can you give me some background on your business?

Ayman Nassif

Ayman Nassif: The company was started by my grandfather, Loria Wassef, in 1935, and the first store was a watch and jewellery boutique in Fayoum City, which is about 100km from Cairo, under the name Loria Shop. My grandfather is a watchmaker and he will celebrate his 100th birthday this year. He still comes to the office once a week.

He started the shop in Fayoum and trained my father and my uncle. They wanted the business to grow, so they opened a boutique in Cairo in the late 1940s to establish another branch. The business started to grow with his help. They wanted to change the name of the company, because the name was difficult for people to pronounce, so they chose BTC.

Loria Wassef / The first shop in 1935

ES: How’s business?

AN: Frankly speaking, business is still fine, even though the political and social situation here in Egypt is difficult. The higher you go in price, the more difficult it becomes.

Business was slightly down last year, and the high end and the duty free is affected more than the local market, as fewer tourists are coming to Egypt.

ES: How is your business broken down?

AN: We have four types of stores—BTC Exclusive: $4,000 and up; BTC: Swiss Made, medium priced brands; Link: fashion and BTC

europa star

Duty Free: five international airports, terminals 1, 2 and 3 in Cairo, also in Sharm el-Sheikh, Hurghada Airport, with some high-end brands like Bulgari, as well as fashion brands.

ES: How does the future look?

AN: I feel that there is big potential in Egypt, especially after the old regime has gone, we expect that the new Egypt will have a more just dispersion of wealth, which will allow the middle class to grow.

ES: What does BTC do best?

AN: We only really have competition in the high-end segment. In the mid-price segment, there is really no one else that has a professional approach. We dominate the market, and we are Egypt’s largest watch distributor, in terms of value and volume.

ES: How do you do training?

AN: We do three kinds of training – we have people from the brands come here and provide training, and some of our people will travel to Switzerland for training. Our brand managers also do watch training for the sales staff.

ducing new watch and jewellery collections.

We are the number one spender on advertising in Egypt for the watch business. We do outdoor (billboards), print advertising, we do our own magazine, we do print brochures, we sponsor events like the Catholic Film Festival, concerts and more.

ES: Do you do your own service?

AN: We have three BTC service centres here in Egypt. We do warranty service, complete service for most of the brands. Most of the work we can do here, except for repairing the more sophisticated complications.

ES: How important is customer service?

AN: Customer service is another tool to push sales. If a customer is satisfied with the service we give him, he will be happy and buy more. We try to upgrade our service all the time—for example, we invested in nice boxes to deliver the watches in after service, and that is very appreciated by our customers. Our customer service centre is not a profit centre, our main aim is to please the customers.

ES: What do you like about what you do?

ES: How do you market your company?

AN: We do some events with our customers.

We invite our customers, the crème de la crème, and these have been really successful, intro-

AN: I like the watch business, I like the idea that there are hundreds of watch brands, but every brand is different in design, philosophy and price point.

RETAILER PROFILE 77

ES: What is the biggest challenge you face?

AN: The biggest challenge is the price increases and the upgrade of brands’ product lines in the mid-price segment. People in Egypt cannot afford these increases, so this can really impact our business.

A lot of our brands are coming in parallel and it’s a problem here. If we find a retailer who has parallel, we stop supplying any of our brands.

Since we are the Egyptian distributor for a number of brands, if we pull all our brands from a retailer who is doing parallel, it can really hamper their business.

Counterfeiting is a big problem here, with fakes coming from China and other countries.

We train customs how to differentiate between the real thing and fakes, and we report to the authorities if we find fakes in the market. We also educate our customers about the dangers of counterfeits. We don’t want it to grow. O

FACTS AND FIGURES: Total stores: 40 Average square metres: from 30 - 150 square metres Employees: 155 Price range: $125 - $250,000 Link average sale: $275 BTC average sale: $600 BTC Duty Free average sale: $300 BTC Exclusive average sale: $13,000 Total Brands: 35 (including Corum, Girard-Perregaux, Piaget, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Ulysse Nardin, Chanel, Rado, Hamilton, Tissot, Raymond Weil, Gucci, Burberry, cK, Emporio Armani, Boss, Cerruti,Tommy Hilfiger, Balmain, DKNY, Timberland, Michael Kors, Festina, Candino, Titoni, Swatch, Graham London, Adidas, Diesel and Lacoste).

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Managing Director: Philippe Maillard EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief: Pierre M. Maillard • pmaillard@europastar.com Senior Editor: D. Malcolm Lakin • mlakin@europastar.com International Editor: Keith W. Strandberg • keiths821@aol.com Managing Editor: Paul O’Neil • poneil@europastar.com Editorial Consultant: Casey Bayandor • cbayandor@europastar.com Asst. Publisher: Nathalie Glattfelder • nglattfelder@europastar.com CONTRIBUTORS • Italy: Paolo de Vecchi • Germany: Gerhard Claussen, Timm Delfs • France: Antoine Menusier • Australia: Martin Foster • Russia: Vyacheslav Medvedev • Portugal: Miguel Seabra • Romania: George Gisca • China: Jean-Luc Adam • Art & Techniques of Watchmaking: Jean-Claude Nicolet ART Alexis Sgouridis • asgouridis@europastar.com Dummy: Fonderie Grafix, Geneva MARKETING & CIRCULATION PRINT/E-MEDIA Marketing & Circulation Director: Nathalie Glattfelder • nglattfelder@europastar.com Marketing & Circulation Manager: Jocelyne Bailly • jbailly@europastar.com PUBLISHING & PRODUCTION PRINT/E-MEDIA Advertising Manager: Laurence Chatenoud • lchatenoud@europastar.com Editorial, Production & Advertising Coordinator: Talya Lakin • tlakin@europastar.com

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Editorial & Advertisers’ index A A. Lange & Söhne 58 Amida 37 Audemars Piguet 8-9, 40, 42, 44, 51-52 Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi 13, 55 B BaselWorld 64 Baume & Mercier 45, 46, 48, 60-61 Breguet 38, 40, 44 Breitling 42, 48 C Carl F. Bucherer 31 Cartier 21, 53, 74 Casio 43 Centror 52 Chanel COVER I, 12-15, 74 Chopard 45, 73 Chronode 37 Chronoswiss 40 Citizen 39 Concepto 58 Cousins 79 Cvstos 62 D de Grisogono 45, 46 DeWitt 16-17, 58 Digital Luxury Group 10, 74 Dior 40

F Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry 69 Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie 50 G Girard-Perregaux 30 Greubel Forsey 34 H Hamilton 42, 44, 46, 48 Harry Winston 45, 46 Hermès 32-33, 42 Hublot 40, 58, 75 I Ice-Watch 6, 49 Inhorgenta COVER III J Jaeger-LeCoultre 41, 44, 45, 48, 63 JeanRichard 41 L La Joux-Perret 60 Linde Werdelin 58 Longines 74, 75 Louis Vuitton 73 LVMH 40 M Maxell 78

MB&F 18, 36-37 Michel Herbelin 73 Montblanc 48 O Omega 41, 42, 46, 48, 69, 74, 75 Orient Watch Company 47 P Panerai 7, 59 Parmigiani 62 Patek Philippe 2-3, 42, 61, 70, 71 Piaget 45, 46, 54, 66-68 R Ralph Lauren 11, 63 Richard Mille 23, 55 Richemont Group 20, 21, 57, 68 Roger Dubuis 48, 56-57 Rolex COVER II, 1, 26-27, 40, 42, 48, 70, 73, 74, 75 S

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Sellita 60 SIHH 21, 34, 53, 61, 63 Sowind 37 Speake-Marin 62 Swatch 40, 72 Swatch Group 38, 40, 73 T TAG Heuer 46, 48, COVER IV Tiffany & Co. 61 Tissot 19 Titoni 35 Tudor 28-29, 70, 73 U Urwerk 62 V Vacheron Constantin 4-5, 21, 24-25 Valbray 62 Vaucher Manufacture 33

80 LAKIN@LARGE europa star

The face of adversity "I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception." Groucho Marx I recently spent three weeks travelling across Canada, from Toronto to Vancouver and on to Salt Spring Island, yet despite the magnificence of places like Lake Louise and the Emerald Lake in the Banff National Park and a memorable two-day train trip through the ever-changing panorama of the Rocky Mountains, it was my confrontation with prosopagnosia that will remain with me for many a year.

It happened in Calgary when we dined with a friend and her eighty-three year old beau Robert. The ladies were talking fifty to the dozen so we two males, emboldened by our second gin and tonic, idly chewed the fat until I mentioned that he looked fit and well for his age. He agreed, but rather shyly added, “… except last year I was diagnosed with prosopagnosia.”

Assuming that this was some form of erectile dysfunction, I asked if it was painful. The reply caught me by surprise, “No pain, just frustration, I’m face-blind. Prosopagnosia means face-blindness.”

He went on to explain that if we were to meet tomorrow, or if we were dining alone and I left the table to answer a call of nature, he wouldn’t recognise me from Adam when I returned to the table.

The obvious question was how it had suddenly become apparent and to my astonishment he said it was not sudden, what was sudden was he had only learned last year that he had it. Since he’d been born faceblind it seemed absolutely normal because he’d never known anything else. I smiled when he told me he could never identify his mother from other women and how during his working life he only reacted to his boss’s presence through his colleagues’ demeanour, although after a while he eventually recognised him by both his voice and his lumbering John Wayne–style walk.

Indiscretion and curiosity got the better of me so I asked him what happened when he started going out with the female of the species.

“Well, I lost a few girlfriends, more often than not by standing next to them at our agreed meeting place and not recognising them. The worst occasion though was when I got a powerful public slap from a girl when I asked her if we’d met before, not realising that it was the girl I’d spent the night with twenty-four hours earlier.”

I suggested that as a married man it must have been quite exciting being with a ‘new’ woman every day, but he countered that with, “The voice: I eventually became familiar with the voice so by linking it with the location, such as at home, I could usually work out who the person

was. But if we’d had a row and were not on speaking terms I had to wait longer until she moved to be sure I could recognise her gait. There was often a problem if a friend visited the house and was there when I arrived since initially I couldn’t tell one from the other.”

Robert went on to explain that one of the additional problems to having prosopagnosia is that it is usually accompanied by topographic agnosia - geographical blindness. As a geologist his saving grace was that on field trips he recognised rocks and their different formations thus avoiding his having to live the life of a hermit in a mountain cave somewhere. In his home town though he often walked past his own house several times before his son or wife came out to tell him he was home and driving a car was chaotic until the GPS system came into being.

Back in our world, I can’t help wondering if horological agnosia exists given the number of watches that seem to have the same looking face – but that’s a story for another day.

All of which reminds me of a blonde woman who was speeding along in her little open top sports car and was pulled over by a blonde woman police officer.

She asked to see the blonde driver's licence, who immediately plunged into her handbag in search for it. "What does it look like?" the blonde finally asked the policewoman in exasperation.

The policewoman replied, "It’s square and it has your photograph on it."

She finally found a square mirror, opened it, looked at it and then handed it to the policewoman.

The blonde policewoman looked at the mirror, then handed it back saying, "Okay, you can go. I didn't realise you were a cop."

Well, you’ve got to laugh haven’t you?

A Happy and Healthy New Year to one and all,

D. Malcolm Lakin Roving Editor

Jewelry, Timepieces, lifesTyle February 22 – 25, 2013 MeSSe MÜNCHeN INTerNaTIONaL INHOrGeNTa.COM