Hello and welcome on PRIMETIME, Watchmaking in the News and there has been a few interesting
product introductions during this past month; Vacheron Constantin, MB&F, Roger Dubuis, Ulysse
Nardin, Minase, a Japanese brand discovered plus a few other interesting business info
that we will share with you very shortly and we'll also talk about some pretty exciting
auction action taking place in May.
But May is also the month of our very first Watchtrippin action and we have a very serious
opportunity for some of you guys.
Our program was set for 6 people and unfortunately a group of 3 friends within this group just
had to cancel for personal reasons and this puts us in an awkward position.
We either have to cancel and postpone the whole thing or find another solution and this
is what we're about to propose to you today, the only constraint is that we would need
your commitment by Thursday the 3rd of May for organisational reasons.
So before talking about the deal itself, let me very quickly come back on the program and
this is what you could be in for, intense!
Arrival in Geneva by your own means on Tuesday the 22nd of May and yes I know this is only
in 3 weeks time and for those arriving early on tat day, well we'll start by a visit
of URWERK and having lunch over there with the team, we will then continue for a visit
of the Patek Philippe Museum with our very own guide, an absolute must for anybody coming
to Geneva and we'll then go for a visit of the Old Town of Geneva with a very special
visit or should I say surprise.
On the 23rd, we'll visit the manufacture of Vacheron Constantin, quite something and
then we go to Agenhor, that's the watch movement development company which has been
behind some pretty incredible and innovative developments over the last 20 years, not to
mention the fantastic Agengraphe, the first real re-interpretation of the chronograph
since 200 years.
We will have a light lunch there with Jean-Marc Wiederrecht's team and you'll be able
to see the full operation before we leave for another very privileged experience as
I will take you to the Geneva Watchmaking School for the visit of the oldest Swiss watchmaking
school.
You'll see students and classes where so many great watchmakers have come out from,
but then you'll be watchmakers yourselves as we will have our very own and private watchmaking
class with some of the school's teachers and we'll be disassembling and reassembling
watch movements directly in one of the classrooms and sincerely to do so in the school itself
is really an exceptional treat.
So a nice and intense day and on the morning of the 24th we'll leave Geneva for the Vallée
de Joux for a very extensive visit of the Jaeger-LeCoultre manufacture and that's
a big and impressive operation, they have it all, then bit of sightseeing by the Lake
and then off we go to La Chaux-de-Fonds, nice little bucolic fondue planned in the middle
of the fields and the next morning we'll visit La Villa Turque, one of the most iconic
building by one of the most iconic architect of the 20th century, Le Corbusier, a figure
of La Chaux-de-Fonds.
This place is private, so again quite a treat and this will be followed by the visit of
Girard-Perregaux's manufacture, followed by the visit of Cartier before heading back
to Geneva for a special farewell dinner by the lake and for the most enthusiast we have
a special activity on Saturday morning involving Patek, but won't say anything more are this
stage.
So as you can see, a very dense watchmaking program over these 4-5 days and now without
sounding too much like if we were on the Home Shopping Network and based on what I mentioned
before; either we cancel and postpone the trip or here's our proposition with the
two following options; first the normal package with a little discount taking into account
this very short notice and by normal package I mean hotels, visits, transfers, meals and
of course your very own private film-souvenir of the entire adventure OR, AND this is the
special deal, but for a further discount it would be the same package, we would still
film the adventure, BUT we would also share it on TheWATCHES.tv in a new season of our
Watchmaking Roadtrip.
And I'm proposing this last option, because once again during Baselworld I met so many
of you guys telling us how much you had enjoyed that first season, so in a way it's way
of producing a new version with totally new places and hopefully will make everyone happy.
So if you're interested in either of these options, well you will find below the link
to our website where you can quickly fill the application form and as mentioned we need
to know about your firm commitment by the end of the week at the latest and I know this
is a serious constraint, but we'll have to take a serious decision extremely soon;
postpone OR let's have some watchmaking fun together at the end of month, I think
you guys know which option I prefer…
Ok, so let's now talk watchmaking news and like I said there has been a few noteworthy
releases during April.
First Vacheron Constantin continues to expand its Overseas collection with two new models
coming this time with black dials, blue has already been done.
The Overseas represents the sporty collection of the brand, both of these models come in
steel cases with their interchangeable straps, both are automatics.
There's a three-hander coming in a 41mm wide case and 11mm thick and a chronograph
version with white panda like counters and this one is 42.5mm and almost 14mm thick.
Both these watches are water resistant to 150m, I tried them on, chrono looked nice,
but personally that's not the Vacheron I would go for, I have my eyes set on another
model must admit.
Ulysse Nardin also continues to expand its Freak collection and I think this is a rather
smart move, because the Freak really represents something very unique and distinctive of Ulysse
Nardin whether in terms of design or technology.
Like I said a few times, I think it is vital for brands to cultivate and nurture what makes
your very own identity when you have the chance of having such uniquely recognizable products.
So the brand has now introduced four new members called the Freak Out and it uses characteristic
features such as the flying tourbillon, baguette movement, no crown, you wind the watch using
the case back with 7 days of power reserve, no dial, plenty of silicon components, but
the overall package is a sportier one, something partially achieved with the use of titanium
for the 45mm case with even a black PVD version.
Some pretty cool watches there.
Let's now talk about Roger Dubuis as I attended a little press event they recently organized
where they talked about their strategy, for instance gradually reducing the number of
retailers from 145 today to an objective of 100, something I will come back to in a more
general business related part of this PRIMETIME, they also talked about their increasing involvement
in motor sport with their partnership with Lamborghini and Pirelli, but they also showed
us a rather spectacular new version of their limited edition "Excalibur Knights of the
Round Table", a series of timepiece introduced a few years ago, we had shown you this at
the time, but now it comes with a much more modern take.
It's the brand's third interpretation of this theme and it's still the same scene
with the twelve knights acting in a certain way as hour indexes with their swords, but
the artistic take is radically different with this faceted look of the knights and this
very colorful dial made out sculpted solid blue enamel blocks.
I wore this piece and it's quite a heavy piece on your wrist, but a spectacular one.
It's limited to 28 timepieces and can only be found in Roger Dubuis boutiques.
During April, I also had the chance of discovering a Japanese brand called Minase as they came
to Geneva to present themselves and it's always a pleasure to see new things, especially
when you feel that there is the same watchmaking passion behind such projects.
This brand was created in 2005 and though it uses ETA movements, all the other components
of the watches are hand produced and finished in Japan with their very own design approach
with for instance these multiple sapphire windows and the movement being kind of encapsulated
and seeming to be floating in the case.
Very interesting and must admit that I would love to go to Japan to discover more in the
flesh what the Japanese watchmaking industry is all about.
Let's continue with MB&F who introduced a new version of the HM7 Aquapod, that's
the very very original central flying tourbillon jellyfish looking like timepiece from one
of the most if the most design daring brand I can think of.
The first version came either in rose gold and titanium, both were naturally limited
and this new version will also be limited, this time to 50 pieces, also comes in titanium,
but the big difference is its green luminescent bezel.
The HM7 is really a very original and strange looking timepiece with its almost 54mm width,
but the interesting thing is that it didn't prevent some ladies liking it!
And talking about women, just wanted to point out that Jaeger-LeCoultre just announced the
nomination of its new CEO and for the very first time we will have a woman heading the
brand and I must say that it makes me happy to see some changes in what is I have to admit
a widely man dominated industry.
Catherine Rénier, who was previously in charge of Van Cleef & Arpels for the Asia Pacific
region, will take this new role starting on May the 1st and we know that the feminine
segment of Jaeger is a very important one in terms of business, but I hope this not
the only reason why she was appointed.
Jaeger went through some "relative" difficult times over the last few years, trying to redefine
who they are and it's for sure a brand that deserves to be successfully put on track with
products corresponding to the evolution of consumer demand, so can't wait to see where
this will lead us to.
Talking about business and this is something I wanted to address since a little while,
but we can definitely see and feel a lot of behind the scene action currently taking place
in terms of the evolution of the distribution and retail business for many brands.
We know that some brands want to internalize as much as possible the margin they leave
to their retailers despite the fact that it's generally because of these retailers that
some of these brands have been successful in the past.
Retailers are facing the final client, they have their local network, but in an ever more
globalized world, with the advent of social media and other communication means, with
the evolution of online purchasing behaviors among other things, all these elements are
now seriously changing the rules of the game.
So it's a tricky equation, kind of a catch 22 situation, but we can definitely feel that
the good old days of traditional retailers are slowly behind us.
We can't really make a full generality about this, some markets are a bit different than
others, but for sure the evolution is under way and will probably even accelerate much
quicker than we think.
Just the other day, I read an interview of Jean-Claude Biver, the man at the helm of
the LVMH watchmaking division and in terms of selling watches, let's say that he is
very savvy and his view was quite brutal; kind of a "adapt or die" warning to traditional
multi-brand retailers.
Today, big brands are doing what it takes to develop their own mono-brand boutiques
and I'm not talking like some brands did some 5-8 years ago when these stores were
just popping up one after the other in a disastrous logic of creating points of sales that needed
to be replenished with new watches and therefore artificially creating sales by HQ to these
boutiques, ok this is a bit of a caricature, but I'm really not too far off and the industry
is still paying the price of this logic, with huge stocks that sometimes found their ways
on grey markets and so forth.
This has been partially cleaned up, costed the brands ad groups a lot of money, but had
to be done and is still been taking care of today, well anyhow the logic now is slightly
different.
I believe much more control will be implemented, rules will become stricter and this evolving
logic takes much more into account the evolution of purchasing habits.
We know that online sales will become an even greater reality in the near future, it's
inevitable, but for an emotional product, many customers will still like to touch and
feel on their own wrist the watch for which they are maybe willing to spend 5, 10, 25'000
USD for it.
So this is a rather fascinating time for those that like the behind the scenes, the politics,
the strategies involved behind what we like the most, meaning our favorite mechanical
watch and this is the reason why we will shortly produce a little series on the evolution of
this business dimension of the watchmaking industry.
I know that we first and foremost like the watches themselves, but I think that the moment
is interesting enough for us to address these business issues.
Ok and now on a totally different matter, the other day I was in Annecy, that's a
French town not too far away from Geneva and for the very first time I saw a very different
type of sundial.
Normally you have a flat dial, can be horizontal or vertical, with a spear that will project
its shadow precisely on the that dial and this will indicate you true solar time.
But on this unique and very original example, instead of having this configuration, it was
actually star shaped with seven branches and it would be the shadow of the evolving end
part of the branch that would project the time on the corresponding side of the star.
Very clever, looked nice, dates from late 19th century and yes Annecy is a very cute
little town.
Let's now talk about some upcoming auctions, because May is traditionally a month of high
activity and we'll bring you a few reports about it.
First and this will most probably be another very successful auction for Phillips in association
with Bacs & Russo, as the famous auctioneer has put together a special Rolex Daytona thematic
sale and wouldn't be surprised if they did what it takes to make hit the roof again.
Remember last year the staggering price reached by the Paul Newman Paul Newman Daytona, ok
this was a very special and unique lot, but nevertheless this sale will be quite a show
I'm sure.
But additional to this, Phillips is also hosting a more "traditional" auction with some
important watches and one of them will be a special A. Lange & Söhne timepiece, the
Homage to Walter Lange in steel, the only steel version of this timepiece, given by
the brand for a charitable cause.
So apart from Phillips, there will naturally be auctions held by Christie's and Sotheby's,
but this time we will probably not cover them, but instead we'll be going to Paris to talk
about another very original sale organized by auction house Cornette de Saint Cyr, yes
sounds very French and official, but this sale will be super interesting I think and
the theme of the auction is calendar watches with no less than 200 watches put on sale
from the collection of one single and passionate collector.
So something a bit different from us, looking forward to it.
So this is it for this edition of PRIMETIME, remember that you still have a very special
opportunity of joining us for a Watchtrippin adventure, but again if you're interested,
please act fast, we need to get the organisation of this finalized by the end of the week,
so link below, select the option you prefer or both, that's fine and we'll be in close
contact with you to get everything set and help you out with anything you could be asking
us.
Thanks for watching, thanks to our great Patrons and viva watchmaking.
See you real soon!
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