Having become President of Patek Philippe in 2009, assuming the mantle once donned by his father and grandfather before him, Thierry Stern is no mere watch industry boss, he is the steward of a multi-billion Swiss franc enterprise that is arguably the world’s most prestigious watchmaker. In Singapore earlier in December for the reopening of […]
Jean-Claude Biver is a well known personality in watchmaking, the closest the industry has to a celebrity chief executive. A gentleman farmer who famously makes his own artisanal cheese, Mr Biver made a fortune reviving Blancpain and Hublot – Swiss business magazine Bilanz estimates his net worth at SFr175m – but he didn’t stop there. Since 2014 he has […]
Often described as “celebrated” in auction catalogues, Jean-Pierre Hagmann is arguably the most famous maker of watch cases, or boîtier in industry parlance, of the late 20th century. Guided by his principle of “simple is better but quality is important”, Mr Hagmann is one of the few component makers in Swiss watchmaking who has become a marquee name in his own […]
Clean yet quirky in style, but simultaneously technically competent, Nomos watches are well liked for their affordability. Made in the town of Glashütte, also home to A. Lange & Söhne and Glashütte Original, Nomos is still a relatively small company making about 30,000 watches a year, about the same as Audemars Piguet. But its unique appeal has […]
Clean yet quirky in style, but simultaneously technically competent, Nomos watches are well liked for their affordability. Made in the town of Glashütte, also home to A. Lange & Söhne and Glashütte Original, Nomos is still a relatively small company making about 30,000 watches a year, about the same as Audemars Piguet. But its unique appeal has […]
Davide Cerrato took the top job at Montblanc’s watch division at end 2015, taking charge of the a crucial business segment at Montblanc. He was recruited by Jerome Lambert, the Frenchman who became chief executive in 2013 with a mandate to revitalise the drifting German pen maker. Cerrato’s track record in the watch business bodes well: his last job was Head […]
Edouard Meylan took the helm at H. Moser & Cie. in 2013, a year after the struggling watchmaker was acquired by his family’s investment firm. Beloved by watch enthusiasts for its clever and proper watches, Moser was at the time a failing proposition financially, having cost its previous owner some SFr100m according to contemporary news reports. Your correspondent […]
Edouard Meylan took the helm at H. Moser & Cie. in 2013, a year after the struggling watchmaker was acquired by his family’s investment firm. Beloved by watch enthusiasts for its clever and proper watches, Moser was at the time a failing proposition financially, having cost its previous owner some SFr100m according to contemporary news reports. Your correspondent […]
A 40-year veteran of Casio, Kikuo Ibe is now its Research and Development Chief Engineer, but best known for being the inventor of the G-Shock. Short for “Gravitational Shock”, the G-Shock was conceived to meet the “triple-ten requirement”: water-resistant to 10 bar (or 100m), have a 10-year battery life, and survive a 10m drop. Some 70m […]