By Roberta Naas
Once again, the innovative Swiss watch brand Hublot wows us with its creative straps for women. Remember, this is the brand that has brought us denim straps, embroidered straps, linen straps and more. Now, meet the Big Bang “One Click” Cuddly cuff collection.
At the SIHH 2017, Montblanc launched an entirely redesigned TimeWalker collection, transforming these watches from “modern-urban” to real sports timepieces, mainly chronographs and racing-car-oriented stop-watches. This is an extremely important collection for the brand, which was until now rather absent from the critical sports-watch category. That being said, you can imagine how crucial this new TimeWalker collection was for Montblanc. The mission of Davide Cerrato, Managing Director Of Montblanc Watch Division, who’s experience in sports-watches is undeniable, was clear… and now that we’ve seen the watches, we can tell you that he successfully managed the transformation of the collection. Instead of trying to explain it ourselves, let’s simply hear what the creator has to say about it. Here are 5 Questions For Davide Cerrato, Managing Director Of Montblanc Watch Division, about the 2017 Montblanc collection.
For more than 2 years now, the watchmaking industry is facing a “crisis” or at least, sales and profits are lower than in the 2000s, the golden era of modern watchmaking. After Richemont announced massive shakeups and rather bad results, it’s now time for Swatch Group to make public the results for the year 2016… and they’re not good. Sales are decreasing over 10% (compared to 2015), operating result plunges of close to 45% and the net income is almost half of what it has been in 2015 (which was already not the best year the industry has seen).
Swiss Watch Export 2016 report available through Bloomberg Terminal have recently pointed to harsh conditions analysts are calling the worst performance since the Financial Crisis. At a glance, the most glaring figures on the Swiss Watch Export 2016 report point to Russia down 43% year on year although December 2016 registered a 13.4% uptick;…
This was predictable. After the announcement by Richemont of first shakeups, by abolishing the CEO and CFO roles, by appointing Jérôme Lambert as head of operations, by appointing Georges Kern as head of watchmaking, marketing and digital and already scheduling several drastic actions for the group, it’s now time for the big reshuffle at the head of the brands. The CEOs of Jaeger-LeCoultre, Vacheron Constantin, Piaget and Dunhill will be out in the coming weeks.
In 2009, a new brand made its debut to the SIHH, the Ralph Lauren Watch & Jewelry Co, a joint venture between the iconic lifestyle brand and the Richemont Group, the watchmaking giant. Yet, the path has not been simple and after several unclear collections and hesitations in positioning the brand, the brand was absent from the SIHH 2016. Though, this was not the end of the story. New teams, repositioning of the collections, appointment of industry veteran Guillaume Têtu, first as Product Development Director and as COO since October, finally a discreet comeback of the brand at the SIHH 2017. It was perfect timing for us to sit down with our long-time friend Guillaume and to understand his vision for the Ralph Lauren Watch & Jewelry Co.
It will be hard to hide the fact that, since a few years, the brand Bulgari has become a major actor in the field of watchmaking. What has long been a superb jeweler and a manufacturer of jewelry-oriented watches is now recognized as a proper innovator and a respected high-end watch brand, showing to the world an great expertise in ultra-thin movements (in-house developed and produced) mixed with a unique design inspired by Roma. In order to understand the changes operated by Bulgari and to see what will be the coming developments of the brand, we sat down with Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO of Bulgari, talking about his nearly 4 years as CEO, about the iconic Octo design and about the new models for 2017.
By Roberta Naas
Marking the first time Ulysse Nardin exhibits at the SIHH in Geneva instead of in its nautically inspired exhibition space at Baselworld, the innovative brand celebrates with the unveiling of the unusual InnoVision 2 timepiece chocked with 10 innovations, already laying claim to several patents, and with half a dozen more patents pending.
To commemorate the world record of its brand partner, French skier Pinturault, who now holds 19th World Cup wins, Richard Mille announces a special RM 035 Ultimate Edition watch, which is to debut in March.
Many brands have a perpetual calendar in their collection, yet few come close to the legendary reputation of the IWC Da Vinci. The reason for this is that the Da Vinci never was just another perpetual calendar. It pushed the limits…