We spoke to Jean-Claude Biver recently for an upcoming feature-length video, and while we were on Zoom, the conversation turned to the pandemic. We took the opportunity to ask him some pointed questions about the industry’s recovery. How long does he think it will take? Who will be the winners and losers? He also shared a “magical equation” that applies if you can “make the crisis your friend.” How is this crisis different to others you’ve experienced? “It’s not the first crisis we’ve seen, certainly for me. I’ve been in the watch industry since 1974 and this crisis that we have now is a global crisis. It’s a crisis because of a virus. It has nothing to do with a structural crisis of the industry, as we had when quartz came, that was a structural crisis. When you have a structural crisis, the recovery is totally different to when you have a pandemic crisis.” When do you think we’ll be out of it? “The first thing I can say is some brands will be out of the crisis in September, they will have a January comparable to last year. They will have a typical ‘V-shaped’ recovery. Some other brands will…
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