NICOLA ANDREATTA, ROGER DUBUIS CEO on Creating Excitement for a Hyper-Watch Brand

| BY ANTHONY DEMARCO

Watchmaking is literally in the blood of Nicola Andreatta. Born in Italy to an Italian father and Swiss mother, Andreatta (an Italian-Swiss national fluent in Italian, French, English, Spanish, and Cantonese) grew up in a family immersed in watchmaking for three generations.

Andreatta has had a long and varied career in watchmaking and managing watch-related businesses in Hong Kong and Switzerland. In 2003, he founded his own watch brand, N.O.A. (None of the Above), resulting in an international reputation as a visionary entrepreneur in the world of luxury watches. He sold the business ten years later and turned his attention to working on a relaunched watch category for Tiffany & Co. in Switzerland.

This change led him to his current position as CEO of Roger Dubuis, one of the world’s most innovative and creative watch brands. Roger Dubuis is arguably the most specialized watchmaker among the brands owned by the luxury holdings company Richemont. Roger Dubuis produces limited edition or unique timepieces that typically sell in the six-figure range to a relatively small group of international watch collectors who have both the wealth and the appreciation of its high-tech aesthetics. These features include movement and case finishes that meet the Poinçon de Genève (Geneva Seal) finishes, the highest standard in the Swiss watch industry, and its uniquely designed skeletonized dials. For more than four years, Andreatta has led this specialist Swiss watch brand in expanding its boutique network while maintaining its unique brand qualities, going against the trend of reducing prices, and limiting its crafted integrity to appeal to the mass market.

The company produces watches in five categories: Excalibur, which could be defined as its artistic line, focusing on contemporary design, color, and luminescence; the hyper sportscar-themed Excalibur Spider, “hyper watches,” with high complications and innovative mechanical mechanisms; “Knights of the Round Table,” featuring its own elevated horological take on the literary story; and a women’s collection, Velvet. It has long partnerships with sportscar manufacturer Lamborghini and the tire company Pirelli. More recently, watchmakers at Roger Dubuis have created timepieces with contemporary and creative specialists, including Chinese artist Liu Wei, graffiti artist “Gully,” tattoo artist “Dr. Woo,” and Japanese artist, Sorayama.

This year, Roger Dubuis has already been quite busy. The Swiss brand opened its newest boutique at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California. Here they introduced the latest version of its Excalibur Blacklight Monobalancier, notable for its 42mm case size, white gold bezel topped with 61 round diamonds, and its RD720SQ automatic micro-rotor movement with a 72-hour power reserve. Next is the Watches & Wonders trade fair at the end of March for timepieces when Roger Dubuis and other watch companies release their most important pieces of the year.

What follows is a conversation in January with Andreatta:

You are visiting the U.S. to attend the South Coast Plaza boutique opening. Are there any distinguishing features of this new boutique that are new to Roger Dubuis?

It’s a concept we started two years ago. We have three different boutique concepts, and now we are moving them all to this new concept. We started in China with seven boutiques and will now carry this concept to other regions. The materials and design show that the brand is becoming more inclusive.

Have you introduced an exclusive boutique timepiece for this new retail space?

We launched a new edition of the Excalibur Blacklight Monobalancier with Superluminova yellow and orange ‘micro-beams’ and a steel bezel with diamonds. Eight editions are in the new boutique (out of a limited edition run of 28). It mixes different colors in a very fancy way. Having all these pieces at once in a boutique is difficult.

What are you doing to increase demand while maintaining your brand details?

Given our positioning and what we do, we know we can attract a younger clientele. The aim remains the same. We will produce exciting technology-driven horology through our amazing timepieces. For the Spider collection, we will produce a Spider watch for Lamborghini’s 60th anniversary and the Goodwood “Festival of Speed” (a motorsport event in England).

A few years ago, I remember there was pressure to increase production and produce watches at lower prices to attract new customers. Is this still the case?

I’m not going to increase quantities. In fact, we are going to reduce quantity levels and continue to focus on quality and sophistication. I told them when I took the job that I was determined to keep the brand highly exclusive.

We’ve refocused everything and are keeping our product offering very clear. We produce “hyper watches,” which is a more expressive and contemporary way to define high horology and watchmaking. It’s a contemporary reinvention of fine watchmaking. We cannot make more timepieces than we do today. Our product journey is very well-defined. We fill the gaps in what we have today.

What are your top markets?

We’re ver y successful in Asia. We’re also strong in North Africa, the Americas, and Europe. We’re becoming more balanced. For the next three years, we plan to advance further. We’re very close to opening a boutique in Palo Alto (California) and will continue expanding in the U.S. Our boutique in Soho in New York City is 350 square meters, fully painted in red. It used to be a garage. It was the best way to represent the brand.

Is there anything else planned for 2023 that you are willing to talk about?

We never stop with research and development. We always try to create the unexpected. To surprise the world of watch collectors and to have fun with watchmaking.