Basel Report

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HAYEK ON WHY

WATCHES DO MORE THAN TELL TIME Page >4

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MAY/JUNE, 2010

JACK HEUER ON A

THE BEST OF BASELWORLD

CENTURY AND A HALF OF TAG HEUER Page >6

2010

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BASELWORLD

TIMES ARE GOOD AGAIN BaselWorld 2010 witnessed watchmakers shrugging off the worst of the economic crisis, and a return to sober timepieces B Y S IDIN V ADUKUT sidin.v@livemint.com

···················································· ith an estimated attendance of at least 100,000 visitors, BaselWorld this year had buyers and retailers looking excited and manufacturers once again looking optimistic.

With some makers booking up to 85% of their annual sales at the event, BaselWorld is a critical barometer of the world premium watch industry’s health. The signs in Basel this year were positive.

On display was an industry that had put the excesses of previous years behind them. Many brands returned to classic shapes and forms, extravagance and embellishments made way for pure function. Watches, many makers seemed to admit with relief, were getting smaller, simpler and more representative of traditional brand values.

It was also a year that saw several brands hark back to heritage. Tag Heuer celebrated 150 years of founding. Corum celebrated three anniversaries. Seiko celebrated 40 years of quartz technology with a commemorative edition of the Quartz Astron.

BaselWatch’10 captures the mood at Basel this year through a series of interviews, reports, profiles and a selection of some of the best timepieces unveiled at BaselWorld 2010.

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VITAL STATISTICS BaselWorld is not just about the best watches. It’s also about three­storeyed booths, five­star bars, gourmet lunches and power meetings. But what goes into a typical Basel booth? Zenith Watches gave us the numbers that matter

How big was the booth?

264

sq. m

on each floor, 2 floors

How long did it take to build?

3 weeks

How many people worked in constructing it?

Around

15 people

How many Zenith employees worked in it during the fair?

Around

40 people

How many visitors did the booth have?

Around

200

What were some of the special features of the booth?

Built-in bar Meeting rooms Conference rooms

visitors per day

What happens to the booth after Basel?

How many watches did you have in the booth during the event?

Around

500 pieces

The dismantled booth remains in Basel till next year

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF BASEL Started in 1917 as part of an industrial fair, BaselWorld now stands at the centre of the watchmaking world. A nutshell retrospective

P

erched on the border of three countries—France, Switzerland and Germany—Basel is the third largest Swiss city.

And for a week every year, Basel becomes the centre of the world’s watchmaking business. BaselWorld, the annual watch and jewellery show, brings together some of the biggest, most famous and most storied watchmakers in a massive exhibition of the latest models and the most cutting-edge timepiece technology.

In 2010, BaselWorld took place from 18 to 25 March, and brought together 1,900 exhibitors from 45 countries who displayed their wares on exhibition space covering 160,00 sq. m.

In one way or the other, Basel has been attracting watchmakers, buyers and connoisseurs since the first Schweizer Mustermesse, or Swiss Industries Fair, in 1917, when a special section was set apart for watches and jewellery.

The industry got its first exclusive pavilion at the Mustermesse. After focusing on Swiss manufacturers for around two decades, the first European Watch and Jewellery Show was conducted in 1973.

Thirteen years later, the exhibition, now called Basel 86, went global for the first time. Manufacturers from outside Europe, especially Japanese companies booming on the back of the quartz revolution, were allowed to attend.

By 1999, the exhibition expanded enough to move into new premises, the current Hall 1, which allows makers to have booths that can have up to three storeys within. In 2003, the exhibition adopted its current branding and was renamed BaselWorld.

Finally, in 2005, the exhibition was arranged according to the current hall layout.

BaselWorld 2010 had at least 100,000 visitors and was covered by journalists from more than 70 countries.

Confluence: BaselWorld often accounts for at least 85% of annual sales for some of the brands that exhibit at the event.

BASELWORLD

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Nicholas Hayek Sr. CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDER, SWATCH GROUP

KING OF THE TIMES He may be the founder of one of the biggest watchmaking empires in the world. But Hayek Sr is still just a regular guy at heart SWATCH

I

f there is one star at BaselWorld who gets top billing, shining brighter than all the diamond-encrusted solid-gold watches in the display cases, it is Nicholas Hayek Sr., founder and chairman of the Swatch Group. It was Hayek’s stewardship of the Swiss watch industry in the 1980s, when it was reeling under an assault from cheap Japanese quartz timepieces, that helped the traditional, iconic industry survive. Today, some two decades later, 82-year-old Hayek presides over an empire comprising 19 watch brands. The Swatch Group pulled in revenue of at least 5 billion Swiss francs in 2009.

Hayek spoke exclusively to Mint on the sidelines of BaselWorld 2010 about leadership during the economic crisis, his plans for luxury brands Breguet and Jaquet-Droz, and what youngsters should do to create their fortunes. Edited excerpts: BaselWorld, to a large extent, is a celebra­ tion of Swiss watchmaking. It particularly highlights great mechanical watches. But do you see this being attractive to young consumers? Do they even care for such ex­ pensive, mechanical products?

People are always telling me young people don’t want watches. They ask me why the hell I make watches. Why don’t I make something else, because this generation does not want watches. This generation can tell the time using so many other things. They have clocks in their mobiles, their phones, in their cars, in the airports and in so many places. Everywhere there are ways of looking at the time.

But I am not making watches only to look at the time. I am making jewels! They are jewels! Women put jewels here (pulls on ear lobes) and some men wear them here (points at chest and neck).

(Hayek undoes a button on his shirt and pulls out a set of lockets and jewellery attached to chains around his neck.)

I have jewels here that are worth very much. But why do I have them? Why do I wear them? I wear them because they are beautiful and nice. I like them.

I like to look at them. And if I ever need money I can sell one of them.

This reminds me of something that happened some years ago. I was speaking at a meeting of the German chancellor’s strategic group of industrialists. I was the only foreigner

Timeless: Hayek holds in his hands the Queen Marie­Antoinette watch originally completed by Breguet in 1827.

member of this committee. They wanted me to speak about how the Swiss industry had succeeded.

This was the time when we were launching the Swatch brand. So all the journalists wanted to talk to me.

Especially one very tough TV journalist who wanted to interview me. She said, “Oh Mr Hayek, you are so nice.

You are so good. You are so smart.

You are so...”

And we men are stupid. We believe when a woman tells us these things.

So I agreed to let her interview me.

And the German chancellor warned me. He told me she was a viper. One evening I went to this TV studio in Germany. Millions of people were watching. The lights came on and I thought she would introduce me as a great man.

Instead, she asks me: “Mr Hayek, why are you trying to make people buy two or three Swatch watches each when there are children starving?

Aren’t you ashamed?”

I asked her how many neckties her husband had. She said that had nothing to do with anything. I told her if she didn’t answer my question I would get up and leave. So she said he had 25 or 40 ties. I told her “Aren’t you ashamed?!! Your husband has 25 ties? I didn’t know there were children starving. You knew there were children starving. How could you let your husband buy 25 ties? And a Swatch costs less than a good tie.”

I wrote a book once in which the first line was that I have never worked a moment in my life. I have merely enjoyed it.

My idea was to tell people that you should think of a watch not just as a means of looking at time, but as a part of your clothing. Like jewellery or an accessory.

Also Swiss watches are part of Swiss culture. I am not saying our culture is better than anybody else’s culture, but these watches are a representation of Swiss culture and the Swiss way of doing things.

You are passionate about Switzerland and often represent the country as an ambas­ sador of sorts. Have you ever considered running for office or becoming a politician?

I have been asked this question several times. In fact, just two days ago, during a TV interview.

We must never forget that we are all very, very small things in a small spaceship, Planet Earth. Very small entities in the huge universe. So we must not think we are more important than that. That is one thing.

Second, I think I am a passenger on this spaceship called Planet Earth.

And if I see anyone trying to make a hole in this ship, trying to destroy it for you or me or our children, then I as a passenger (will) try to jump and help to prevent this. This is what I have done all my life. And when we have corrected the problem I go back and sit in my place and I don’t try to get power.

Now in Switzerland I am very involved. We recently wanted to create new laws for Swiss banks. “Too big to

fail” laws for the banks. The banks tried to lobby against this by saying that this was bad, and if the Swiss banks were more regulated then everybody, the whole economy will die.

This was absolute baloney.

So I wrote letters to all the political parties and the industrial bodies telling them we need this law. Otherwise, every 5-10 years the banks are going to fail. Then I organized a press conference with two parties, one extreme left and extreme right, and told the banks that we could ask the people for a popular vote, we can do this in Switzerland, and these laws would be even worse than the parliamentary laws.

The banks and the government accepted our proposals. And then I came back to my seat in the office.

So then, when you wake up in the morning, how do you decide what to do? You have the company, so many brands, and then you have parliament and the banks to wor­ ry about. How do you decide what to do first?

(Laughs.) I wrote a book once in which the first line was that I have never worked a moment in my life. I have merely enjoyed it. Every moment. I am doing so many nice things. So I never wake up with a list of things. Except when I have meetings, in which case I am very exact with my time.

I live 97km from the office. I drive myself to work in the morning and back in the evening. I have two hands-free phones attached in my car with buttons on the steering wheel.

So I take a lot of calls when I am travelling in my car. So I always have time to do everything.

But surely you have two or three secretar­ ies constantly reminding you of meetings and appointments...

No! I don’t need to be reminded of meetings and appointments—this is luxury. I am a very normal man. Very normal. My family is a very normal family. We don’t have any jets, even though Forbes magazine has me on their list of one of the richest people in the world. But we have no jets, no chauffeurs, no big buses, no flying to Paris for shopping for Christmas. We are absolutely normal people.

Normal people don’t have three secretaries to remind them of appointments.

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Royalty: A.L. Breguet spent 44 years making his masterpiece watch for Marie Antoinette.

BREGUET

Stoned: The Crazy Flower watch was a showstopper for Breguet this year at Basel.

I have done many other things. I have advised the World Bank on industrializing South Korea, I helped the Chinese with steel plants and car plants. They love me for this, the Chinese.

What are your thoughts on India?

I have written about this in many newspapers. People forget that India is one of the greatest cultures. They forget this. Maybe because you didn’t have colonies all over the world like the British. Indian people are intelligent and warm-hearted. I love India.

If you weren’t making watches and running these brands what would you have done in life? If you weren’t such an entrepreneur, what would you have done in life?

Oh, I do so many other things already. I helped create the SMART car.

I run a company called Belenos along with George Clooney and Deutsche Bank.

See, if you follow my life, I have done many other things. I have advised the World Bank on industrializing South Korea, I helped the Chinese with steel plants and car plants. They love me for this, the Chinese. I have advised people in Great Britain, Brazil, United States, France, Germany...

I have created lots of new industries in these countries.

In total, in Europe, I think I have created around 250,000 jobs.

And I think I do all this with the approach of an entrepreneur. I gave a speech about being an entrepreneur last year. It is on our website.

Apart from all this, what do you for lei­ sure? On the weekends...

When I was younger, I played tennis. (Swings right hand rapidly from side to side.) I was a medium player.

And I skied in the winter. Now I am too old to play tennis. So now I play billiards and swim in my swimming pool.

I have plenty of time. I refuse to serve on the boards of any big banks or third company. I refused many universities that want to give me honours. I don’t go for cocktail parties.

Those parties where everyone is talking, but no one is listening.

Similarly, for Davos, I was at the beginning of the World Economic Forum with Klaus Schwab, and Schwab was on my board. The whole press was scandalized when I refused to go to Davos any more because only talks

and no results were achieved; Klaus Schwab also left our board.

You take great personal interest in the Breguet brand, one of the top brands in your group and in the business. What is your vision for Breguet in India?

We must sell the 10,000 pieces requested by our clients in India and maintain our positioning of ultimate in prestige watchmaking. From Breguet for the young man starting his collection to the woman getting married. We could have done much faster in India if we had acted like some of the other brands and if we tried to evade customs duty, but we don’t.

I don’t want to be known at the end of my life as the king of smugglers. So I will not allow anyone to do things like that.

You have also just begun to take care of Jaquet­Droz. Your plans for that brand?

Jaquet-Droz has been kept low-key.

I didn’t have time to look after the brand. And my son didn’t have time to look after it. No one had the time.

So while we had very good designs and form for the brand...the performance was not at all as strong as our other luxury brands. So while Breguet does around $550 million in sales, Jaquet-Droz does only $18-28 million. The whole yearly sale of JaquetDroz is equal to a week’s worth of sales for Breguet.

So what are you telling your Jaquet­Droz team? What is your message to them?

We have a unique message for each of our brands. This is a very strong part of how we operate. And the message for Jaquet-Droz is “Infinity is the ultimate dream” and the whole team of Jaquet-Droz is all excited about it.

And what is your message for other busi­ nessmen and entrepreneurs?

I have a message for young people.

(Looks into video camera.) Please don’t sit in front of the computer and think you can make money by playing on the stock exchange. You are not creating wealth and you are not doing anything. You create things by being an entrepreneur, creating new ideas and products, and new jobs and new wealth. Do this, young people, this is the best you can do for the future.

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Jack Heuer HONORARY PRESIDENT, TAG HEUER

TAGGED TO THE OLD, TUNED TO TODAY The 78­year­old scion of Tag Heuer is behind many key developments in watch technology

J

ust the previous night, Tag Heuer had thrown one of the biggest parties at BaselWorld 2010, the latest edition of the world’s biggest watch fair. The fair, held in the Swiss city of Basel, traces its ancestry to an exhibition first held there in 1917 and is the biggest date on the watch industry’s calendar.

Some of the world’s most prestigious watchmakers spend millions of dollars in Basel each year putting up lavish booths—some as big as aeroplane hangars—and throwing spectacular parties. And it’s not just for the kicks. Many brands book as much as 60% of their annual sales over the course of a week of glitz and glamour in Basel.

The “Tag party” was one of the signature events in March at Basel. The company had leased out a huge warehouse of a venue—complete with 6ft tall blonde Nordic maidens and 6ft wide Turkish bouncers—and invited actor Leonardo DiCaprio to unveil the Pendulum, an innovation to mark 150 years of Tag. The next morning, Jack Heuer, great-grandson of company founder Edouard Heuer and honorary chairman of Tag Heuer, called the Pendulum “the first real innovation in watchmaking to happen in over a hundred years”.

Maybe it was marketing spiel. Basel is a haven of suave multilingual marketing and sales types in sharp suits.

Or maybe he really meant it. Heuer instantly comes across as someone without a single insincere atom in his body. Built short but strong, with thinning grey hair and an earnest smile that is delivered without restraint, Heuer is a charming host.

The meeting with Heuer, in the company booth, was one of several he had scheduled that day, and definitely not the first. Several of his minders feared aloud that things “could get exhausting for the 78-year-old”.

But, in fact, Heuer seemed to be coping much better than the posses of pretty young things that swarmed around Basel’s booths.

While a video camera was being set up, Heuer spoke, with some wonderment, about how difficult it was to star in a promotional movie that was screened during the party. “They tell you to look at the watch in your hand and react to it. But there is no watch! I have to act as if it is there. Very difficult.”

So what did it feel like to be associated with a company celebrating 150 years of existence?

Especially when you share a name with it? “I can’t deny there is a certain element of satisfaction. But it isn’t overwhelming. To be honest when you have a brand which is so well known and carries your name, after a while you get used to that and you get indifferent about it.”

Does that mean he is being forced to attend parties and act in videos by some corporate communication mandate? Heuer clarified before I could ask: “But it is nice to be able to talk about where we come from. And explain this heritage to people associated with the brand, which is part of my function. It is nice for someone with the origins of the company in his blood to talk about this. Rather than a hired outsider.”

But what exactly is Jack Heuer’s function?

Heuer’s professional history with his Swiss family business started in the 1950s, with an attempt to do something, literally and figuratively, a world away from watchmaking: management consulting in the US. After graduating in electric engineering—“I never wanted to learn watchmaking, at least in the conventional sense”—and then completing a master’s in production and management in Switzerland, Heuer decided to go to Boston: “I had an offer from Arthur D. Little. This was when the idea of management consulting was just taking off. I was trilingual, French, German and English, which was rare in those days. So they wanted me.”

But then Heuer’s father, 65 at the time, arrived at a compromise. Spend one year with the firm and then do whatever you want to. “So this way if something happened to him, at least I knew what went on in the company.”

The classic one-year trap, however, can be hard to break free from. After a year of using his engineering prowess in the watch business in the form of mathematical and statistical analysis, Heuer decided to leave again. This time his family had a fresh problem: The US

distributors were doing badly. Something had to be done.

“I went to New York to open an American subsidiary. You just can’t say no to an opportunity like that when you are 26 or 27 years old.

Then one thing led to another. I was learning the tricks of marketing, product development…”

Suddenly Heuer realized he has been talking about himself for too long. “That is my story.

Next question please!”

To complete where he left off, Heuer would eventually run the brand himself, starting sometime in 1962. In the subsequent two decades, before the company was sold off to a conglomerate, Heuer oversaw several key developments. In 1969, the company would launch the world’s first automatic chronograph. Later that year, his company became one of the first nonautomotive brands to sponsor Formula One (F1) racing. That association with F1 would culminate with the Automatic Car Identification and Timing System.

If you’ve ever wondered how they manage to time F1 cars within gaps of thousandths of a second, it is because each car has a radio emitter on board that allows for precise timing. Engineers in Heuer’s company came up with that basic concept in 1976.

Later, I asked Heuer which his favourite Tag Heuer watch of all time is. He covered his face with a palm and thought deeply. “If I was worried about marketing I could just say that our latest watch is my favourite watch! But no...”

Everyone laughed. But Heuer kept thinking silently. Then he decided he has two favourites. The Carrera 360, a watch with a chronograph accurate to one-thousandth of a second. “My grandfather first made a chronograph with that accuracy. For 60 years, we made that bloody stopwatch because no one else could. And then digital stopwatches killed the market.”

His second favourite is a special gold chronograph that he presents to F1 drivers inscribed with their names.

Heuer momentarily looked grave as he talked of the drivers who have been killed in accidents and of widows who still send the chronographs for repairs.

Earlier in the interview, as soon as we had shaken hands, Heuer spoke about actor Shah Rukh Khan, the company’s brand ambassador in India, and the Indian market. But his association with India dates back to a trip he made around 20 years ago to Rajasthan. “An emotional experience I will never forget,” remembers Heuer.

“During that trip, I went golfing with one of the maharajas. But there was no water and no greens. So we had little mats which we carried with us from hole to hole, placed on the ground and then putted the balls.

It was very…different.”

Eventually, Heuer would achieve his dream of becoming a management consultant after selling off Heuer.

Then, after changing hands several times, the company would finally be acquired by the luxury giant LVMH. In 2001, they invited the one-time head of the company to be honorary chairman. Heuer accepted enthusiastically.

Now, he spends his time acting in edgy brand videos, motivating young Tag hands with company heritage and hobnobbing with the Khans and DiCaprios—and mixing the old Heuer blood with the new.

As for the Pendulum, that’s a way of replacing the hairspring with a little magnetic field.

Expect to see a model in a Tag Heuer showroom near you soon.

SHYAMAL BANERJEE/MINT

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QUALITY OVER QUANTITY There are few independent watchmakers left in Switzerland.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t compete PATEK PHILLIPE

D

ecades of competition followed by waves of consolidation have left the Swiss watch industry with very few independent brands. Most have either been absorbed into larger groups such as Swatch or LVMH, or have ceased to operate entirely.

While lack of economies of scale and the financial resilience to last through downturns are stacked up against them, a few independent operations continue to thrive.

At BaselWorld 2010, some of the key independent exhibitors included Patek Philippe, Raymond Weil and Edox. Mint spoke to some of these makers about the challenges in staying independent, staying in business and staying profitable.

“Many people assume it would be a problem to be independent. But in fact I think there are some very strong advantages to being on your own,” said Alexandre Strambini, managing director of Edox watches. Edox, while possessing a history that dates back to 1884, has been a family-owned enterprise since 1983. Closely associated with sports timekeeping, the brand has cultivated a long relationship with motor racing and speed boating.

The strongest advantage with being an independent brand, Strambini explained, was the ability to take quick decisions and react quickly to the market. “It is a pleasure to be independent.

When you speak to someone from an independent company, you are speaking to someone who can take decisions. And the decisions that are taken...are taken! Especially retailers like to work with us because of this. We do things faster.”

Also at BaselWorld, as a visitor but not exhibitor, was Stefano Macaluso, vice-president of Girard-Perregaux, a family-owned brand that dates back to 1791. Stefano spoke about how he worked with his father and brother to run the company and how this helped them to not only keep a

Small is spectacular: One of Patek Philippe’s chrono­ graphs at BaselWorld.

close eye on quality, but also “guard the unique qualities of the brand”.

But would he be making a lot more watches if he had the scale, the infrastructure or the capital?

Does being independent force Girard-Perregaux to be exclusive? “Personally, I will not be snobbish, when I refer to companies that produce high quantities of watches of good quality. But I prefer to remain exclusive. I don’t want GirardPerregaux to make thousands and thousands of watches. So no, I have no problem being small.

There may be companies that want to be listed on the stock markets and all that. Not me,” Macaluso explained.

While some independents continue to thrive with small-scale operations, others like Raymond Weil and Patek Philippe have graduated to being equal competitors with other corporate brands.

Patek Philippe unveiled a series of self-winding and automatic chronographs at Basel. While Raymond Weil announced extensions to classic lines such as Nabucco, Freelancer and Neomia.

Another independent watchmaker to make an impact at Basel was Carl F. Bucherer, which announced additions to the brand’s signature Patravi line. Despite being an independent brand, Bucherer unveiled movements last year that were entirely built in-house using the company’s EvoTech system.

This approach to movement making strips the watch of all unnecessary parts and elaboration to leave behind a pure, waste-free device. One of the more striking results of the new Bucherer movements is the peripheral rotor that reduces the traditional rotor in an automatic movement to just a strip along the periphery of the watch.

While they remain precious few in number, launches at BaselWorld 2010 will give confidence to fans of smaller, independent brands. They continue to survive and innovate.

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Datejust Lady 31mm ROLEX

Tradition 7047 Fusee Tourbillon BREGUET

Force Constante à Chaîne

El Toro

ULYSSE NARDIN

DEWITT

BEST OF BASEL A selection of some of the best timepieces exhibited this year at BaselWorld.

Chosen for creativity, beauty, technology and design

L.U.C Louis­Ulysse —The Tribute CHOPARD

Admiral’s Cup Minute Repeater Tourbillon Movement CORUM

Ananta Automatic Chronograph SEIKO

Serpenti BULGARI

Ladies Constellation 35mm OMEGA

El Primero Striking 10th ZENITH

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Datejust Lady 31mm ROLEX

Tradition 7047 Fusee Tourbillon BREGUET

Force Constante à Chaîne

El Toro

ULYSSE NARDIN

DEWITT

BEST OF BASEL A selection of some of the best timepieces exhibited this year at BaselWorld.

Chosen for creativity, beauty, technology and design

L.U.C Louis­Ulysse —The Tribute CHOPARD

Admiral’s Cup Minute Repeater Tourbillon Movement CORUM

Ananta Automatic Chronograph SEIKO

Serpenti BULGARI

Ladies Constellation 35mm OMEGA

El Primero Striking 10th ZENITH

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THE BIG BANG THEORY Jean­Claude Biver’s unique management style, and some adventurous products, have made Hublot one of the few watchmakers that increased sales and profits over the last two years ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY HUBLOT

People person: Jean­Claude Biver works closely with his watchmakers and watch marketeers.

B

aselWorld came as a source of relief to most watchmakers this year. With better attendance and more interest from buyers, 2010 is poised to be a year of revival, a welcome change for much of the industry. Except, that is, for Jean-Claude Biver and Hublot. Biver, the chief executive of the 30-year-old luxury watch company that is now part of the LVMH group, told Mint how the brand had not only turned in record sales, but had also persisted through difficult times without having to fire a single employee. “In fact, we were hiring people. When other watchmakers were busy getting rid of people, we were quietly picking good people up,” Biver said. “2009 was a fantastic year for us. I am so sad it is over.”

Hublot’s recent success has come on the back of new product launches and aggressive marketing, including association with high-profile sporting events such as Formula One. But most of all, the brand has been able to continuously interpret the idea of “Art of Fusion” in the form of new products.

The Big Bang line, unveiled in 2005, has played a strong role in bringing Hublot’s revenues up to $176 million in 2009. This is from a low base of $24 million in 2004, which is when Biver took over the company.

Honesty, said Biver, is the secret of this impetus. “You have to be honest with your retailer, honest with your customer and honest with your watchmakers. Cheating people will

probably help you do well for one year. Cheating customers and making bad products will give you good numbers for just one year.

But after that you are dead.”

Over the years, and especially since taking over Hublot, Biver has developed into a larger-than-life figure, perhaps even becoming an ambassador for the brand. Biver’s turnaround of Hublot has now even become a business school case study.

But the 30-year veteran of the watch industry—Biver’s first job was in sales with the Audemars Piguet brand—is loath to take credit. “Without my people I am nothing. Without their loyalty I am nothing,” explained Biver.

“Six days of the week we work together, everybody, for 15 or 16 hours.

On Sunday, because I am a Catholic, we take rest and work only four or five hours. Not more than that.”

The brand has so much demand, Biver explains, that he is perhaps the only watchmaker who doesn’t shut shop between Christmas and the New Year. “I can’t afford to. I have to catch up with demand. So we work till evening on the 24th. And then start on the morning of the 26th. Right up till 5pm on the 31st. My workers are devoted.”

But why would they do this for him?

“What do we need? We need love. If you reward them, if you treat them well, if you trust them...they will do all this and more.”

Fantastic fusion: (above) Tutti Frutti Big Bang pieces in two colours, and the UNICO movement.

The next challenge then, for Biver, was to bring out lines of products that would stand apart and, therefore, find buyers.

Substance in his products and good marketing is what Hublot owes its success to. “You need make watches that people find good value in. They should see the benefit in buying these watches. And then you need good marketing. Without good marketing no one will know about your products. If your products have no substance then people will say that there is nothing of value in the brand,” explained Biver.

“When both come together, bam!

You have an explosion.”

In terms of products, Hublot continues to focus on the concept of fusion. Combining a variety of materials around a high-quality mechanical movement has been the brand’s raison d’etre for some time. At BaselWorld 2010, Hublot also unveiled the UNICO HUB1240 movement, part of the first generation of in-house movements from the brand.

What is most striking about the movement is its rich black colour, the byproduct of a galvanic surface treatment.

Biver, however, continues to focus on the technological challenges of innovating the fusion concept. One of the materials his engineers are working with currently is magnesium, one of the lightest materials on earth, but also a notoriously difficult material to

work with.

“We decided we would do a watch, which had a movement made of magnesium. We did it! But we faced lots of problems. First, if you tried drilling magnesium, it would produce produce burning chips. So you can’t use it with the oil-cooled machines we currently have in the factory. We have to change everything. Not an adaptation. You have to buy another machine. So we did.”

Second, Biver said, magnesium has very little flexibility. “Unlike gold, you can’t just drill a hole and set a diamond in it. And in a movement you have over 100 such holes. So you had working had to be much more accurate.”

And finally, magnesium is highly prone to oxidizing. “So we found a way to deposit a coating on magnesium that would prevent this problem. But I want to avoid this coating.”

Biver’s engineers continue to work on the problem. Biver also touched upon some of the other “fusion” projects the company was working. “We are trying to figure out how to prevent gold from scratching. A university is working on the project. Some projects give you results. Many don’t. But we must do this.” Hublot, Biver said, spends around 3-5% of its revenue on research and development projects carried out outside the company.

“That is a lot of money to spend on speculative projects.”

But for Hublot and Biver, the experiments are working very well indeed.

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CLASSICS REDUX Rolex unveils new versions of classic models, with a stunning collection for women

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ne of the best known names in luxury watches, Rolex continues to be one of the biggest manufacturers of luxury watches by volume, and one of the key exhibitors at Basel. In one of the largest booths at the venue, Rolex unveiled new additions to three of its popular lines: Submariner Date, Datejust Lady and Explorer.

The Submariner is one of Rolex’s signature models and the line dates back to the first Submariner model launched in 1953.

That model was the first watch to be guaranteed waterproof to 100m. Since then the line has developed a reputation for design, quality and durability.

The 2010 Submariner launches include two models: black and green Submariner Date watches with 40mm diameter dials in steel with ceramic inserts in the bezel. The watches are built with 904L steel, which makes the devices highly resistant to corrosion. Bezel inserts are made of Cerachrom with platinum graduations. And the watches are waterproof to 300m. The unique green model has a green gold dial.

Rolex’s adventure and mountaineering range, Explorer, received a new addition in Basel in the form of the New Explorer.

While the range already had pieces with diameters of 36mm and 40mm, the new Explorer has a diameter of 39mm. Otherwise it retains all the classic qualities of the line including the 904L steel body and Parachrome spring.

The highlight of Rolex’s launches at Basel, however, were the superb additions to the Datejust Lady 31mm range with three new models. Each one is a beautiful combination of diamonds, gold and steel to produce one of the most striking collections at BaselWorld this year.

Available in Everose, white and yellow gold with fluted and gem-set bezels, the timepieces are splendid additions to Rolex range of watches for women. The Everose model with domed bezel, set with 24 diamonds, stands apart for its balanced use of metals and stone.

At BaselWorld 2010, Rolex has unveiled a collection that interprets classic models with interesting combinations of new materials and design.

Brilliant: The spectacular Datejust Lady 31mm in Everose was one of Rolex’s highlights at Basel.

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Stephen Urquhart PRESIDENT, OMEGA

THE CONSUMER DID NOT RUN AWAY FROM OMEGA The Omega chief gives his perspective on economic resurgence and the significance of the Indian market OMEGA

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his year’s BaselWorld, the premier world trade show for watches, saw an industry largely confident of recovery.

Watchmakers attended the show—held in March in Basel, Switzerland—in strength, several new models were launched and most manufacturers were optimistic of stronger sales after a tough preceding year. Stephen Urquhart, president of Omega Watches, spoke to Mint on the sidelines of the trade show. He gave his personal perspective on economic resurgence and on the significance of the Indian market for Omega. Edited excerpts: There is a general sense at BaselWorld this year that the worst is behind us.

What has been your experience at Omega?

We weathered the storm well. Overall sales for the Swatch group was down around 7-8%, and Omega did slightly better than the overall group. There are two important things to say about all of this, about this scenario. First, the real trouble we had was only in two markets: USA and Japan... The so-called financial crisis, all it did was accelerate or emphasize intrinsic weaknesses in these economies.

There were structural problems in the American retailing business.

One of the chains went bankrupt and we lost 80 stores in one shot.

Japan has a very antiquated distribution system. The crisis just highlighted the need for reform.

What about the consumer?

That is the second point. During all those difficult months, the consumers didn’t abandon ship. This is contrary to what you might think. But we saw this in our own stores. Even in Japan and the USA... Our 60 stores that are corporate-owned and operated by us without incentives and where watches are sold full price over the counter—sales were up 17%.

Everyone thinks the consumer ran away, he wanted bigger discounts. This is not true. Sure, he had a little less money. But he didn’t run away. And things started picking up in October, November… right through February.

And are you seeing this recovery come from stronger US and Japanese mar­ kets?

You know, I hate this word “recovery”. You recover when you are sick. No one was sick. But if you must use that word…then yes, the markets have to recover before we do. And so we are recovering also. I must say that the good stores in the US are doing very well. The stores where the balance sheets are good, the staff is good and the training is good—they are doing well. The consumer today knows much more than the retail staff. He has the Internet, newspapers, magazines. So if the retail staff don’t know who the hell Omega is, (the) consumer won’t buy even at 10% discount.

You had high expectations of the co­axial technology when you launched it…

That has definitely helped. It has added to sales. And also helped

to give a new dimension to Omega. Till 10 years ago, nobody took Omega seriously. We weren’t one of the top mechanical movement watch brands. So when we launched the new technology, people were thinking: What the hell is Omega doing making movements?

They didn’t take us seriously. But 10 years later I think in the consumer’s and retailer’s minds things have changed. They are taking us seriously. And now we have in-house movements and a new campaign (points at Omega posters on the wall).

It is part of a long process. I think we are in the early stages of what I like to call, in all modesty, the co-axial revolution. I know it sounds like corporate jargon. It sounds nice. But it is a serious idea. Today, except for two Omega lines, Speedmaster and one other line, all other watches use the co-axial movements. So it is not a niche product like so many other brands. We had to take this new technology and scale it up, industrialize it.

How difficult is it to get the consumer excited about something as technical as a type of watch movement or one element of a watch movement?

I wouldn’t use the word “excited”. That is a big word. But I think it is a subconscious thing for the consumer. For instance, just the other day I got an email from Hong Kong that made me very happy. A customer was looking at a Swiss watch brand, top of the line and not from our group. But at the very top end. He pointed at it and asked the salesperson if the movement was a co-axial! This is when you know that the idea and the campaign are working. This year we will make around 250,000 co-axial movements. And we are not being big-headed in our promotion of the co-axial movement. We are being subtle. It is working. It means a lot for the future of Omega.

How was India for you last year?

India was good. I know this is clichéd but I would still call it a sleeping giant. We are building a strong foundation in India... We want to move faster. But it is not easy. Infrastructure is not so good. Malls are not doing so well. In China you can build a mall and overnight—poof!—you have 50,000 people coming overnight.

In India, it is just not the same... I think we need to be patient...

None of the premium brands have really taken off. But the Indian consumer is interested. Especially when he is travelling. And taxes and duty structures are a problem... People don’t want to pay 40% more for a small product they will get cheaper somewhere else.

Any special focus in India in 2010?

Distribution is key. The brand is well known in India. That is not a problem. But we need good partners.

Is the consumer in India any different from consumers in other places?

No. Not at all. He’s the same as an Italian consumer or any other consumer. The Indian consumer is very knowledgeable, very sophisticated. He’s not looking for a flashy this or that.

Nothing different. Not even in our communication.

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ALL IMAGES COURTESY CORUM

CUPS AND BRIDGES In 2010 Corum has a new direction, greater focus, confidence in India and some exciting new models

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aselWorld 2010 was an opportunity for one of the youngest “traditional” brands at the exhibition to celebrate two significant achievements. In a hall full of brands that can claim centuries of heritage, Corum is a relative newcomer. Established only in 1955, the brand is best known for two collections: the iconic Admiral’s Cup series of watches inspired by nautical themes, and the Golden Bridges with patented baguette movements inside transparent sapphire crystal casings.

Speaking to Mint at Basel, Deepa Chatrath, regional managing director of Corum for South and South-east Asia, said that for both collections and the brand, 2010 is an important year. “Admiral’s Cup celebrates 50 years this year, and Golden Bridges

30. In addition, it is the 55th anniversary of Corum’s founding. It is an important year on many accounts,” she explained.

The celebrations come at a time when Corum has completed a fiveyear exercise of rediscovery and redirection. In 2005, Corum produced around 50,000 watches including models with quartz movements.

“This will year will produce between 16,000 and 20,000 pieces. I would think that the number would be closer to 16,000,” Chatrath said.

Not only was output pruned, but the brand has now decided to focus on four collections: Admiral’s Cup, Golden Bridges, Romulus and Artisans.

Chatrath elaborated: “These four collections represent the DNA of the brand. We’ve let go of everything else.

Once again we are focusing on being a brand that stands for good craftsmanship, good materials and good value.”

At Basel this year, Corum unveiled three new timepieces, two Bridges and an Admiral’s Cup. The Bridges, a signature Corum design, reduces the movement of a watch into a longitudinal baguette movement, rather than the traditional radial arrangement. This baguette movement is then placed horizontally or vertically with the hands above.

What you have is a slim movement suspended in space. This year Corum added the complication of a tourbillon to the elegance of the baguette.

With a silicium movement the tourbillon, available in both Golden and Ti-Bridge, is one of the world’s small-

est. Also launched was a new Admiral’s Cup diver’s watch, the Deep Hull 48, that combines the classic 12-sided Admiral’s Cup design with a robust diver’s bezel. At 48mm in diameter, the watch is large, but the titanium body reduces weight. The watch is waterproof to 1,000m and has a special decompression valve to prevent helium accumulation while diving and surfacing.

Chatrath said that Corum avoided launching models for the sake of launching them. “Each new piece has to be new in a significant way. We don’t just change colours or make such cosmetic changes and launch watches. The tourbillon and the diver’s watch are substantial changes.”

India, which currently accounts for around 22% of regional sales for Co-

Icons: The Admiral’s Cup (left) and Golden Bridges are currently the most popular lines for Corum.

rum, continues to be a market the brand is optimistic about. The challenge to growth, Chatrath clarified, was not so much the consumer as much as the supply chain. “The consumer is very evolved. This is not his watch. You grow into wearing a Corum after wearing other brands. What we are focusing on now is training and orienting media and retailers.

They need to know what Corum means. Both in terms of our heritage and our recent redirection.”

Corum’s latest move to support local retailers has been a stocking point in the country. “Our retailers suffered severe delays importing the timepieces. We’ve now opened a subsidiary that will do this for them. It is a sign of our commitment to India,” Chatrath explained.

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SECOND LANGUAGE Do you know your minute repeater from your hairspring? And what would you do with a power reserve? A true watch connoisseur must not only wear the right watches, but also speak the right language.

This is a guide to some of the most commonly heard terms in high­quality watchmaking

Chronograph

Any timepiece that is used both for keeping time and as a stopwatch. Depending on how the functions are integrated, chronographs may function using single or multiple dials or displays.

Hairspring

ZENITH

The hairspring, a coiled spring, is what makes a balance wheel swing back and forth with regularity. Manufacturing a hairspring is a challenge and modern hairsprings are made with proprietary alloys and even, in the case of Breguet’s Tradition 7047 Fusee Tourbillon, with silicium.

Minute Repeater Chronometer

Often confused with a chronograph, a chronometer is a timepiece of very high accuracy. Initially chronometers were used by sailors who required high accuracy while navigating using celestial measurements.

Today, the term is used for watches of high precision and in Switzerland brands are allowed to use the term chronometer only if certified by the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres.

A minute repeater, or any repeater, is a mechanical solution to telling the time when there is no light. On pulling a lever, a hammer strikes against a gong sounding the time. Minute repeaters are, therefore, complicated to manufacture and very valuable.

Power Reserve

A power reserve indicator tells the owner of a watch how much tension is left in the main spring. Considered a complication, power reserves are found on both manually and self-wound watches.

Complication

When a timepiece is used to do something more than just tell the time, then this extra function is called a complication.

Normally, the term is not used to refer to features such as chronographs or day or date displays. Instead, complications would include features such as signs of the Zodiac or minute repeaters.

Retrograde

A retrograde movement is essentially one that moves back and forth. For instance, a second hand that moves along an arc, instead of a circle, from 0 to 60, and then swings back.

This is a complication.

Escapement

An escapement is the heart of a mechanical watch. It performs many critical functions, including translating the spring’s rotational movement into the measured, controlled movement of the second hand.

There are many different types of escapements, and in many cases it this escapement that gives watches and clocks the satisfying tick-tock sound.

Grand Complication A grand complication watch consists of multiple complications. Expensive and usually valued by collectors, some grand complications can comprise dozens of complications and are more works of art than timepieces.

Self Winding

Here the watch is wound by the movement of the owner’s wrist. A rotor inside the watch moves when the wearer moves, and this motion is translated through a system of gears into winding the spring. Some automatics also allow you to wind the spring manually using the crown. This is useful when the watch has not been worn for some time.

Tourbillion

Considered an example of the highest watchmaking craftsmanship, tourbillon assemblies involve the balance wheel and escapement being built into a cage that rotates. This was used to counter the impact of gravity on the traditional watch mechanism. The tourbillon was invented by Abraham-Louis Breguet around 1795.

ALL IMAGES COURTESY RESPECTIVE MANUFACTURERS

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SUNRISE STORY

SEIKO

Amid all the traditional names at Basel, two Japanese brands prove they are no upstart pushovers

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Illusion: Citizen’s Eco­Drive LOOP has a second hand that wraps around the face.

CITIZEN

or approximately the first seven decades in the history of watchmaking exhibitions in Basel, the event was not even open to watchmakers from outside Europe. And two decades since the first “international” exhibition, Basel 86, the stars at the event continue to be watchmakers with centuries-old Swiss traditions. Watchmakers such as Breguet, Ulysse Nardin and Longines can trace their origins back to the early 1800s and beyond. And between them, these traditional watchmakers account for many inventions and innovations in mechanical watchmaking.

Yet at BaselWorld 2010, two Japanese watchmakers not only found themselves among the legends in Hall 1.0, reserved for only the biggest names in the business, but they also announced several highquality products.

The year holds special significance for Seiko, which celebrates the 40th anniversary of the launch of the world’s first quartz watch, the Seiko Quartz Astron. The company commemorated this occasion by unveiling a new special, limited-edition Quartz Astron.

The timepiece houses an advanced 9F62 quartz calibre which makes it more reliable and accurate to within 10 seconds over a year. Only 200 pieces of this special piece will be made.

In addition to the new Quartz Astron, Seiko announced several new models in the Ananta, Sportura, Velatura and Premier lines.

A key innovation for this year was a watch with an electrophoretic display that uses the same technology as popular e-book readers. Seiko’s key innovation here has been to make the screen consume just 1% of the power of comparable screens in use today. A prototype of the watch was presented in Basel.

Across the hall, Citizen also shone with two conceptual timepieces that used the company’s signature Eco-Drive technology to stunning effect.

Eco-Drive is Citizen’s popular technology that power watches based on any light source, anywhere. Over the years Citizen has been able to build the Eco-Drive system into almost every part of the watch face. At Basel this year, Citizen showcased the Eco-Drive LOOP and the Eco-Drive EYES. The LOOP ingeniously combines the Eco-Drive technology with inventive design to create a face that floats and a second hand that loops entirely around the face from the front to the back of the watch.

The stylistic element of the EYES concept is the play of light and shadow through the watch. Visual texture is achieved through the use of a layered, pure white dial. And the Eco-Drive cell is built into the outer edge of the dial.

In addition to these concepts, Citizen also announced that the EcoDrive DOME concept unveiled last year would go into limited production of only 500 pieces.

Both Japanese watchmakers impressed at BaselWorld 2010 with concept devices and line extensions.

Get set go: Seiko’s new Sportura with skeleton style dial.

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A SPRING APART Tag Heuer unveiled the Pendulum concept at Basel. An innovation that could rewrite 300 years of watchmaking

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tripped to its bare essentials, reduced functionally to a skeleton of devices, a mechanical watch is actually a simple device. A simple device that is designed to transform energy from one form to another, while using this translation to tell the time.

In a quartz watch, the energy from a battery is used to vibrate a quartz crystal. This vibration is measured and used to tell the time. In a more traditional mechanical watch, a series of springs, gears and an escapement mechanism is used to transfer the energy of wound springs into a vibration of the balance wheel, which is then measured to produce time intervals.

Simply put, the hairspring, at the heart of a mechanical watch, functions like a quartz crystal. And it has remained at the heart of a timepiece since 1675, when Christian Huygens invented the hairspring. While several inventors have worked on refining this hairspring— even a Nobel Prize has been awarded for work in the field—the basic principle of the mechanical watch has remained the same for centuries.

But this year at BaselWorld 2010, Tag Heuer introduced the new Pendulum concept that for the first time poses a serious challenge to the presence of a hairspring in a mechanical watch. Jack Heuer, scion of the Heuer family and honorary president of Tag Heuer, said in an interview with Mint that the Pendulum was the first time since Huygens that anyone had thought of an alternative for the hair-

spring. “It is still early days, and we are still testing the concept, but it is truly a revolution. And a great way to celebrate 150 years of Tag Heuer.”

The Pendulum replaces the oscillating hairspring with an oscillating magnetic field.

Using four magnets, and specially-shaped parts, the Pendulum uses a combination of attracting and repelling magnetic fields to simulate the functioning of a hairspring.

This concept also helps avoid some of the weaknesses of hairspring-enabled systems, especially sensitivity to gravity, thermal variations and irregularities in spring structures.

However, the Pendulum is still a concept in an early stage of development. Heuer explained: “While we have proven that this concept will work, we still have some challenges. The most important is a magnetic assembly that will be stable across a variety of temperatures.”

At BaselWorld, Tag Heuer showcased the TAG Heuer Grand Carrera Pendulum Concept, a watch assembled with the new system.

However, when collectors and connoisseurs are finally able to buy watches with Pendulums, the pieces will not be available in large numbers. “The idea is not to replace the hairspring in all watches. But to produce an engineering marvel, in limited numbers, for enthusiasts,” Heuer explained.

TAG HEUER