After positive news about the Richemont Group’s end of year sales (see our newsletter of 16th January), the December export figures for the Swiss watch industry, released last Thursday, made for slightly less depressing reading than usual, with a faint glimmer of hope that the decline might just be bottoming out. The full-year 2016 figures for the Swatch Group, due out this week, will be a look back rather than forward, but analysts at Vontobel have already forecast positive growth for the world’s biggest watchmaking group in 2017.
Having sifted through our notes from the SIHH 2017, we have identified a number of trends, which we will be looking at in more detail over the coming weeks. The automotive world was not a trend, but a theme at SIHH 2017, with a number of brands showing off their associations with the car industry. Camille Gendre takes our first look at this on Thursday with a joint interview with Alexandre Peraldi, Design Director at Baume & Mercier, and Pete Brock, the designer of the very rare Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé that was on display at the entrance to the brand’s booth.
The SIHH also offers us the opportunity to talk to the bosses of the big and small brands, getting an idea of what we can expect over the coming year. In our first such interview post-SIHH, David Chokron spoke to Juan-Carlos Torres, CEO of Vacheron Constantin, about the duo of million-dollar talking pieces presented during the show, among many other things. You can read his interview on Friday.
New materials are also showcased during the SIHH and this year offered some interesting twists, which we will come back to soon. But having bumped into Xavier de Roquemaurel, CEO of Czapek & Cie. during the week, I was able to elicit a small but important snippet of information about the brand’s “XO Steel”. You can find out today why this steel is unlike any other used in watchmaking.
Party update
We have added a photo gallery and video from the GMT/WorldTempus party held in partnership with Propaganda Live, TimeCrafters, AsiaTatler and Vontobel. Relive the event (or see what you missed) here.
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