How did the relationship between Carl F. Bucherer and the Swiss football team come about?
It all began through special ties with Diego Benaglio, former goalkeeper of the Swiss football team and who was also a Carl F. Bucherer ambassador. He has always supported the brand and put it in touch with the Swiss Football Association. In cooperation with the latter, we created a watch two years ago for the World Cup in Brazil. Since then, we have had other discussions and we realised that we shared a lot of common ground. We work on an international scale, and for both of us, juniors – meaning apprentices and their training – are very important, especially for us as a family business. Our relationship with the Association is legitimate because we promote the same values.
Carl F. Bucherer is now the Swiss team’s official timekeeper.
That’s right: this partnership will kick off on July 1st 2016 for a four-year period. We wanted to do something that hadn’t yet been done. Various brands are active in football, but for us it was clear that if we were to get involved, it would be as official timekeeper for the Swiss team. That was what really counted for us.
On a commercial level, are you expecting specific repercussions from this partnership?
It’s obviously an advantage in terms of brand awareness in Switzerland, because everyone knows football and the benefits will become apparent over the long term. But there’s another aspect to our involvement: we also wanted to have women footballers. This was important for us because we had just launched new ladies’ collections. Next year we are therefore going to be strongly involved with women’s football teams and we have high hopes for this project.
The official watch for the Swiss football team is a Patravi ScubaTec. What role do sports watches play within the brand’s collections?
They represent a fundamental pillar, although the proportions also vary according to markets. Classic watches such as the Manero and Adamavi lines, for example, sell very well in Asia and Europe, whereas our extremely masculine and sporty watches are particularly successful in the United States, in Russia – as well as in Europe where they account for a share equal to that of classic watches.
And what about ladies’ watches?
Six years ago, when I took the helm of the brand, we were selling 6,000 a year. This year, we will reach the 30,000-unit mark, meaning five times more than previously. Six years ago, the split was 80% men’s /20% women’s timepieces. With the increase in feminine models, we have reached 60%-40% and my goal is to strike a perfect 50-50 balance. Given the brand’s historical heritage, it was both natural and logical that Carl F. Bucherer should make ladies’ watches, and we have all the in-house competencies required to achieve that, including gemmologists.
Tell us about the film starring Charlize Theron that involves a Carl F. Bucherer watch.
A watch by Carl F. Bucherer had already been seen in Fast and Furious, and two films featuring our models will be released by the end of 2016: John Wick 2 starring Keanu Reeves, and The Coldest City with Charlize Theron. She does indeed wear the watch in the film, which is one thing, but the far more important factor is that the watch plays an active part in the plot. This spy thriller is set in Berlin, in the section formerly located in East Germany, and as in any espionage film, there are secrets. In this case the key secret is hidden at the heart of the watch, which means the latter has a substantial role throughout. At a certain point, the watch must be opened to recover the secret and there’s a magnificent close-up of the watch movement. This is also important on the German market, for example, since the watchmaker to whom Charlize Theron brings the watch to be opened is played by well-known German actor Til Schweiger.
Three months after the close of Baselworld, how would you say it went for you?
Je suis très content parce que c’était une foire difficile. Avec moins de clients, moins I’m very pleased because it was a difficult trade fair. With less clients, including far less from Asia and Russia, along with terrorist acts, the U.S. elections, the fall in the Chinese stock market and the nation’s anti-corruption measures, the whole climate and environment were very tough, but our extremely hard work paid off. I think we are definitely in a period where a process of natural selection will take place among the conscientious brands and the others, who are facing a lot of issues.
If you’re a brand like Carl F. Bucherer, which is still in the development phase, perhaps it’s easier than for a brand that has long since reached a very high level or for another brand that has no roots. We have our own Manufacture and on June 16th we are opening a new factory in Lengnau that will regroup everything – movement production, assembly, customer service. We also have our own distribution network and a very real heritage. Carl F. Bucherer did indeed found the company in 1888 and was succeeded by his two sons, while the current head of the firm is his grandson. It’s an authentic House that has always been involved in watchmaking and I think we have all the assets required to steer the right course.
