30th anniversary: the exclusive interview

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30th anniversary: the exclusive interview - Christophe Claret
From 1987 to 2017 and beyond: thirty years after he started out, Christophe Claret continues to dream of tomorrow’s watchmaking.

Nothing can stop Christophe Claret. Not even an interview with WorldTempus! Christophe Claret has indulged us with good grace on numerous occasions over the years, but barely 10 minutes go by without his office door opening, and someone coming in to ask him to validate some plans or check over some finished watch parts. Christophe Claret is always on call. He apologises with an embarrassed smile. “It never stops!” he comments, before continuing where he left off. Which, in this case, was talking about how he started making watches in 1987. It was exactly 30 years ago, but Christophe Claret doesn’t pay much attention to anniversaries. Unlike WorldTempus. We take a look back on an extraordinary career.

What are your strongest memories from 1987? 
That was the year I had my first order! It was a personal order for Ulysse Nardin. I was working freelance – it wasn’t until two years later that I set up my company – but Rolf W. Schnyder ordered some minute repeaters from me. It all started from there.

30 ans, l’interview exclusive

Is that how your manufacture was born?
In embryonic form, yes. I was young and I didn’t have the resources to set up my own manufacture, so I teamed up with Giulio Papi and Dominique Renaud, and we each owned one-third of the new structure. It was thanks to them that I was able to set myself up. We started developing and building our first complications. Two years down the line, we decided it was time to go our separate ways. I bought their shares, and the rest is history!

Did you choose watchmaking, or did watchmaking choose you?
It’s hard to say! I was attracted to mechanical movements very early on. I didn’t wait until I had my watchmaker’s certificate to make a start. I was eight years old when I started taking alarm clocks apart to see how they worked – and making some unique sculptures! That must have been 45 years ago...

Did your passion grow from there? 
Yes, but not just for watchmaking. From around the age of 18 I started to take an interest in craftsmanship. I spent a great deal of time with eminent chefs, cabinet makers and stained glass restorers. Later on, I developed a similar passion for historic monuments as I have for watchmaking, which obviously is another skilled profession.

But your own brand, and your collaborative pieces, have never really spotlighted your enthusiasm for these crafts.
They have, a great deal, but only in watches that few people see, mostly one-off pieces. A lot of them – around 120 – have been made with Jean Dunand. These watches sell for between 400,000 and 500,000 francs, so they’re very special pieces that remain out of the limelight.

30th anniversary: the exclusive interview

Can we look forward to future Claret collections featuring some of these artistic crafts? 
Anything is possible! I have loads of ideas, but unfortunately we can’t make everything. These days the watch industry is governed not by watchmakers but by financiers, who are concerned about risk management and return on investment. Times have changed, and I have to take that into account. We work on a number of projects every year that don’t reach full maturity. The support of other watch brands is crucial for us.

It must be frustrating, not being able to bring your ideas to fruition.
Sometimes, yes. But I still have many ideas in reserve. You just have to be patient. Every now and then I get a surprise, when ideas I thought of many years ago suddenly appear on the market, and I thought they were obvious. On the other hand, I sometimes have to shelve projects because they are too far ahead of their time. The X-TREM-1, for instance, was a project we developed for another brand, which finally decided not to take it forward. I completed the project with my own company, and it’s become our best-seller. There’s a time for everything – you have to sense the right moment. It’s as much about instinct as experience.

30th anniversary: the exclusive interview

Are you still optimistic about the commercial potential for these kinds of grand complications?
Yes. 2009 was a difficult year. But today, things have changed. The biggest watch clients are still around, but they’re better informed. They invest differently to consolidate their positions, but they are still just as curious, and they still have the resources. A large part of the current crisis is psychological, and its effects are starting to wear off.

What about tomorrow? When will Christophe Claret lay down his tools? 
Not for another 10 or 15 years! Development and the design office are what excite me. As far as everything else is concerned, I have a lot of support. That’s true for my personal life too; I have three young children and that has naturally changed my priorities.

There was a time when I’d arrive at the workshop at 6.30 a.m. to finish the interior angles of my tourbillon cages myself. I don’t do that any more, but from time to time it helps me to take the pulse of certain precise operations, and evaluate how much time should be devoted to them. Some collections demand a quick reaction time. That was the case recently with the Grand Deck, which we developed for Ulysse Nardin. We are coming to the end of the series, but there were times when we were delivering as many as eight per month! It was a great success – a prime example of the right watch at the right time, boldly taken to market by the right brand. When the planets are aligned, the customers turn up.

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Christophe Claret