Back to the roots

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Denis Giguet appointed CEO of the Cage Holding watch division - MCT
3 minutes read
Our editor-in-chief talked to Denis Giguet about his return to MCT - the brand he founded in 2007.

You established MCT in 2007. Have you always followed the brand?

When you set up a brand like MCT you always remain attached to it in some form or another. I put a lot of effort into the creation of the brand and its products so there has always been an emotional link with the brand. I did leave the company for just over four years during which time I was able to acquire additional experience that has helped me on the return to the company. But even more importantly there is now a full team in place for the development of the watches. We develop everything in-house and outsource production but assemble in-house, which allows us to guarantee the quality.

You rejoined the company shortly after Pierre Jacques was appointed CEO. How do you work together?

That is one of the other reasons why it was the perfect time to come back to MCT. There is a fantastic complementarity between Pierre and I. Pierre is the CEO and is more in charge of marketing and sales aspects, whereas I am responsible for product development and industrialization. If I had to highlight the most important part of my job it is the product development side because I love creating new watches and new versions of existing models.

Isn’t it unusual that your movements and watches are unique on the market and yet you outsource production? Surely your suppliers only produce the display components for MCT?

It’s an interesting point. Our hour display is indeed unique but we won’t remain bound by this alone. The DNA of the brand is very clear but we will continue to develop innovative ways to display the time. They will not necessarily break existing codes but they will always offer a playful way of displaying the time.

Will the DNA you mention remain essentially masculine?

No, we will introduce ladies watches but we will do so gradually. We already have some models with colours that could easily be worn by ladies but 99% of our customers at the moment are men. The challenge for us as a niche brand known only amongst aficionados and collectors is that it is a lot more difficult to bring an “unbranded” ladies’ watch to market. So we will work on it, but we will take the time to do so in the right way, coming up with an exclusively feminine watch rather than just customizing an existing masculine watch.

Are you pleased that MCT will be at the SIHH in 2017?

There are number of positive things about being part of the Carré des Horlogers. Firstly, just being selected to be approached is very important, because not all the brands who wanted to be there were accepted. So this means the quality of our products has already been recognized. Secondly, compared with Baselworld, there are much fewer brands present but with much better exposure, so the attention of the customers and media is focused more on this smaller selection of independent brands. We also benefit from the support of the organisers because of the way that the SIHH is organized, which is an enormous help for a brand like ours.

What can we expect to see from MCT at the SIHH?

We are working on a lot of new developments, many of which have been started very late. So at this stage I cannot necessarily be sure that they will all be seen at the SIHH, but we will do everything we can to make the deadline. We do aim to surprise people and any brand, whether or not it is independent, needs to do this. The share of new models as a percentage of total sales is increasing for all brands, so it’s important to be creative. So there will be a lot of new models at the SIHH, some of which will be extensions to existing lines but there will also be a nice new talking piece.

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