You did not celebrate it officially, but it was Blancpain’s 290th anniversary in 2025. What do you take away from this year?
No one can ignore that the year has been complicated for watchmaking and the world in general. We experienced many tragedies affecting the entire population. Everything is accelerating; it becomes difficult not to lose one’s bearings. Looking at the glass half full, the outcome for Blancpain remains very positive, because the work we have been doing for years has borne fruit: we have relaunched the Villeret collection, presented superb Fifty Fathoms for women, and unveiled our Grande Double Sonnerie, a phenomenal achievement from a technical and aesthetic point of view. The brand has been able to express itself across all its territories of expression, and it was ultimately a year full of emotions.
What does the Grande Double Sonnerie represent for you?
It represents, first of all, the culmination of 10 years of in-house R&D, the result of passionate teamwork. We proved to ourselves that we could achieve it within our manufacture, with all the talents and personalities it brings together, a bit like a family. By setting this goal of a grande complication with double strike at the beginning, we had no idea how long this quest would take. It was a quest for the Holy Grail, and we achieved it among ourselves, respecting traditions as well as the spirit of innovation and the ability to push boundaries. The creativity of all our trades, collaborating on the fundamentals of watchmaking such as chronometry, is a key factor in our success. In a sense, it represents an achievement, but also a beginning, because we will not stop there.
Is Blancpain therefore at a turning point?
In a way. When I discovered the different faces of the brand upon taking it over, I realized that they had been changing successively every 20 years for a century. Essentially masculine with small jewelry watches in the 1920s to 1940s, the brand changed radically with the launch of the Fifty Fathoms, very sporty and without complications. Then there were again complication watches, but very classic, and watches for women, followed once more by a strong focus on the Fifty Fathoms. It is time to animate these collections in parallel and to show the full extent and diversity of Blancpain’s expertise.
Returning to the Double Grande Sonnerie, in your opinion, what fundamentally distinguishes it from other striking watches?
First of all, it features two melodies, the classic Westminster and the Blancpain melody, composed by the musician Eric Singer. Furthermore, this Grande Sonnerie embodies, for me, more than horological passion: not only does it integrate centuries of watchmaking traditions, but it also appeals to all the senses. Its ergonomics and reliability allow one to admire it with the eyes and ears, and also to handle it without fear. It allows for interaction, for experiencing and sharing; it constitutes a true catalyst of experience for lovers of haute horlogerie, a bit like an artistic masterpiece around which art enthusiasts would debate with passion.
You mentioned the place of women’s watches, what does 2026 look like?
Precisely, women represent about a third of our clientele, and we are creating a capsule collection. The entire challenge was to dedicate a precious line to them that carries Blancpain’s aesthetic codes and values in terms of finishing. The Fifty Fathoms had caused a stir at its launch, yet it carried Blancpain’s codes; we aspire to the same effect. Furthermore, we are also dedicating capsules within the Villeret and Fifty Fathoms collections, and we will animate our entire product portfolio to surprise and excite them with our women’s watches. We want spirit and substance, and we have also recruited internal talents to communicate with them in a relevant way.
Your Villeret collection has been completely revised, what was the approach?
I wanted to respond to a personal observation: I was wearing this magnificent classic collection less. It was not a question of transforming it completely, but of refining the details, making it more contemporary in small touches, giving it cleaner lines, subtly reworking the case, and improving everything that could be improved in terms of elegance and comfort. Today, interchangeable straps are a given, for example. And women have their versions: smaller, more precious, more colorful.
Do you also plan developments within your production facility?
Indeed, we are investing heavily in our manufacture, whether in machinery and technology, but also in the teams. The launch of our Grande Double Sonnerie is only the first step in Blancpain’s major return to complications, as our clients will see in the coming years. These ten years of R&D on the Grande Double Sonnerie have opened our eyes to our potential, but also to our limits: we want to give our horological creativity more agility and flexibility, which requires more modern machines to prototype or create small series. Our clients will benefit from more customization and responsiveness. For this, we will also review our organization across the different production sites and hire more employees. At the same time, we aim to raise the skills of our teams and offer them career development to retain our talents; they are part of the Blancpain manufacture family.
Your commercial team also has new faces, does this imply a new strategy?
Indeed, we have a new commercial director, but the commercial strategy does not change significantly; we remain attentive to market developments. This sometimes requires accelerating in certain areas and revising the approach in others. We continue to open our own boutiques and now have 50 directly operated stores (about thirty with partners), where we generate almost half of our turnover. This allows us to be closer to our end clients, so they better understand our message, and therefore strengthen the brand. It also benefits the retailers we continue to work with and select carefully. We have very interesting projects in this area for 2026.
