Tell us about your big news of becoming CEO of Bremont.
Of course, I accepted on the 2nd of May, and by the 31st, we were moving house and everything. It really came at the right moment as I was looking for a change. It is important to get out of your comfort zone and change things a bit, re-dynamize your situation. So, it just happened at the perfect moment and the company is fantastic.
Where do you start with such an exciting adventure?
As you know, I know this segment very well, so everything was crystal clear to me about how to really take things to the next level. The fundamentals are all there, it is fantastic and authentic. Someone said to me: ‘it is like a diamond in the rough’ and it is really that. Now, we have to start polishing!
What challenges are you seeing?
The company had grown organically around Nick and Giles, but there were a lot of stories, and too many limited editions and products. In a way, they had found a magic recipe for the U.K., because 80% of the turnover is in the U.K., but we would like to replicate this globally. What had happened was that they had been successful in seizing small opportunities, but that had led to a level of complexity that was impossible to scale up. Now, what we are putting in place is a programme called “Simplify to Amplify” and that’s exactly what we are doing. We have cut 40% of our references and we are focusing on a single story.
We have a new campaign called “Take it Further”, I think it is a very nice brand campaign with the message that if you have a dream, go for it. You can achieve it. You just need to have a particular mindset to never give up, believe in yourself, face your fears, cope with risk, etc., and that is exactly what adventure and explorers do to be successful.
What do you have cooking in terms of new launches?
The world of adventure and exploration makes segmentation really easy as we have sea, land, and air. Sea is the Supermarine line, and this was the first refresh, but this was already in the pipeline when I joined, so there is more to come at the end of February/beginning of March, when we will refresh the whole line.
What do you have planned for Watches and Wonders?
The land segment will be our big launch for Watches and Wonders with our field watch, which is inspired by the British military. It is a very strong, full transversal line that will come in a completely new case shape. It will be the new expression of Bremont. The following year, mid 2024 to 2025, we will refresh our pilot lines, with more complications to create variety.
In terms of manufacturing in the U.K., what are your plans?
I have just finished recruiting my executive committee and I very much want to bring people from watchmaking. So, the plan is to hire people who know about watches, but who have also managed bigger-scale operations, because we want to take things to the next level. We currently produce around 10,000 watches, but the five-year objective is to take that to 30,000 to 40,000, and we can do that. We have the space and the equipment. Now it is about getting organized and normalizing processes, because no one was from the watchmaking world, so what happened was that they had reinvented the wheel, finding crazy ways of doing things that are not the usual ones. So now we can be more effective by just applying what everyone else does in the watch industry.
Will you be continuing all the military squadron limited editions that were so popular among the British Forces and beyond?
Yes, I think it is the only watchmaking brand that has developed such ties with the military over time. We serve more than 500 squadrons around the world. That’s why, to me, adventure is blending so well with everything around Bremont, because adventure was born British. Think of Cook, Livingstone, Shackleton, for example. So, we can speak about Britishness, not only because the brand’s founders are British, but in a larger way. We also have all these ties with the military where they really wear and use the watch every day. We can do a lot of things with them. There is also this crazy culture of testing with the Martin Baker ejectable seat test, so everything can be tied together in a proper way. It is exciting.
