IWC- the American watch-maker

By mid 19th century, Switzerland was beginning to be acknowledged as a horology capital of the world. Patek had arrived from Poland and Rolex was planning to move its headquarters from London to Geneva. Great watchmakers from Europe and America migrated to Switzerland to add to its horology eco-system.

America in the 1860s was emerging as a great watch making country. ELGIN, Howard and Waltham were already making the top 100 pocket watches of the world. But American labour costs were becoming prohibitive and watch-making was becoming unviable. Aristo Florentin Jones as Director of E Howard & Co., watchmaker in Boston, was already finding it difficult to run his company. What Dennison & Co., a leader in the watch business failed to do, Jones decided to try – to migrate to Switzerland in search of cheap and high quality watch making labour force. He did not land in Geneva like most other watchmakers. He landed in Schaffhausen in Eastern Switzerland on the bank of River Rhine, for the most unlikely reason.

A decade earlier, engineer Johann Heinrich Moser had set up a dam on Rhine to produce hydroelectricity. Jones was most enamoured to set up a watch factory that runs on electricity! He approached Moser to become a partner and Moser readily agreed. They named their company as International Watch Co. and till date all IWC watches carry Schaffhausen as an integral part of the branding in every watch they make.

On the back of modern engineering and technology from the US, Schaffhausen, located at the border between Germany and Switzerland brought a new dimension of engineering rigour to Swiss watch making. In the words of Roland Ott, Director of Communications of IWC, “Design is important but we will look for elegant technology solutions”. There is a Teutonic rigour and obsession with technical aspects in every stage of production. In 1903, IWC established its official moto “Good, solid craftsmanship from Schaffhausen”. Over the years, IWCs culture has been “to make watches which are more unstated and pure than in the French part of Switzerland.” So here is the ‘Germanic-Swiss’ watch!

One of the revolutionary watches that IWC made was in 1936, known to collectors as Mark IX – featuring a shatterproof glass, a rotating bezel, antimagnetic movement and starkly contrasting, luminescent hands and numerals. This was a special pilot’s watch. Mark IX was followed by Mark XI and Mark XII. Since 2003 the pilots watch has been named after the legendary spitfire, a time piece clearly modelled on superior technology and cool elegance.

IWC is known for its famous 81-, 85-, 852 calibre movements that were incorporated from 1940s in their automatic models, branded Ingenieur models. These also incorporated IWC’s anti-magnetic qualities. Ingenieur would not stop at 500,000 ampere/meters and could withstand a MRI scanner. The same features got incorporated also in the Marine Yatch Club models.

Left up to its technology image, IWC was involved in the development of the first quartz movement named Beta 21 quartz that was displayed in Basel Fair in 1969. IWC used Beta 21 in its legendary watch Da Vinci in the mid-70s. Since the days of its pilot watch, IWCs chronographed Da Vinci watches are hugely sought after by collectors.

The other popular model of IWC introduced in 1930s is called Portuguese. The watch is so named because the original watches were made with a special request from Portugal to incorporate a pocket watch movement into manufacturing a large wristwatch. Portuguese also continues to be an extremely popular make from IWC.

Jones and Moser could only run the business till 1880. Then the company passed on to an Industrial family ‘Raucheloenback–Vogel’ from Schaffhausen. Four generations of the ‘Raucheloenback–Vogel’ family ran IWC. The most unlikely descendant of the ‘Raucheloenback–Vogel’ family who managed IWC for a while was Dr. Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist who is related by marriage to the family.

True to its tradition IWC always employed prominent technicians in the company. Johann Vogel as a Technical Director designed and developed all calibres till 1990. Similarly, Austrian designer Pallweber designed and manufactured the first digital watch in the world. IWC’s quest for new technology got the company to join hands with Porsche Design and IWC used Titanium for the first time in the industry in 1978. To make sure that IWC is no ordinary watch, bezels are rotated 16,000 times, 5 kg weights are slammed into them, they are dropped into tanks of salty water, mercilessly rattled around for 16 hours and then subject to freezing followed by baking. Should the IWC watch ever need a service or repair, the stock room can supply spare wheels and dials that date back to 1885.

Consolidation
By 1991, IWC Director Blumlein founded the LMH group with its headquarters in Schaffhausen. By then, the LMH group had taken over 60 per cent of Jaeger–LeCoultre and 90 per cent in Saxony based watch maker A.Lange and Sohne. Gunter Blumlein, another giant of the Swiss watch making industry who also like Hayek led the industry out of crisis by the 70s succumbed to a takeover in 2000. His group, the LMH was acquired by Richemont. In 2001, it was the end of another great watch making era in Switzerland.

By the time Richemont bought IWC and other brands, they were already owning the famous Vendome luxury group. More about Richemont Group in this column later.

Between its models of Ingenieur, Spitfire, Da vinci, Portuguese and others, IWC sells about 60,000 watches per year through its 700 outlets in the world including the Ethos boutique in Mumbai. At 60,000 a year, IWC makes about 10 per cent compared to Rolex’s 6,00,000 but almost three times that of Patek Philippe. Unfortunately Jones is hardly remembered as the American who integrated technology with Germanic rigour and gave a unique dimension to Swiss horology.

* This first appeared in Smarbuy, a supplement of Businessline on Aug 6, 2008

Cartier: A jewel amongst watches

Caroline, Queen of Naples was the first person in the world who wore a wrist watch, which was designed and manufactured by Abraham Breguet.

That was in the year 1812. For nearly a century after that (99 years to be precise) men never got an opportunity to wear a wrist watch. That development only happened in the year 1911 when the Parisian jeweller, Cartier sold the first men’s wrist watch branded as ‘Santos’. Louis Cartier (1875 – 1942) in fact had been credited for creating the first man’s wrist watch in 1904, when he designed one for his friend and client, Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont.The Brazilian, who was one of the early pioneers of aviation, needed a suitable timepiece for his dare devil flights.

The first Cartier Santos was designed by Edmond Jaeger (a famous watch maker himself) and continues to be a fashionable watch even today.
History
The history of Cartier in many ways starts with Louis Francois Cartier (1819 – 1904), even though his grandfather known by the same name started his business as a goldsmith in Paris. In 1874, Alfred Cartier took over the business from his father Louis Francois. Alfred’s three sons, Louis (Jr), Pierre and Jacques eventually converted the family business into a global empire.
Louis Cartier’s (Jr) marriage to Countess Almasey of Hungary got the family’s entry into the Royalty of Europe. One of his important clients, King Edward VII once described Louis Cartier as ‘The jeweller of Kings, the King among jewellers’.

King Edward VII appointed Cartier to his Court and granted him permission to open the Cartier store at 4, Burlington Street in London in 1902. By then Cartier had been selling his jewellery to the Tsars of Russia, virtually all the Crown Heads in Europe, most Maharajahs of India and the Kings of Siam and Nepal.

Pierre Cartier took the Cartier brand to America and sold the famous, ‘Hope Diamond’, to Mrs. Evalyn Mclean in New York.

Louis and Jacques both died in 1942 and the empire began to crumble. By 1962, operations in London and New York were sold off to independent owners and Cartier was in real danger of loosing its global dominance as a jeweller.

Santos
Throughout the 19th century gentlemen considered it appropriate to carry only time pieces. Wrist watches were considered to be too feminine. The Cartier Santos’ promos showed that an adventurous gentleman was wearing a wrist watch in all elements of his life.The ‘Tank’ introduced in 1917 is the most famous Cartier watch model. During World War I, Louis Cartier was inspired by the tough new war machines that the Americans introduced in Europe. The ‘Tank’ with a rugged yet beautiful design became a classic.

Being a jeweller, Cartier broke free from traditional watch shapes namely, circular and rectangular. Cartier was responsible for the introduction of square, tortue, tonneau and oval shapes in wrist watches.

The most bizarre shape was designed by R. Emerson and introduced to the market in 1960 called the ‘Crash’. The first watch in an uneven shape and many people called it the ‘Dali watch’ even though Surrealist artist Salvador Dali had nothing to do with it.

The Pasha of Moracco ordered Cartier to design an exclusive watch for his golden jubilee. Cartier commercially could not sell the design for the next fifty years being contractually prohibited.
On the completion of the contracted fifty year period Cartier introduced Pasha during the mid-90’s and Pasha is now the largest selling Cartier model in steel, gold and platinum.

A lesser known fact is that Louis Cartier was the first jeweller to have introduced platinum to jewellery and the first piece of such jewellery was sold to the Russian Royalty.

Resurrection
Cartier went through a rough patch and a gradual sliding down of Cartier was to be arrested with investors Joseph Kanoui taking control of Cartier Paris in 1972. It took Kanoui another seven years to buy back Cartier operations in London and New York and recreate the original Cartier Empire.

By 1988 Cartier had acquired two major Swiss watch brands namely, ‘Piaget’ and ‘Baume & Mercier’. By 1993, Kanoui, with help and assistance from Alain Perrin had created a brand new group called the ‘Vendome Luxury Group’.

Vendome now owns such illustrious brands as Cartier, Alfred Dunhill, Montblanc, Piaget, Baume & Mercier, Chloe and Hackett.

Will the Vendome Group be a threat any time soon to the Swatch Group?

The answer lies in replicating Hayek’s fundamental strategy, namely, when will the Vendome Group introduce a sub-$100 watch and how successful will it be in capturing the mass market?
Vendome does not have a super premium watch and it does not have a mass market watch. Cartier, not withstanding its history is squeezed in the middle. What makes life more difficult is that a large percentage of Cartier watches are now available with Quartz movements!
How I wish Vendome will take us back to Cartier’s glorious days!

The Designer's value-add

While ace designers who have created some stunning watches and pens have disappeared into oblivion, Pradipta K Mohapatra gives them a well-deserved tribute and also applauds Porsche's design initiatives

Rodolphe, Who? One of the most successful watch designers of our time, Rodolphe started his career as a trainee at Longines. He created a range of new concepts and was quickly noticed by his superiors. He was soon given the responsibility of re-launching Longines watches in the most fashion conscious market of Italy.
At the height of success, Rodolphe got carried away into believing that Longines' success may have been due to Rodolphe's designs. He promptly negotiated with Longines to launch a new line of watches branded 'Rodolphe'. The brand was a disaster resulting in Rodolphe existing and starting his own independent design house with a dozen designers called Rodolphe and Co. Finally, the famous watch company Franck Muller bought a majority stake in Rodolphe and Co. in 2005. We haven't heard about Rodolphe since …
Unlike other fashion industries such as garments and accessories, watch designers have been somewhat low profile backroom boys. They do their job, get paid for it, occasionally win a design award and are never acknowledged more than that. There are of course exceptions.
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Rodolphe, Who? One of the most successful watch designers of our time, Rodolphe started his career as a trainee at Longines. He created a range of new concepts and was quickly noticed by his superiors. He was soon given the responsibility of re-launching Longines watches in the most fashion conscious market of Italy.

At the height of success, Rodolphe got carried away into believing that Longines’ success may have been due to Rodolphe’s designs. He promptly negotiated with Longines to launch a new line of watches branded ‘Rodolphe’. The brand was a disaster resulting in Rodolphe existing and starting his own independent design house with a dozen designers called Rodolphe and Co. Finally, the famous watch company Franck Muller bought a majority stake in Rodolphe and Co. in 2005. We haven’t heard about Rodolphe since …

Unlike other fashion industries such as garments and accessories, watch designers have been somewhat low profile backroom boys. They do their job, get paid for it, occasionally win a design award and are never acknowledged more than that. There are of course exceptions.

Our own Rohit Bal
Titan pulled a bit of a surprise couple of years ago by getting Rohit Bal, the famous fashion designer to design a watch for them. One must go on record to say that Titan could well get a Guinness record for the largest number of watch designs introduced by any single watch company! Alas, most of the designs are marginal variants of otherwise famous designs available in the world. How I wish they design and produce originals! Rohit Bal was an exception. The dial carried an enamel replica of a famous Moghul miniature of Emperor Jahangir carrying a rose. The dial also carried a signature emblem of Rohit Bal. An 18 carat rectangle gold case, leather strap and 18 carat gold buckle makes Nebula Rohit Bal a true collector’s watch.

Porsche Design
Prof. Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, designer of the famous Porsche 911 and grandson of Porsche’s founder, opened a Porsche design studio in Stuttgart in 1972. By the time he moved to Austria two years later, he was already contemplating designing watches. The first Ferdinand Porsche design watch was manufactured by a Swiss Company Orfina in 1980 and later moved to the famous watch maker IWC. Currently Swiss watch maker Eterna, manufactures Porsche Design watches.

So what makes Porsche Design watches special? The best way to describe would be to say that his designs are inspired by something memorable. Say for example, Porsche design – ‘Dashboard Chronograph’ was inspired by Dashboard instruments of Porsche 911 sports car. It’s 3H automatic chronograph was inspired by German Military Bundeswehr design. The other specialty of his design is that the dials and seconds are minimalistic, sleek and stylish like that of a Porsche 911 and usually comes with a mat or brushed finish. For one reason or another Porsche Design prefers black or grey as distinct from solid metal finish.

The other specialty of Porsche design is the innovative materials they choose. Individual choice of distinctive material and construction has been used by many designers for watches as well as other luxury products such as writing instruments. Porsche Design was the first to recognise that Titanium has exceptional quality to be a fashion leader. Twenty five years ago Porsche – IWC introduced the first Titanium watch to the world. Titanium is fashionable to serious watch makers even today!

Aircraft designer United Technologies, looking for the hardest composite material, invented ‘Carbon Fibre’. No sooner, carbon fibre was commercially available and design house Dunhill used it to make the most distinctive writing instruments in the world. In recent years, some watch makers are using this material for their dial designs.

Take for example Porsche Design’s writing instrument TecFlex P3110 series. The body of the writing instrument is made out of a rope inter-woven by five strands of steel and gold - a master piece of imagination and design.

‘Indicator’
Watch maker Eterna’s CEO Ernst Seyr is an enthusiastic hobby pilot. Seyr felt that commercially available mechanical chronograph watches are rarely readable in poor light conditions and times of stress. He wanted a distinctive chronograph to be designed. Seyr first commissioned a brilliant watch maker Paul Gerber of the Horological Academy of Independent Creators (AHCI) to conduct the feasibility of such a watch.

Finally he commissioned Porsche Design to produce a professional measurement instrument that will delight not just affluent sports enthusiasts, but also connoisseurs of mechanical compilations. The result is Porsche Design Indicator.

That is what it takes to design a great watch.
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(This was published originally in Smartbuy, a supplement of BusinessLine on July 9, 2008)

Titan enters serious horology

Joining hands with the competition is the current flavour in global business. But, many would have thought a Indo-Swiss collaboration for watches unimaginable, especially when it involves Swatch - the world’s biggest watch-maker. Has Titan achieved the impossible… just in time?

Titan Industries’ Managing Director, Bhaskar Bhat is about to write magnificent history; adding to the even otherwise illustrious Titan saga. He just launched Titan’s first mechanical automatic watch branded ‘Nebula Zeus’. Encased in a solid 18 ct gold, handcrafted case, this new watch has been priced at Rs 1.1 lakh.

Zeus brings in many first’s to Titan:

- First watch to cross the Rs one lakh barrier
- First mechanical automatic watch launched
- India’s first ‘Limited Edition’ watch, limited to 500 pieces
- First watch in asymmetric design
- First watch with 42 hours power reserve

Bhat’s coup is that Zeus is the first watch built around a Indo-Swiss partnership. Zeus has been designed by Mike Foley, who has many award winning watches in his portfolio.

Dancing with the enemy

In the bad old days of intense competition, during the 90’s, Xerxes Desai and Nicolas Hayek, founder of the Swatch Group, won’t be seen at the Basel Watch Fair together. In the new era, its time for ‘coopitition’ i.e., co-operating with competition. Hayek and Bhat have worked together with a new spirit of crafting India’s first gold mechanical watch. Swatch Group’s Company, ETA, has supplied its 2836 – 2 caliber automatic movement as original equipment for Nebula Zeus.

The watch is crafted out of a solid piece of gold brick with a screw-in transparent back cover. The ETA movement appropriately gold-plated, offers a magnificent view from the back of the watch. Leather fixed strap with an 18 ct buckle, adds to the embellishment of the watch. Clearly, Titan has now arrived in the world of serious horology. Will they launch a line of mechanical and automatic watches? (Read Bhaskar Bhat’s interview).

So near, yet so far

What does it take to sell a watch priced at more than $1,000? We have a great lot to learn from the Swiss in this area. A couple of early lessons for us to learn. First, how many people know that Omega, Longines, Rado, Tissot and Swatch come from the same company, namely Swatch? Swatch Group’s response, “A brand stands for certain specific values and consumer proposition.”

It is therefore very inhibitive to broadband Omega and Longines or let’s say, a Breguet under the same umbrella brand. Titan, in this instance, continues to be the ‘Oppressive parent’ or charitably spoken the ‘Doting parent’ to Nebula. Just in case the customer forgets the parent’s name; Titan’s name has been boldly printed at the back of the watch!

When will Titan feel confident enough to let Nebula stand-up as an independent brand? There are other things to learn, namely; embellishment. Why should a Rupee One lakh watch come with the same packaging box as a Five Thousand Rupee watch? Why can’t the company give an individualized certificate from the CEO to every proud owner of the Zeus?

Notwithstanding the fact that we have many lessons to learn from the Swiss and German luxury brand owners, let’s celebrate this landmark event of India’s arrival in serious horology. And, this is entirely thanks to Bhaskar Bhat vision for Titan and its Nebula range.

Interview with Bhaskar Bhat

HBL- How did Zeus arrive?
BB- We have been researching on introducing a mechanical watch for a long
time and Zeus, in many ways, is being test-marketed at the top-end of the
market.
HBL- How did you manage Swatch Group to supply you mechanical
movements?
BB- I have kept a very good relationship with Swatch Group and as indeed
with Mr Nicolas Hayek. Remember, today is the day of ‘coopitition’.
HBL- What are the challenges for marketing a serious luxury product
like Zeus?
BB- The challenge is how to change the mindset. The Swiss have been
occupying the mind space of luxury consumers for over a hundred years. We
have made a beginning and we wish to move sure-footedly.
HBL- Are we going to see more in mechanical watches?
BB- Yes. But I cannot reveal more of our plans.
HBL- You deserve serious compliment from Indian watch loving
fraternity for your bold step.
BB- Thank you.

*(This was published originally in Smartbuy, a supplement of BusinessLine on June 25, 2008)

Breguet - The Inventor of Inventors

The question that is often asked when it comes to horology is who made the first wrist watch? The credit for that goes to Abraham-Louis Breguet who founded his business in 1775 and made the first wristwatch in 1812.

Napolean Bonaparte’s sister, Caroline who became Queen of Naples was already familiar with Breguet. After all, Queen Marie-Antoinette was already possessing several unique self-winding watches from Breguet. Louis the XVI too was a great collector of Breguet watches. However, it was Queen Caroline of Naples, who on June 8, 1810, commissioned Breguet to craft for her, the world’s first ‘wristwatch’.

Breguet took two and a half years to produce the legendary wristwatch that carried the number ‘2639′. The watch had unprecedented sophistication consisting of a repeating watch, oblong in shape and exceptionally slender. The wrist band was made out of human hair, intertwined with gold thread.

Those were the days of monarchies around the world. Royalties loved Breguet. Other than Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI, Napolean Bonaparte, Talleyrand, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Queen Victoria, all owned a Breguet watch. Queen Victoria purchased a Breguet in 1838, barely one year after her ascent to the throne. Sir Winston Churchill bought his first Breguet in 1901 and Arthur Rubinstein bought his first in 1930.

Breguet caught the imagination of authors and writers. Stendhal, Pushkin, Balzac, Alexander Dumas, Thackrey and Victor Hugo have all made references to Breguet in their works.

The story goes that both Wellington and Napolean, consulted their Breguet watch during the battle of Waterloo!

Abraham-Louis Breguet, who was a student of mathematics, did his apprentice as a watchmaker and married the daughter of a prosperous French nobleman. Her dowry provided for financing Breguet’s watch making workshop in 1775. Abraham-Louis Breguet produced watches till his death in 1823, till he was 76 years old. This, almost half-century between 1775 and 1823 can be called the ‘golden age’ in the world of horology. It would appear that almost everything that had to be invented in horology was done during this period. Abraham-Louis Breguet was a shining amour of all the inventions. By 1780, Breguet had made the first self-winding watch known as ‘Perpetuelles’ those days. By 1783, he invented the famous ‘Blue Breguet hands’ and one with Arabic numerals known as ‘Breguet numerals’. By 1789, he invented the Ratchet key known as the ‘Breguet key’. He forgot to file a patent for ‘Breguet key’ and over the next ten years, many watch makers copied his Ratchet key concept. ‘Tourbillon’, which continues to be an object of imagination even today was invented by Breguet in 1801.

One of the last inventions of Abraham-Louis Breguet was a ‘Chronograph’. Breguet defined Chronograph as the one that permitted the precise measurement of intermediate periods or the length of time taken by two simultaneous events.

After the death of Abraham-Louis Breguet, his nephew ran the business in partnership with an Englishman, Edward Brown, who later became the sole-owner of the house of Breguet. Next century saw a series of owners till the Parisian jewellery brothers, Chaumet bought the company in 1968. Finally, destiny took the house of Breguet to be part of the Swatch Group headed by Nicolas G. Hayek in 1999.

Almost to prove that inventors carry a different genetic structure, Abraham-Louis’ great great grandson Louie Breguet (1880 – 1955) built the first manned helicopter. After a while Louie Breguet build cockpit watches which are still used in airlines. Unlike his great great grandfather, Louie Breguet didn’t make watches for the public.

Product range
‘Breguet Classique’ models continue to be in design, using the principles of the founder. They are ultra-thin, hand-wound or self-winding, Chronograph or Tourbillons. The cases are easily recognised by their coin-edge design and famous blue-hands.

Breguet’s Marine watches are based on the models supplied to the French Navy. Its largest selling models, Type XX and Aeronavale, maintain the design philosophy of the watch development for French Naval Air Services.

Not to forget that the first wristwatch ever made was for a lady; Breguet named its ladies range as ‘Reine de Naples’. Reine de Naples Cammea wristwatch is in 18 karat white gold, self-winding, bezel set with 40 diamonds, crown set with a one-fourth carat ‘briolette’ diamond. The dial with cameo is carved out of a natural seashell with 18-carat gold rotor, hand-engraved on a rose-engine, set with natural mother-of-pearl and has 40 hours power-reserve. Sapphire-crystal caseback. The strap is chocolate colour alligator with folding clasp set with 26 diamonds and comes with a sapphire-crystal caseback. Look for a Cammea if you are looking for sophistication.

Finally, a quaint Breguet story
In 1983, Queen Marie-Antoinette’s Breguet watch got stolen from a Jerusalem museum. In 2005, Nicolas G. Hayek challenged himself to precisely produce a second Queen Marie-Antoinette watch that was stolen. As Hayek’s replica watch was nearing completion in 2007, the spoils of the 1983 robbery suddenly reappeared in Jerusalem.

*(This was published originally in Smartbuy, a supplement of BusinessLine on June 18, 2008)

Blancpain: The Swiss Blue Blood

The Blue Blood of horology is of course English. The band of great clock makers of all time include Robert Hooke (1635 – 1703), Thomas Tompion (1639 – 1713), George Graham (1673 – 1751), John Harrison (1693 – 1776) and Thomas Mudge (1715 – 1794), were all Englishmen. Somewhere along the way, the world headquarters of horology moved to Switzerland.There is a raging and inconclusive debate as to who is the Blue Blood of Swiss horology. There are many claimants to the crown. They include Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Longines, Cartier, IWC, Breguet and of course Blancpain. Abraham-Louis Breguet, founder of the Breguet empire is generally acknowledged to be the greatest watch maker of all time. He is credited with having either invented or patented a majority of all horological achievements. However, Jehan-Jacques Blancpain, whose name appeared on a watch in 1735, is really the bluest of blue blood.

History
Starting with 1735, Jehan-Jacques Blancpain built watches in his large farmhouse in Villaret. It was only a 100 years later that his great grandson built a small factory to make complete watches. The business passed from father to son for 13 generations. The last member of the Blancpain family Fredric-Emile, ran the empire till 1932. On his death, the company was managed by Madame Fichter, a close colleague of Fredric. In 1926, the company produced the world’s first self-winding wristwatch. In 1953, a wristwatch, water resistant to a depth of 660 feet was worn by the famous French marine biologist, Jacques Cousteau. Ladybird, the most compact watch movement ever (11.85mm) followed.Notwithstanding its history and lineage, Blancpain could not withstand the advent of Quartz watches.The company went into a coma in 1971. Like sleeping beauty, Blancpain sank into deep sleep. Twelve years later, Jean-Claude Biver, a former Managing Director of Omega and Jacques Piguet took over the company and revived Blancpain. During 1992, Blancpain was acquired by the Swatch group headed by Biver. The moving soul behind Blancpain is now Marc Hayek, the son of legendary Nicolas Hayek.

Philosophy
Blancpain’s production is extremely limited. With less than 10,000 watches a year, each watch is individually numbered and recorded in the company’s archives. Their adamant devotion to mechanical watches is unchangeable. Each watch is handled by the craftsmen like a piece of art. Attention is given to the most minute details including the leather strap. The skins for the strap are specially selected by specialists after searching for weeks. Tanning of the skin is done in shades exclusive to Blancpain. It then takes 37 minutes to hand-sew each piece of the leather strap. That makes a Blancpain leather strap unmatched in its focus on exclusivity.Deep commitment to extreme standards of workmanship and exclusivity are the two hallmarks of Blancpain’s family.Blancpain’s philosophy is captured by a statement attributed to Jean-Claude Biver. He said “There had never been such a thing as a Blancpain quartz watch. And, none will exist in the future”. Another one from one of Blancpain’s old advertisements reads: “In the First Class cabin of a transatlantic flight, there is a one in a million chance that two passengers are wearing an identical Blancpain watch”.

Models
Given the limited number of collections, it is very difficult to pin-point flagship models. LeBrassus, Leman, Villeret and Sport are four key men’s models. Ladybird continues to form the ladies automatic model. Series 2100 introduced in 1994 forms the most popular and elegant, classique Blancpain series. *21′ represents the new century and *100′ indicates its 100-hour power reserve, its 100-hour test period and its 100-meter water resistance.

The typical Blancpain customer
In one of the recent interviews Marc Hayek was asked to describe a typical Blancpain customer. In the words of Hayek, “The Blancpain lover is an individual who has achieved something in his or her life . . .this person does not need or want to buy a status symbol . . .he is generous to himself . . .it takes more, he then learns to admire a Blancpain.” Most of the 10,000 lucky buyers who end up possessing a Blancpain watch have the privilege of remembering Jehan Blancpain whose initials “JB” is proudly inscribed on the watch dial alongside 1735. If you do not have to prove that you have arrived, go in for a ‘JB 1735′.

(This was published originally in Smartbuy, a supplement in The BusinessLine of June 4, 2008)

Patek Philippe: A watch that lasts generations

At the peak of the British Empire, the Queen held an exhibition to display the technological marvels of that time. A company from Geneva barely twelve years old, had its own marvel – a watch with stem winding and time setting system by the crown. Later, when Queen Victoria bought her first Patek Philippe watch, the company was still known by its old name ‘Patek & Cie’. Queen Victoria owned one more exclusive Patek Philippe time piece created in pendant style to be worn pinned to her clothing. The list of Patek Philippe’s noble clientele includes Pope Pius IX, Christian IX, Louise (the King and Queen of Denmark), Victor-Emanuel III (King of Italy) and Hussein Kamal (Prince of Egypt). People who matter in the world are looking for Patek Philippe as a family heirloom to be passed on to the next generation. This is the essence of the Patek Philippe brand.

History
This is the 160th year since the company was founded on May 1, 1839 by two Polish immigrants. Like Rolex, the origin of Patek Philippe is hardly Swiss. Antoine Norbert de Patek, a salesman and Francois Czapek a watch maker invented a crown hand winding mechanism set up the company. Subsequently, a French watch marker Adrien Philippe joined the business and hence the name. The company was bought over by two Swiss brothers Charles and Jean Stern. Since then, four generations of Stern’s own and manage the company as a family. Patek Philippe’s brand emblem has deep historical roots and goes back to the middle ages. In 1158 a Spanish religious order defended the Calatrava citadel against the moors. At the end of the nineteenth century, Patek Philippe adopted the emblem of the brave Spanish knights as its brand symbol, which signs Patek Philippe watches today.The Calatrava continues to be the largest selling Patek Philippe model.

The other four models – ‘Ellipse collection’ was introduced in 1968, ‘Nautilus sports’ was introduced in 1976 and the ‘Gondolo collection’ was introduced in 1993. The ‘Star Caliber 2000′, a double sided pocket watch with 21 complications and ‘Sky Moon Tourbillion’ introduced in 2002 are the legendary models.

Beyond belief
Patek Philippe produced an ultra-complicated (with 24 functions) pocket watch in 1933 for one Henry Graves, Jr. Till 1989 this watch remained as the most complicated watch produced in the world. After his death, the watch was auctioned at Sotheby’s in December 1999 for US $ 11 million – the most expensive timepiece ever sold. On April 10, 2008 the platinum Patek Philippe tourbillon wrist watch (5002P Sky Moon Turbillon) at Hong Kong Sotheby’s was auctioned for $ 1.4 million. This, as of today, is the most expensive wrist watch in the world. As if a 24-function complication watch was not good enough; in its 150th year anniversary in 1989, Patek Philippe created the most complicated watch in the world again, by name ‘Calibre 89′. It holds 33 complications including the date of Easter, a thermometer, time of sunrise, equation of time, sidereal time and many other indicators. Calibre 89 is made out of 1728 unique parts (compared to 51 components that are needed to create a Swatch). Calibre 89 is also able to add a day to February for leap years, leaving out an extra day for every 100 years interval!

Investment writer Nic Foulkes writing for Financial Times, London (March 23, 2007) includes Patek Philippe in the list of “Alternate investments”. He includes brands such as Breguet, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin and of course many Rolex models in his list of investables. Patek Philippe however sits on top like a colossus. There is an old Swiss saying *If you are buying a watch that is more than $ 100 for reading time; you must be quite foolish’. Watches for a long time have become a fashion statement, an emotional object to be owned, to discretely introduce who you are, but only Patek Philippes put watches in the class of investment. If you are choosing between Patek Philippes and Government bonds, you know what is good for you!Swatch, the world’s largest watch maker (by number) of course makes about 10 million watches a year. Rolex, the world’s largest (by revenue) makes only 600,000 watches a year and took 85 years to make its ten millionth watch. Patek Philippe took over 150 years to manufacture what Rolex produces in one year. As a closely held company it is impossible to find statistics about Patek Philippe – the company. The last available statistics puts the company’s revenue at $ 530 million in 2004.

If we keep the average price for a Patek Philippe at $ 20,000; it is fair to believe that they make about 25,000 watches a year. Quite apart from being a technological marvel and the limited number of watches they manufacture; Patek Philippe’s charm also lies in the company’s value and its brand positioning.

Value and heritage
This is how the company sees its own value: “It is hard to measure the value of Patek Philippe in purely financial terms. Aesthetics, craftsmanship and reliability all make their contributions. We purposefully design, produce and test every watch to last for generations. This allows us to say: ‘You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation’. Perhaps though, the true value is emotional. The desire to pass on a treasured possession, an heirloom, to a son or daughter can find no greater expression than in a Patek Philippe watch”. Lasting value is both material and emotional.

Tourbillion
The watch world changed to the power of ‘reserve’ in 2003 when Patek Philippe introduced the 10-day Tourbillion wrist watch. Those who buy sub-$100 Quartz watches can skip this one! For those who value real watches, here is the meaning of ‘Tourbillion.’ It was in the 18th century when inquisitive minds discovered that the sprint of the balance – the beating ‘heart’ that regulates portable watches – has a systemic error. Because of its helical shape, the spring’s center of gravity is not precisely in the middle. Consequently, the regularity of its oscillations is affected by earth’s gravitational pull as soon as the watch is moved out of the horizontal position. The tourbillon corrects this interference because it suspends the balance wheel and balance sprint in a cage that rotates about its own axis once a minute. Thus, the position error is automatically offset.If you are tired of making risky equity investment, and can’t guess the prices of gold or real estate in the future, try an alternate investment – a Patek Philippe watch. You can pass it on to the next generation with pride!

( This was published originally in Smartbuy, a suupplement of The BusinessLine, on May 14, 2008)