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Davide Cerrato (Head Of Watchmaking, Montblanc)

Published on Mon, 29 Oct 2018 10:00:00 +0000

Davide Cerrato is the creative director and head of watchmaking at Montblanc, overseeing both the creative and business sides of the firm – a rare thing indeed. Once you get past his friendly demeanor, you realize that he's an extremely sharp guy, who brings his knowledge of the world outside the Vallée de Joux to bear on his work in unexpected ways. Davide's job is to lead the company into the future, being savvy enough to take the best of the past with them, while having the discipline to leave the rest behind. In this episode, he sits down with HODINKEE editors Jon Bues and Stephen Pulvirent. Enjoy.

Synopsis

In this episode of Hodinkee Radio, host Stephen Pulvirent sits down with Davide Cerrato, the creative director and head of watchmaking at Montblanc, for a wide-ranging conversation about his unconventional path through the watch industry. Cerrato, known for his flamboyant Italian style that contrasts sharply with traditional Swiss watch executives, discusses his unique brain structure that allows him to balance both creative and analytical thinking equally. He traces his journey from growing up in Turin's rich automotive culture, through studying architecture and industrial design, to his pivotal roles at Officine Panerai and Tudor, where he helped pioneer the modern heritage watch movement with iconic releases like the Heritage Chrono and Black Bay.

Cerrato provides fascinating insights into the current state of watch design, arguing that the proliferation of vintage reissues has diluted the concept and that the industry needs to develop a new, forward-looking design language rather than continually mining the past. He discusses his current work at Montblanc, where he's integrating the storied Minerva manufacture into the brand's identity while maintaining a three-tiered product strategy that serves collectors at entry-level, manufacture, and high-complication price points. The conversation touches on everything from the impact of smartwatches on the mechanical watch industry to Cerrato's personal passions for fly fishing in the Russian tundra, revealing a thoughtful designer who sees watchmaking as part of a broader cultural conversation about design, technology, and our vision of the future.

Transcript

Speaker
Unknown The watchworld is traditionally one of sober gray suits and boring silk neckties. But you walk into a room and you know instantly who Davide Chirato is. One of the first times I met him, he was wearing an almost neon blue jacket and bright orange trousers that matched a watch he had designed. He brings a completely different energy to the watch world, and it's infectious. You talk to him and you can't help but get just as excited as he is He's currently the creative director and the head of watchmaking at Mont Blanc, but he's a true enthusiast, a longtime watch guy, and someone who isn't afraid to say the controversial thing that everyone else is thinking. He's the polar opposite of what you think of when you think of a Swiss watch executive. And that's partially because he's Italian and he brings a sense of style and a little bit of flamboyance to basically everything he does. At Montblanc, Xaviday brings his knowledge of history, his eye for design, and his affinity for modern watchmaking together, and he's trying to increase the brand's credibility and standing with both everyday consumers and watch nerds, which is not an easy thing to do at the same time. Daviday and I have had countless conversations about watches before. One notable time was in his open top Morgan driving through the Valley de Joux to visit the Minerva manufacturer, but that's a story for another time. I'm excited to sit down with him and our senior editor, John, today to have another one of those extremely memorable conversations. I really hope you enjoy it. I'm your host, Stephen Pulverant, and this is Hodinky Radio. This week's episode is brought to you by Hook and Albert. Stay tuned later in the show to learn more about this global travel brand and their range of travel accessories. You can also learn more at hook and albert.com. Cool. Thanks so much for being here, David Day. It's good to have you here in New York. Great pleasure, Steven. And you just came from Miami, right? Yes, correct. Thirty degree to four. Uh it's a bit of a change.
Unknown A little bit tough. And what were you in Miami for? Uh we were presenting some of the novelties uh to journalists to get a first uh flavor of uh of the reaction of it. And those are things we won't see until Janu
Unknown ary. Correct in SCHH. Okay. A little bit of patience. Cool. Well, I think some of our readers probably know you a little bit and they definitely know your work, but can you kind of tell us a little bit about who you are and your your kind of background in the watch industry? With great pleasure.
Unknown Um where do I start from? I think that to to let you understand who am I and how I work. I should start from my brain. I have a characteristic that is uh not unique but a little bit uh rare, which is uh my right and left brain are even. And ve most of the people are predominant uh one of the two, which means they are more creative to simplify or they are more analytic. And when you have uh those even, you can do both things exactly the same way, which uh created to me some issues at the beginning of my life and career and studies to understand in which direction heading. I started uh studying uh architecture and industrial design uh in a very very creative way. Then I realized that I was missing a little bit the business part. Then I I attended a business school and both were very interesting and very rich and uh yeah I struggled a little bit uh saying okay which is uh my direction since when I had a kind of uh epiphany and I n understood that my strength was exactly that one, exactly being able to handling both things Which at the end allows me to sameware design with the always already in mind first the narrative and the story that I want to push for a particular line of particular product, and also samw hard having in my reptilien brain. I would say sam. Finger tips of is what I'm designing gudd also for sale så not is good for and the customer is not just you know a kreativ exercis in se per se. So uh yeah that I think really gets already a först key and that's what all mig to integrate and to develop in these 15 years I've spent in the industry a very specific way of detäling
Unknown Nice. And people can probably tell by your accent too that you're not Swiss. You're not the like typical Swiss watch executive
Unknown completely true. I'm 100% Italian from Torino, north of Italy. And by the way, the birthplace of uh I would say the car dream. I was born in a place where you have, you know, Pininfarina, Bertone, Zagato and this mythical guy just uh next door. And in a moment where the car industry was completely booming, and in T T in Torino there was a fantastic car show as big as uh the Geneva one. Uh today unfortunately it's over. It doesn't exist since years. But it really allowed me to to uh get uh completely into uh cars I. think the first motor show I visited with my father, I was three, three and a half, something like that, and I saw all of them. So I remember all the incredible launches of Ferraris and you know just sitting on the shoulders of my father or having to perspek the people to move to see this nkreble producs that vary like spaj. Bärd spacecraft that were appearing uh every year. Very excit
Unknown ing. That must have been a really spectacular setting in which to grow up. And really inspirational I would think too.
Unknown Absolutely. Absolutely. And uh then uh my my studies in architecture and in industrial design at the Polytechnico di Torino were happening in a moment where the city was really growing very much into modern art. There is a fantastic cinema museum that has been settled in the Mole Antonelliana that has been for a long time the highest monument in Europe. A very very kreatively exciting exciting place
Unknown . And what after all of that, you know, kind of growing up in a car culture, studying architecture and industrial design, what then drew you to kind of cross the northern border and and head into Switzerland and venture into watches. Yeah, in reality I crossed the border when I was uh
Unknown still in Italy because uh the first uh jump that I did into the industry was uh with officini panerai. Uh kind of a fitting way to uh to start. Absolutely, absolutely. And uh uh yeah, I I had uh this after uh having done very different uh things because uh I've been working in marketing, in fast moving consumer goods for Ferrero for example, that is an incredible school of market in in in Italy's really considered like Proctor and Gamble in US with an incredible philosophy for product, for quality, and with an incredible advance in terms of a marketing uh approach that was real really seminal for me. And then I moved uh to France I work in consumer electronics both on the design side, strategic design and on the marketing side, completely different environment, but already melting technology and aesthetics, you know, the uh external design and uh coping with uh you know uh any uh technology inside. Uh then I went back in Italy and work in advertising for the first advertising agency that is uh Armando Testa. Unfortunately is completely unknown uh outside but it was founded really by one of the big guys of uh that kreated advertising in the 50s. And I work on kars for the Fiat Gruppen på Lancia. So again koping with this fantastic balance between uh external shapes and chassis and and then uh engines and all of this. And uh yeah, I I mean that some uh I I think that somewhere also my you know coming back to my brain structure I was uh a little bit seded already för to work with samhins that has both a external shape that is completely exposed to kreativity and an internal enging that you need to understand to be able to develop itself like the movement and then matching in a very klib virtual way dies internal engine and the external chassis. Nice. Were you into watches at all before you accepted the position with Panera? Uh I was in the sense that uh I but first I I'm a kid of the 70s. So my very first watch was a digital casio. the uh the the display that was in uh LED b red LED. By the way I saw here uh in New York in an hotel uh a display of the of the floors exactly the same as it was and and the time was not displayed all the whole time, but you had to push a button to get this red LED with the time. And looking back, it looks like a Star Wars. Completely Star Wars watch. And then I I remember very very precisely and strongly when my father teached me how to read time with the in an analogical way with the hands of a watch and that was really to me was uh you know an epiphany. It was really like uh when you learn how to write or uh you know uh really getting the the grammar of things and being able to of making up phrases and phrases with sense and then poetry out of uh of uh cold uh words uh it was exactly this, you know, getting the logic that was behind this magic machine to tell time was really something very, very strong. And then I mean I lived in Italy in the years where the swatch phenomenon boomed and people were queuing outside of the watch, and it was a lot about design and style, and as always in Italy. And I had the luck to receive from my father and my grandfather and grandfgranader some fantastic watches so to ja also be äble of owning them with all the emotional value that you get always around it so yeah that's the way in which uh yeah I was uh I was into it before uh joining. And what what years were you at Panera? I joined uh in uh two thousand and uh Okay. So those were really like the he
Unknown ydays of Panorite. Those were really instrumental years for the production of the the the move the in-house movements were really coming online.
Unknown Absolutely. We launched the very first uh one. Uh Colonia was still involved at the time. I I had the the pleasure and the and the chance to to work a little bit with him. Bodino was still okay uh overall uh watchmaking world without any doubt uh with this so such strong and unique Italian DNA and the navy mythical saga and the decimamas and all was really uh got completely
Unknown It must also have been interesting to kind of encounter diehard collectors for the first time that way because people who weren't collecting during that time or who don't kind of like study these things for a living, I guess. I mean I wasn't collecting around that time, but um it's hard to understand what Panorai was like at that time. I mean it was it people were rabid and it was all about having, you know, getting as many of the limited editions as you can, and really it was it was almost like some weird combination of like watches and baseball cards and also kind of like what Swatch was in the nineties. So what was it like kind of your first industry experience being with that kind of collector base
Unknown ? It was really striking and and and seminal and really uh um such um actic and intense. It was uh it was really really with a lot of uh you know energy and uh and not only but we at the same time at the time we really we were really working you know on the on the campaign on on the overall image on the boutiques uh the the boutique concept all this beautiful thick wood application with the portals and all this way of leveraging Even the warmth of Tickwood and this labbel finning and a little bit avis adventure you was it was very strong, and uh yeah, if I have to add something to give you another key to understand uh who I am, um I started drawing and designing far before I started writing and I I started doing uh strips and comics very very early. I was really a small kid and I loved to you know invent stories and then I was I was designing the bubbles and then I was given to my mother to write inside the bubble what what were the discussion and the stories. So yeah, I think that you know, getting these uh inventing stories or getting the real story and being able to tell it uh in in the right way. At that moment, Panerai was really very strongly about that. This epic saga of these uh bold guys that were taking huge risk and uh you know adventuring in muddy waters uh in the middle of mines and uh you know in the middle of it was romantic right it was absolutely romantic absolutely romantic and yeah perhaps uh who knows it was a little bit of the beginning of uh the thrill for the adventure feeling that today has become so much relevant in uh in society. Uh there was definitely something like that
Unknown . Yeah. And so you went from Panorai and then your next uh kind of adventure, if we'll s we'll keep with the adventure theme, was uh was to go to tutor, right? Yeah, absol
Unknown utely, absolutely. After yeah, almost five years at Panerai I um I uh I got this opportunity to join a completely new adventure. And yeah, I get in contact with a hand hunter. We did not disclose me the company that was behind the thing. So I flew to Zurich to meet this guy in a hotel without knowing what this was about. And there I discovered it was Rolex and that was the idea of uh relaunching Tudor, so uh which sounded very very interesting uh and which uh made me move to Switzerland uh to Geneva it was um 2006. So uh so you were in Milan before with Panera. Correct, exactly. Exactly. I moved to Geneva. Uh so now I'm I'm I told you I'm completely Italian but I could apply for uh for the Swiss passport and I will definitely do so it's a good thing to have. Exact
Unknown ly, definitely, definitely. And you mentioned you you started at Tudor right as you were re uh relaunching the brand. It was also when Tutor came back to the United States, so it's a time that's very important for those of us who follow watches.
Unknown Absolutely, absolutely. We we really worked for uh some time I think three or four years to really uh settle the you know the the grammar of the brand. I always look at the at uh setting up uh a brand a little bit like uh either writing or writing poetry. You know, you you get the words, then you get the grammar to do phrases, then you have phrases that can not mean anything and then you put together phrases and you you create a story or you create a poem and that is where you really push it to a completely into a completely different level and where you are able of uh you know spe,aking to the art of people and really raise huge emotion into people, bondings, uh uh projections. Uh that's exactly what uh what we did at the time, uh with a lot of uh a lot of work, but uh yeah, very very exciting uh period again a little bit with the same kind of energy that was in Paneray before in a moment when you are really set in the basics uh and completely resettle everything because it was completely uh forgotten somewhere uh that had clearly been stopped for a while uh in particular in the in the US and uh yeah that was really exciting to to resettle the full product uh and the and the the logic behind the product and to you know dig into the archives and find the very interesting stories that were not exactly the same than Rolex, uh to you know get out really the the specific character of and then by setting a full environment of communication uh of retail and so on, rebuilding completely the
Unknown brand. Yeah. I mean I think it's something that we take for granted now in you know two thousand eighteen, this idea of of looking in the archive, right? And back in that time when when the first black bays and heritage chronographs came out, these these were really watches that were doing something totally different than what most of the industry was doing. Like this was still the kind of latter days of the like everything was big, everything was gaudy, it was about how many complications you could pack in. It was about, you know, super bold design. And I don't mean bold, like adventurous. I mean bold, like just big, you know, like really in your face. And to do something like release a, you know, dive watch that looked like something from the nineteen seventies was was at that time really innovative. I mean what what did it feel like at that time to be kind of swimming against the the current, I guess, of of what the industry was doing, especially at a place like like Role
Unknown x. No, it was incredibly exciting and the effect was really a tsunami wave at the Basel World of 2010, the first heritage chrono that we presented, it was a huge, huge, huge buzz. Anyone was expecting that from uh you know a dormant brand coming back, and everyone was expecting that kind of uh you know power in the design. I mean it really, really pulled out as being one of the strongest uh uh pieces at the fair and it really put again uh Tudor very quickly on the radar in an incredible way. It was probably really
Unknown the very first brand to do that. And I remember it was really, really sensational because I at least uh I think a lot of us thought that um you know the aspirational, more more affordable younger brand of Rolex was actually in some ways as cool or maybe maybe even Yeah. And I think that that was it was a it was a really interesting time, certainly for Tutor and for Watches. Yeah,
Unknown and it's since then I mean we've seen obviously the pendulum swing in that direction, right? Like now that's kind of the bread and butter of most kind of like I would say mid to high end sport watch collections is is kind of heritage models. We've really seen that language be adopted. And I think even into the not explicitly heritage branded products, we've seen this kind of design like that. Yeah, it's it's become a big part of of I think the like collective vocabulary, right?
Unknown Without any doubt the the downsides of this is that I think uh doing proper vintage reinterpretation I mean taking the spirit avredibs strån produx så desjans från the past and kontaminat dem viast kontemporary elements in such a way that you can, you know, channel in a kind of a travel into time the elements to create something that is again very strong and again very ikonical. And by the way, this is exactly the process through which an icon is created is something. And then just releasing a replica of an old watch is nothing. Is like uh is uh I mean anyone can scan and copy uh an old watch and redo it and I don't see any value in that and I by the way you don't see any designer or any developer to do that and you just need a nice scanner and a and a 3D printer and you can do it. So yeah, all of this is a little bit uh banalized the concept in itself, is draining value out of it and is for sure confusing a lot uh and customer and clients that uh see similar proposal at different price points from different brands, those who really have a story and those who have not at all. And it's very difficult to yeah to distinguish properly value and good work from just copycat
Unknown . Now for a look at this week's sponsor. Hook and Albert is a modern travel brand for professionals who are always on the go. Over the last four weeks, we've looked at four of their keystone products, and these include the Garment Weekender, which is a commodation garment bag and duffel bag, the getaway duffel, which is a lightweight leather bag perfect for a weekend away, the laptop briefcase, which is a modern take on the traditional form of that holds all your work needs, and then the DOP kit, which is a form follows function version of a travel staple. Having spent some time with these products, I can say that they satisfy the desire for something that feels luxurious while also filling the need for something that's actually going to perform. Starting next week, we're gonna have a series of interviews with Hook and Albert founder Adam Schoenberg. He's gonna walk us through how the brand got started, how they developed their design philosophy, and why they wake up and do what they do every day, trying to make your travel just a little bit better. For now, if you want to learn more, go check out hookandalbert.com and be sure to stay tuned for more. Let's get back to the show. We've seen over the last couple years as kind of heritage design takes over, it's it's inevitably, or maybe maybe not inevitably, uh a trend, right? And at some point, people will want things that feel new and feel different. And the industry really seems to be focused on on looking back and looking to the archives. And I wonder what's going to happen when after years of kind of rehashing old ideas and reinterpreting old ideas, often in great ways, what's going to happen when we need new ideas? Do you think there are going to be people there to have those new ideas? Do you think the kind of spirit is gonna be there to have those new ideas
Unknown ? I think so, and I think definitely the future will be finding a new direction that will be more uh looking forward into the future than looking back. But I still need that vintage and retro is a streamline and it will be there, which means that it will be there. So for the early adopters or the transsetter, it will be there still for a while. I think that the real challenge is that those designs cannot come by themselves. I don't think a single designer can support this shift from looking back to looking forward. And we are discussing with friends and other designers and journalists in these uh last months a lot to this point and we are really wondering about why designs of the 70s are so seminal and why those designs are so powerful and at the end somewhere you know, they polarize so much attention compared to any other moment in time. And I really believe that it is because it was perhaps the last moment when we had overall, as a society st,ill a very positive and almost naive vision of the future based on technology and the possibilities and the power and the opportunities given by technology and a future that we was talking very much through the design of objects, you know, from through material shapes that were the kind of supporting evidence of the capacity of human creativity to project itself into forward looking and forward thinking and into new ways of you know. You remember that was the time when we were absolutely convinced that in twenty eighteen we would have had uh cars flying and not uh with uh with wheels anymore and and Landy Donart who were uh thinking about uh you know travelling in space with uh incredible speed or dematerialising and rematerializing somewhere and colonizing, making colonies in other uh you know, that was a kind of collective uh positive dream. And then going forward, the 80s and 90s, with all the issues that we had, this vision completely collapsed and uh uh a good example was the film The Matrix, you know, the the the future was just uh there was no future at the end. There was no future, there was no reality and and any possible future projection was negative, jå which in effect i menin fortunately so many aspect of society of the the evolution of the environment, the climat, the growth of the population and so on push. But I still that now what we really miss and what we really need is to create again a positive future vision for the future, to project again into few years or decades uh ahead and this is not cannot just be a design exercise but must be uh you know like an art uh movement must be uh an open discussion between sociologists and you know philosophers and designers and designers coming from different universes and environments to find to build up a new region, to build up a kind of the the terroir, the land, you know, the positive land that can grow this futura vision. But that is the big nice great challenge that we all have uh to set up. And then once this is starting, then it will be easier to you know to to shape into that vision particular projection that can be a new direction in design, that can be new direction in the history, in the industry or in ergonomies and so on. And if I look at the car world and I,'m you know that I'm very much fond of it and passionate for it. Even there there is not anymore so much because I remember a Genova Motor show probably six years ago that was all about elektric cars and sustainability and you low impact and very small box kars and I mean the whole pleasure and dream about driving and about motorsport and about car was like a little bit disappeared in the back and then if you look uh three years after it was SUV everywhere in such a in such a way that even små ksard that are not four wheel drivs. Now taking shaping aven SUV to veikl this you adventurers outdöring And now even sports car are coming back like crazy on top of the SUV. So we are completely back into uh speed and performance and noise and which are I mean the elements of uh of the passion for for motorsport. Even if uh for sure electric cars are there and they've become uh sure uh a sh a market uh uh a part of the market as much as uh you know auto conducted vehicles and so on. But uh a little bit how it happened with the with the connected watches in in the in the watchworld. And even even Lamborghini has an SUV, right? Exactly. And even Ferrari now wants to make an SUV which uh I don't I cannot really see but uh Yeah I can't quite imagine what that looks like
Unknown . I wanna I wanna touch on really quickly, you said uh something about the connected watch and the way that that kind of you know, represents a not a change in the watch industry, but kind of an alternate perspective and I think that ties in really interestingly to what you're doing now at at Mont Blanc, right? Mont Blanc has this, you know, kind of series of, you know, kind of amazing, I don't want to say departments, but kind of different different parts of the brand. And so you have, you know, Core Mont Blanc, and then you have Minerva. So you have this amazing heritage and like really truly high-end watchmaking. And then you also have this division that does things like like the smartwatches. Um and so you have everything from like the most traditional hand-wound, uh you know, mono pusher, chronograph movements to a smartwatch with its own proprietary set of apps and and its own hardware and everything. So how do you think about you know the brand identity when you're you're trying to cover such a broad portfolio and and service those different audiences, but also make it feel cohesive and and part of the same universe? Sure
Unknown . But the first point is uh if we look at the the mechanical uh watchmaking part, um it's the third time that I'm living this very exciting thrilling moment of construction and really setting of a brand. What we are doing in Bon Blanc now since three years but already started before by Jerome is really setting up something completely unique and reshaping completely uh the identity as you say of of uh of Mont Blanc watches. We are completely integrating Minerva and Mont Blanc in such a way that uh these are two assets of the same company and and and are really part of the same grammar and the same language. So Mont Blanc is Minerva, and Minerva is Mont Blanc. The new watches that we are doing in Mont Blanc are completely making references to fantastic wat fromchers the Minerva Museum in such a way that they are just building up again the rode line, the fira rougha between the past and the present. We are using and leveraging the fantastic minerva movements and made an unfinished for limited edition and numbered edition and DIN in effect. And we are setting up a system where we have new lines, new product lines like Time Walker, like 1858, like Star Legacy. With a very strong distinkttiv design with really roted into the history of Minerva, time walker, the stopwatchs and the counters of the saga. timekeeping and the birth of a chronograph of the first half of the 20th century, 1858 the military watches of the 30s and the 40s, and Star Legacy the early pocket watches and wristwatches. And we have uh in effect in each product line, and this is becoming really the signature of Montblanc, three level of uh of uh technical content. We have a first level that we call the core, which is up to five thousand euros with ETAs, Celita, the Wade Pra modules. I mean movement existing on the market and fine-tuned customized for us, but that are very reliable because out there since uh decades and uh that have fine-tuned their qualities are very reliable and allowing us they are clearly for us the best option today to be able to offer uh very interesting strong entry price watches and a lot of value. Then five thous toand let's let's say say twenty-five thousand we have a segment that we are growing a lot which is called manufattura manufacture where we are proposing our own in-house calibers or modules develop inside the group uh and with uh a lot of uh a lot of value like for example the geosphere sure which is what you're wearing on on your wrist right now absolutely which uh is the one I'm wearing uh with a lot of pleasure every day and over twenty five where we have the Minerva movements, all the fantastic chronograph mono pusher and the exotourbillon really made up for collectors. And all of this is encapsulated into every line which to me it's very interesting because uh I don't think that the collectors that are buying the Minerva one uh are disturbed by the fact that there are in the same range also more accessible pieces. And on the contrary, the people that are uh buying entry entry price watches they aspire to be able to to to buy more expensive more complex more uh more uh valuable uh watches on the top and also uh we can we are one of the few brands that can can really accompany them in their you know life cycle of of watch lovers and watch collectors and if they grow their knowledge and uh their uh their means uh they can grow within Mont Blanc without being forced to change brand to find something else
Unknown . Do you see a lot of that? A lot of customers who come in, maybe they buy a time walker manufacturer, they buy a geosphere, and then a year or two years later you see them buying something like a a mono pusher chronograph? De
Unknown finitely, definitely. And we also see a lot of uh collectors that uh make their first dip into the water uh through uh geosphere or uh or a time walker chronograph, or for example, the Nicolai Sek that we have redesigned inside Star Legacy, you know, to get a kind of very first contact. And then, once they are convinced, two months later, three months later, they step up and they start to buy a one of the limited edition quite often
Unknown . Do you ever have collectors who maybe are collecting things like Patek Vashron AP, um whether it's chronographs or other complicated watches, who come and they they know the the real watchmaking chops that that you guys have in in Minerva, but they kind of have a hard time, you know, getting used to the fact that they're wearing a watch that says Mont Blanc on the dial. Do you ever uh how do how do you I guess I'm sure you do have customers like that, but I guess how do you kind of explain that proposition to them
Unknown ? Uh the answer is yes yes we have and I think we will have more and more. Uh and um the reason why we have is that as you said uh they know exactly what they are buying and they know that for uh 25 to 30 thousand they are buying chronograph mono pusher with a level of and uh work and then finishing that is absolutely uh the level of uh Patak Philippe. Uh and even if they buy they spend thirty thousand they are uh spending by far less that uh the first option that we have that they have as a as a second choice. So and since we made the only watch auction where we could sell one of those pieces for sixty thousand Swiss francs there is also a very first uh thread that shows that uh the investment is worth and that most probably as they fell from the very beginning for the first one that we did, those watches are going to take more and more value, and already they are more valuable as soon as you as you purchase them. Then for sure we still have a long way to go. And we still have to work on our watchmaking legitimacy and uh on the fact of convincing those purists that Mont Blanc is capable of doing watches as a watch specialist brand, even if beside it we also make writing instruments and we also make uh leather, fantastic leather products and so on, which is very special to Mont Blanc. That's why we have to manufacture in Switzerland a great group of people sitting there under my responsibility, and we are leveraging 160 years of
Unknown I've I've often wondered about Montpong because there really is no other brand like it, certainly that is operating in the watch space. How do the different product categories communicate with each other? Are you is everyone aware of how the watches fit into the larger kind of output of Mont Blanc
Unknown ? Sure. We are really working well together under the the direction of N Nicola Baretzki and uh he's the one that at the end is really you know balancing all all these things. We are really working to all together, uh because at the end the brand is uh the maison is one and is Mont Blanc. And each category in some way is nurturing and bringing different different parts. Into this wider portfolio. Watches are a very important driver av luxer av rarit presig krftsmansship. Så in this sens det är riktigt essen för det mais gången in the long term to really uh make it grow aspire toward toward the high uh in such a way that uh it is perceived as uh a real global luxury maison
Unknown . I wanna talk also, I wanna go back to what you said at the very beginning, which is you talked about the fact that your your left brain and right brain are are even and you kind of approach everything that way, and that can end up being your big biggest strength. You're in a position at Mont Blanc right now where you're sort of doing two jobs at once. Um, you know, you're you're doing uh jobs that at many places would be broken out into two jobs. So you're in charge of the design and the actual product, but you're also in charge of kind of strategy and marketing and and the business side of things. How do you balance those two things and how do they impact one another? How does business impact how you design products? And how does the design of the products impact how you think
Unknown about the business? They are completely interconnected and the good things when you can integrate all this dimension is that uh you can get the most value out of it uh very clearly. That's why we have created when I joined we have created a business unit dedicated to watches sitting in Switzerland leveraging all the the the best people, knowledge, passion that we have to to get out of most of it. Very clearly everything is interkonnected. That's why I mean being able to integrate it one into the other still while while you are developing is very good because it allows you to have a um a kritical speed to market. You go by far quicker than if you if each step the product or the projekt is passed to someone else who pick up some scratch and has to reinvent and also at the end you get a konsistency that you will never get again if you in a tailoristic way you start to divide each single step to create a kind of artificial product, everything is deeply interconnected. we get uh demands from the market or comments that come from particular customers or collectors that are taken into consideration to to push new development in terms of I don't know price positioning or particular complication or particular colours or particular genders and so on. And then we get design trends that are coming and that are showing ways to give up better watches and even stronger watches to our customer and please them the uh the most that we can. Or there are you know technical developments or or elements that allow us to push forward to even new uh universes and I mean in in a in a way the the connected watch uh has worked uh has worked that way uh uh really giving us the possibility to add a a part of it I was referring to it uh as for cars because it happened something quite uh similar. As much as the first elektrisk kar everyone said ooh nu the the normal engine kar is dead when when konnecked watches came.. Yeah A lot of your colleagues were saying, okay, now it's the end of uh of uh mechanical watch making we all better be looking for jobs. And now reality is uh again, it has become a very solid important segment completely diskada from mechanical watch growing very interesting, but just a part of without really killing or taking the the place of uh of anything. And that's the way in which Mont Blanc has approached it. Uh we have been jumping into the train very early because we partnered with Google uh for this and we knew since the very beginning that uh Google has choose has picked up uh very few brands and positioning them very well to avoid any overlaps and we knew that the ones that were not joining the train in the beginning were just we So we were in with the summit one, which was very very successful. Uh really uh over our expectation. And now we are just presenting the second release, which is just came out what like two weeks ago. Last week exactly. Uh with a smaller size, forty two millimeter with a new electronic module inside, really more powerful. So expanding in a dramatic way the potential reach And the the the the watchmaking, the mechanical watchmaking.
Unknown Okay. So I've gotta ask. You're you're a pretty stylish guy. I mean people can't see you through the the magic of radio, but you know, double breasted suit, candy striped shirt, bow tie, vintage glasses. You're a stylish guy. Anybody who knows you knows that. What can we see whether it's in the eighteen fifty-eight or um Time Walker? Where where does your style come through in these products? Or does or does it
Unknown ? Yes, I I think that uh and uh it's not m me saying it I very often get the comment from clients from, journalists, from retailers that they see a particular vintage vintage touch, retro touch that is becoming a little bit my style and that is is uh is uh is coming out from particular products. Um in this sense I think that uh Geosphere in eighteen fifty eight uh is probably someone just told me uh when we were in Miami debt is so much you and uh yeah in a way yes for sure. You know uh when you design at a certain moment after years and years you develop your own style and I mean the magic is uh is uh really being able to use it the right way to express the the DNA of the brand and I think here really integrating Minerva and Montblanc we are doing something very powerful. We are we are keeping alive we are reshaping this fantastic unique history in watchmaking with uh you know a face that is uh really sexy and uh yeah we we are able I think we have brought into Mont Blanc a very sexy twist a very d the desirable emotional roundund so touch into the watches. Being by the way 1858, being Time Walker, the new panda dials have been welcome, especially the cappuccino in a very strong way uh and what we are doing now on the on the classical side is uh hitting the same level of of sophistication and of sexiness which I'm I'm very we are all very proud of uh Star Legacy very very successful also. And a range that is rooted into 21 years of different star lines inside Montblanc. But now expressed really in a sharper, stronger, more emotional, more watchmaking cultured way. And another new line, a little bit more vintage that we are going to present in two months that I think really shows in a very clear a way now the three hundred and sixty degree of the structure that we are putting behind our watch offer. I know J
Unknown ack got to see it this past week and had nice things to say. I haven't seen much but uh seems seems exciting.
Unknown Yeah, very and and uh and I mean your colleagues which are always the forerunners of uh of what happens, uh were the very first to have a vision of the overall structure. You know now after three years of uh making they they see the new collection that uh was received very positively but they also see the perspective and the full structure and they see very well which is the direction and the vision Gre
Unknown at. Well our engineer is waving at me from the other side of the window here. So we're about to get chased out of the studio in about five minutes. So we tend to finish the show up with a little bit of a a kind of lightning round, a couple quick questions and then some cultural recommendations. So here are a couple questions. You can answer these as as short as you can. Okay. Um so what's a watch that's caught your eye recently
Unknown ? Um what is the watch that's caught my eye? Um The Josphere. Alright. Now I really believe that this one is going to become the the icon of Mont Blanc in terms of watchmaking. That really bears a very strong identity together with uh an espression of the world timer that is the easiest available today to the market. So I think it's it's going to become a very I mean it's perhaps the new black bay uh of Montblanc
Unknown . Awesome. Well that's a good segue into question number two, which is what's the best place you've traveled in the last year
Unknown ? What's the best place? Uh I absolutely love Japan. I'm absolutely in love with Japan. So yeah, when I go to Tokyo it's, always uh uh a travel into another dimension in especially in aesthetical and cultural way, is really so much enriching. And you know, uh the taxi driver this morning, uh the Uber driver this morning vary mig, just looking in my eyes, että perhaps I had some Asian origins. And yeah, perhaps that's why I love so much Japan. Who knows? Perhaps in a previous life
Unknown . What's the best piece of advice you've ever received and who did it come from
Unknown ? Wow, uh that's a difficult one. Um That you receive from the others. I think that designers really need to be. Design is designing is always seen as a very nice, kreative, relaxing, meaningful uh you know uh process but uh in reality a part of it is uh is the tough one that is once you are really sure that what you have designed is something powerful is being able to defend it through all the different uh filters and discussion and approval to not compromise on those key elements that if you take off are killing the idea and uh yeah and going through that process uh being able of uh you know explaining and defending and and uh keeping good and fighting uh uh it's uh it's really fundamental. Great. And then do you have a guilty pleasure? What's your guilty pleasure? Ooh that's another difficult one. Uh what's my? Um I really, really, really uh love to uh I'm a I'm a fly fisherman and uh and a fisherman since I was really a kid but really I mean I was asking my mother for a stick to pretend I was fishing on uh on my uh when I was walking with her when I was probably even not one year old and uh yeah my guilty pleasure is really spend time alone into the wild uh you know in the middle of uh the Russian tundra uh fly fishing for Atlantic salmons. That is really a magic moment
Unknown . Perfect. So then the last thing we finish every show up with is is a cultural recommendation. So what is something you recommend our uh our listeners check out after they're done with this show? It can be a a book, a film, a museum, a place you've been, just something you recommend they go take a look at. Mm
Unknown -hmm I think that I would definitely recommend to visit the Frank Gery Bilbao Modern Art Museum. It's such a special place. It was the only museum where that I visited when I I was walking inside the museum and really crying. So much I was overwhelmed by the beauty and the volume, the light, that it was incredible. I'm reading different books from Tadawandor where he explains the the thinking that is behind this architecture uh and those are completely mind-blowing. I really recommend people to to read it. And for a designer, I mean I've been studying design and architecture. And architects I think are really the best at explaining the roots of their thinking and the way in which they develop their process. I always read uh you know Frank Lloyd Wright, uh Frank Gehry, uh way of explaining their their uh their thinking. Um and uh yeah those books are really like uh enlightening. Perfect. John
Unknown , how about you? Uh sure. I would like to recommend uh this uh series on Netflix called Salt Fat Acid Heat. Oh yeah. Have you seen this? I haven't seen it yet, but yeah. And it's a so this is basically it's um based on a New York Times bestselling book. Uh the author and the uh star of it is Samine Nosrat. And what she basically does is teach you how to become a smarter uh and better cook through mastering salt, fat, acid, and heat. Um and in parti so it's just four episodes. Um and I would really recommend the one on salt, which was uh shot mostly in Japan. And you c really learn um how to use miso in soy sauce uh to great effect. So I would say check that out. Man, you guys are two for two.
Unknown I'm checking out. I'm ordering these to Dow ondo books and I'm gonna go home and watch the show, man. Yeah, my recommendation is a book. Um I'm not quite finished with it, but it's uh called The Auctioneer. It was recommended to me by actual former Hodinki Radio uh guest Michael Weisberg. Um shout out to Michael. Um and it's the autobiography of Simon Zipuri, uh formerly of Philips depuri. Um and it's this just very strange sort of it's his autobiography, but it's actually more of like a biography of the auction world of the 20th century, looking at how the, you know, Christy Sotheby's dynamic really came out of this strange post-war atmosphere in London and the rest of the world was kind of the wild west and uh his kind of creation of Philips de Puri was was part of this uh attempt to kind of like conquer that world. Uh and there were highs and lows and it's lots of fascinating characters, in fact some of the like weirdest characters you can imagine and it's uh it's fun and entertaining and a a quick read. So I'd recommend you check that out. Sounds great. Cool. Fantastic. Well Zabby Day, thank you so much for coming. This is awesome. After I read these Tadao Ando books we're gonna have to get a bottle of red wine and uh talk again. With great pleasure. Thank you very much for what's me. Awesome. Thanks everybody. Thanks so much to David and to John for joining us. This week's episode was recorded at Mirror Tone Studios in New York City and was produced and edited by Grayson Korhonen. Please remember to subscribe and rate the show. It really does make a difference. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week.