The Business of Watches [011] The Head Of Montblanc's Timepieces Division Laurent Lecamp On Minerva, Hairsprings, And What's Next For The Brand¶
Published on Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:00:00 +0000
Plus, what's going on in the executive suite at TAG Heuer and what it means for Omega to launch a steel Speedmaster priced above $10,000.
Synopsis¶
In this episode of The Business of Watches, host Andy Hoffman speaks with Laurent Le Camp, managing director of timepieces at Montblanc and Minerva. The conversation takes place at the historic Minerva manufacture in Villeret, Switzerland, where the brand has been based since 1858. Before diving into the main interview, Hoffman and senior editor Mark Kauzlarich discuss recent industry news, including leadership changes at Tag Heuer and LVMH watches, as well as Omega's new premium Speedmaster release priced over $10,000—positioning it as a potential competitor to the Rolex Daytona.
Le Camp shares his unconventional path to luxury watchmaking, including his time learning Russian and working across various luxury brands before joining Montblanc nearly five years ago. He describes his philosophy of taking time to understand a brand's heritage before making changes, which led him to discover a 1927 Minerva fluted bezel in the archives. This discovery became the foundation for Minerva's modern identity, serving as a distinctive signature element across the collection. Le Camp emphasizes three key strategic pillars: establishing a clear brand identity, revealing the beauty of Minerva's movements (including reversing calibers to display them dial-side), and creating an exclusive community of "fans" rather than customers.
The discussion reveals Le Camp's commitment to traditional craftsmanship, with all Minerva pieces assembled by hand and production intentionally limited to maintain exclusivity. He details innovative pieces like the Versailles tourbillon and describes the brand's Club 58, an invitation-only group of collectors who receive special privileges. Despite being part of the Richemont luxury group, Le Camp maintains Minerva's artisanal character while benefiting from corporate resources and market intelligence. The episode concludes with Le Camp sharing his passion for ultra-marathon running in extreme conditions, including his goal to complete the three coldest marathons in the world—a pursuit that reflects his philosophy of dedication and long-term commitment.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Andy Hoffman | Welcome to the Business of Watches, the Hodinky podcast that explores the intersection of commerce and timekeeping. I'm your host, senior business editor at Hodinky, Andy Hoffman. This week we sit down with Laurent Le Camp, managing director of Timepieces at Mont Blanc and Minerva. It's an interesting and challenging moment for Mont Blanc and Minerva, it won't be participating at Watches and Wonders this year. That's a big change for the Richemont owned brand. We talked to Le Camp in September before this was revealed, but it was becoming clear that Montblanc Le Watch brand, aligned with the famous Germany based writing instrument maker, was doing things differently. We were at the Minerva Manufacturer in Villarre to get a close-up look at the facilities of the story brand that serves as the jewel in the Mont Blanc watchmaking crown. LeCamp lays out the product and business philosophy behind Minerva and its current state and how the business runs. We also talk about his habit of extreme long distance running in extreme conditions. He's a unique executive in the watch world. But first we',re going to start things a little differently this week. Mark Koslerich, the senior editor at Hodiki in New York, and I are going to talk about some of the latest headlines in the Watchworld. Mark. Good morning to you. Welcome. How are you? Good morning. Thanks for having me. I'm doing great. Excellent. Excellent. So it is a Monday morning there for you in New York. It's Monday afternoon here in Geneva. Now we had some interesting reporting to start off the year from uh a publication here in Switzerland called Business Montre, which is um headed and run by a gentleman by the name of Gregory Pons here in Switzerland. And he reported that Antoine Pin, the CEO of Tag Hoyer looks like will be stepping down or leaving that post. Now I reached out to both Tag Hoyer and Mr. Pond for um comment and reaction. There's been no comment from Tag Hoyer and I haven't heard back from uh Antoine. But I've done a bit of reporting and indeed it seems like there are some changes likely to happen at Taghoyer. Now this comes at a pretty crucial time for LVMH watches and the Taghoyer brand. It's just ahead of the L VMH watch week which is about to happen in Milan. And I believe this is the seventh, you know, if this uh change takes place. That means there's been like seven CEOs at Tag Hoyer in the last 12 years. It's a rather unstable position. Mark, you've been following this news as well. What's your take on on what's going on with tag and |
| Mark Kauzlarich | and the executive suite? Aaron Powell Yeah. Watches in general, and I think you're seeing a lot of that play out with Tag Horror, but we see turnover throughout LVMH in general quite frequently. I think the person that comes to mind first when I think about Tag Hoyer, possibly one of the longer run CEOs, and who was there when I started at Hodinky |
| Andy Hoffman | was Frederick Arnaud. Obviously, one of the sons of uh Bernard Arnault, um, and now heading so Laura Piano. Oh uh Laura |
| Mark Kauzlarich | Piano, yeah. Which I think is interesting because you've got uh Frederic Arnaud who was CEO of Tag Hoyer and then later L VMH Watches and you also have Jean Arnaud who's in charge of the LV brand watch department. And you could easily say, well, this is a job that turns over frequently because it's a good stepping stone for people like this, but Pon was not that kind of CEO, to my view. And and so I think the question is what does a watch CEO need to be for the brand to be successful? For the the CEO to need to stand around? Because uh we as enthusiasts, myself included, like to think of uh watch brands as led by people that love watches deeply, but at the end of the day it's a business and you need people with business acumen. I think the ones that do the best are ones that can kind of balance the two. I don't know him personally. I haven't interacted with him, but I kind of wonder if CEO positions, especially at LBMH watches, are things that people are more comfortable with turning over, maybe like head coaches in in NFL football. I mean, if you have a down year, it's easy to replace you with the next person up. But we also saw some changes at Bulgary recently, and I think that speaks to the fact that right now we're going through a difficult time in the watch world in general, and uh it's possible we're just seeing that play out where brands are looking for somebody that can provide a a little more stability than they've been seeing. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, |
| Andy Hoffman | um we saw uh Jean Christophe Babin will be stepping down as the CEO of Bulgary, I believe that's in July or June perhaps, and his replacement has been named. There'll be a new person in that role. But as far as we know, Jean Christophe Babin remains the head of the LVMH watches unit, that watches division, which as you say, you know, Tag Hoyer, Zenith, Hublow all report into. And yeah, I mean, you know, the I think there's no doubt that we've seen those sort of mainstream traditional Swiss brands of which Zenith Tag and Hubelow all are, although Hubelow's obviously much younger than the other two. Yeah, it's a difficult market right now and you know that executive role needs to have that mix, as you say, of of that product passion, understanding, but also some business acumen here and and uh to get sales moving in the |
| Mark Kauzlarich | right directions. I think the other thing that is worth keeping in mind, I think actually the Baban and his current role is probably the more important role to watch just because I think LV Mage in general seems to have this perspective of indexing themselves against the big brands like Rolex and Omega. And if you look back at the pre-COVID days, that wasn't necessarily the case for a brand like Zenith or Hublot. You did have these top end pieces that came out. Zenith had their DeFi lab and Hublow was always doing some experimental high-end pieces, but I think what you need to think about is who is LVMH Watch is trying to make these brands to become and where should they sit in the product line. I think no matter who is the CEO at takeholder, it will all depend on who is leading the ship at LVMH watches and what they're telling the brands that they need to be. If they are continuing to push into the ten thousand dollar price range for their entry-level models, you're gonna have a lot harder of a time in the upcoming market that we're seeing where everything's gonna get a little more tight. It's a question of whether or not all the OVMH brands need to be in that sort of mid to high tier luxury or if some can play in that more accessible space, which is where we've seen Tag Hoyer be the most productive in the past few years. But I don't think that the CEO of Taghoyer or any of the L VMH brands can make the decision on their own. I think you need somebody at the top who's willing to say, look, everybody has their niche and we should be okay with selling a $5,000 Zenith, $5,000 Tag Hoyer and making that our bread and and butter not necessarily playing in the twenty, thirty, forty thousand dollar range. Yeah. Well, I me |
| Andy Hoffman | an look, we've seen um Tag Hoyer trying to play in the $150,000, you know, dollar range with the um uh Rachel Plan um chronographs and things like that. So, you know, they've got a a wide price range in terms of their SKUs, but obviously brands like Omega do that as well. But all I'll say is it's a uh it's uh not an easy job being the uh CEO of a uh of an LVMH watch brand these days. Let's move on. We've got this week coming out a new Speedmaster professional, speaking of Omega, uh with a panda dial layout, it's got a ceramic bezel. It's the first Speedmaster in steel, I think, with a price tag over ten thousand US dollars. Mark, you've been hands-on with this watch. What's your take on it and and and what's the strategy here from Omega? I mean, is this a direct shot at the Rolex Daytona? Well it's hard |
| Mark Kauzlarich | to not compare the two, I think the two brands in general are so much closer to each other. And I think that goes back to what we were saying before is everybody wants to be a Rolex except for Omega, and Omega is yet probably positioned the closest in terms of quality, value. Yeah, it's it's a hefty price tag, but it's also about five thousand US dollars less than a Rolex Daytona. So the question is, is that a shot at the Rolex Daytona? It's hard to say anything other than yes just because of the aesthetics of the reverse panda dial and it's got this lacquered dial with sunken white lacquered sub-dials, which immediately looks actually more like a vintage Daytona than a modern Daytona does. You know, we have on a modern steel Daytona, we have these ringed subdials and it's more metallic accents on on these dials. And this feels more vintage, which does well for Omega. I mean this is a space that Omega has done their best is when they play on the sort of vintage aesthetics. Maybe it's close to the aesthetics of a LaMontetona. But again, I think the interesting thing is even though this is immediately something that I think people are going to sh cross shop with the Daytona or even consider if they can't get a Daytona. It's interesting because one, I don't think that Omega would ever admit that that's part of their thought process. I think they would just prefer to assume that Rolex doesn't exist. And they definitely benefit from the fact that they have put so much more into producing steel watches and making even their most coveted steel watches more widely available than Rolex has. And if they can just ignore Rolex altogether, they don't have to feel like they're a part of this debate. Whereas other brands, I mean, we'll we'll sit in on meetings together and other brands will openly admit that they're trying to come after a portion of Rolex's market. And it's just funny to me that the brand that is most well equipped to do that would rather not admit that Rolex exists at all. Trevor Burr |
| Andy Hoffman | us Yeah, they they don't certainly like to acknowledge, but I would say that much of what Omega has been doing with its premium offerings, obviously the Sedpe master, and then we saw the most recent Planet Ocean, which uh you wrote up uh a great piece as well. I mean, price-wise, quality-wise, components-wise, you know, with the Planet Ocean against the Submariner, and certainly the Speedmaster against the Daytona. But yeah, you're right, in conversations, you know, mega executives tend to not acknowledge their uh biggest competitor and the biggest competitor for everyone in the dominant company uh in the Swiss watch |
| Mark Kauzlarich | industry. Aaron Powell I do wonder, though, if a release like this cedes a little bit of the value market to to someone else. I mean Tutor, you mean maybe Yeah. I we were discussing in the office that you know I wasn't around necessarily for the $6500 Speedmaster days. I I definitely I said, you know a,ed Spemaster feels like an amazing buy at about 7,000 or 7500 and that feels about the edge of what it should be. And we've long past uh left those days. Now you're talking about I think around eighty nine hundred dollars. But the problem is the more that you move up, and I imagine that the margin gets better. I I don't see anything here. Yeah, a lacquer dial is is a little bit harder to do, I would imagine, but I don't see anything here that shows me that a massive price increase in the last few years to a watch like this is But at the same time, |
| Andy Hoffman | their costs have increased greatly due to the appreciation of the Swiss franc price of gold. But indeed, I agree that um shifts in the product itself haven't necessarily justified that. Aaron Powell |
| Mark Kauzlarich | No, and that's true. And the other thing that I have uh mentioned in a story that will have come out by the time this podcast comes out is is our sort of internal reference pricing is so strong even from a year or two ago that it's hard to get rid of those ideas that a a watch should be a seventy five hundred or an eight thousand dollar watch when really, again, a lot has changed in the last few years. But that being said, I think it is hard to swallow that price tag over $10,000 no matter how good the product is. That's just something that Omega can't control necessarily is how ten thousand dollars feel. And so it's a question of whether or not could they have come in a little bit under and then it feels like more of a value. I still think the product is great. Obviously, the movement is a tried and true movement that they've had for a number of years, the 3861 coaxial movement. So there is a lot of value there. The fit and finish feels really great. It's exactly what you would expect. Uh it's just an interesting time, I think, for watches in general. And I don't necessarily see anybody criticizing Rolex for raising their prices recently just by virtue of the fact that you really can't get the watches anyway. So uh I think for all my criticism of that price tag, Omega is maybe unfairly getting a little bit of that just because you could walk into a store in the next few weeks and and likely pick up one of these. Great. Cool, Mark. Well, thanks for joining me today. This was |
| Andy Hoffman | fun. Really appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Now here's our conversation with Laurent Lacomp, managing director of the watchmaking division at Mont Blanc and Minerva. We hope you enjoy. Welcome Laurent Le Camp, the CEO or Managing Director of the Timepieces Division of Montblanc and Minerva. Today we're in Villarre, which is the home of Minerva. It has been the home of Minerva since eighteen fifty eight. And you were kind enough to show us around and to give us a tour of the manufacturer. But we want to talk about you and we want to talk about business and the business of Mont Blanc and Minerva timepieces. So you have been in the role as managing director for about five years. Tell us what you did before that and what your professional career has been like and what brought you to uh Montplan and and uh Minerva. Bonjour Randy |
| Laurent Le Camp | . Bonjour. Pleasure first of all to be with you today. So thank you for visiting us and taking time here at the Manufacturing Villeray. As you can see, it's beautiful. Nice weather, beautiful nature. So everything was uh successful this day. So shortly how to introduce myself. I would say that um I'm Swiss and French, but now I'm only Swiss since uh only a few days. Oh congratulations uh got your Swiss citizenship. Mm-hmm. How was that process? It's not eas c'est pas vident, it's not easy. But it's it's it's a long process. It's a long process, yeah, yeah, it's a long process. But I like it because it means uh it's a process during which you have to learn about uh Switzerland. I bought and write a lot of books about Switzerland before being Swiss, be sure I know the geography, I know the brands, I know the legal aspects as well. I like it. It's a process and you have to go through different steps to get it. Indeed. |
| Andy Hoffman | And so tell us the steps of your career before you uh ended up in |
| Laurent Le Camp | this place. I studied in um class preparatoire au grand école and preparatory classes. Then I entered into business school, I studied uh in Germany as well. And I was very interested in jewelry and watchmaking, but I had no connection at that time. And I decided to start learning bodies, so GIA in the US, for example, to learn about precious metals, diamonds, stones and so on. At the same time I started working for the LVMH group, so in Switzerland first. After very shortly, I was by uh after four years approximately, I decided to go to Porsche in Germany. Then I was uh back here in Switzerland. I was working for independent watchmaker. Name was Michel Jordi. When he relaunched the brand in the very high end in luxury. A few years later, I was working for a brand to distribute luxury uh products in Eastern European countries and Russia. So that's when I decided to start learning Russian. Right. So yeah, and luckily today I speak friendly Russian, so I learned |
| Andy Hoffman | . Amazing. I learned. Not not as useful uh given the current political and business environment at the moment, but things can change |
| Laurent Le Camp | . Meaning that uh I remember when I was uh uh learning Russian, I uh I bought uh a book and the book was uh method as similar. And for the first year, every evening, every evening I was walking 20 minutes, 20 minutes I was working in uh with this book and I just told to myself if you want to speak this language you have no other choice than working every day. And my father is a German teacher and he told me it's better to learn five, ten or fifteen minutes a day all year long, and then believe me you will speak really good, really well. And I didn't believe this because I say if it would be so easy, everybody would do it. But I tell you something. Nobody will do it every day during one year. It's very rare. It's quite impossible. It's about putting in the time consistently. Absolutely. I gave my words to my father, so I did it. And that's how I started learning Russian. And it was very interesting to understand the Russian culture. Absolutely. And so it was at the time then I decided to launch my own watch brand named Cyrus, which was the case, and it was very successful. Very, very successful in terms of development, in terms of growth, in terms of manufacturing. Then I entered into the Bourger Group, uh which is quite famous here in Switzerland. And after Bohrer was working for the for Richemont. And now for more than for almost five years, I'm in charge of uh Montblanc watchmaking and as we have mentioned previously, Minerva watchmaking as well. |
| Andy Hoffman | Exactly. And what have been your you know, specific goals that you wanted to bring and things you wanted to change about uh Montblanc and Minerva? I mean, I think you talked about basically three categories, three specific things that you've focused on since you've |
| Laurent Le Camp | been here. Tell us about that. So that's interesting point. I think that's when you join a company, the first thing you have to do, according to me, is clearly doing nothing the first few months you are here. Because you cannot enter into this company and expecting to do something quick. So you know when I was working in Japan they told me something very interesting. I spent five years in Japan and they said one of my customers explained to me that Laurent, if you want to do something quick, always start with the longest path. I hope the translation is correct. Very interesting. It means quick should not exist. And it doesn't exist for luxury. That's why for me I spend time here learning, reading books. So I love reading, so here I I read a lot of books about Montblanc, about Minerva. To understand the culture, to understand the philosophy, and uh to have humility because when you arrive you want to do a lot of things but at the end you don't know the brand. You know from external point of view but you have to understand what the teams we share with you, what the customers are expecting from the from the brand and so on. And then, in that case for for Minerva, I found something very interesting in a book. And this book was in English. Yes. It was three hundred sixty five pages and the information was at the end of the book. And once the book was over, one of my colleague told me, Oh but by the way we have the same in French So it would have been easier for you. But it was it was good. And uh in this book I found something interesting. In 1927, Minerva developed something really interesting for pilots. It was a bezel. And when you move this bezel, you had the possibility to add a function to your watch. And this bezel was a really big inspiration for me. I said, wow, we never developed it for the pilots. What about bringing back but back now in terms of using it and putting it this this bezel on each timepiece we're developing, so that we have a real signature you recognize at the first sight, but this signature is not by chance. This is something I would say connected uh with uh what we did in the past. So Clit was the first idea. So the idea was I I found this bezel in the book. I just wanted to use it because I felt, it was my instinct that I felt we have to use it to develop a new signature for the Minava time pieces. And now if you observe our new Minava time pieces, all of them do have this bezel. And this bezel is inspired by the one developed in the twenties. And this bezel is a strong sign of recognition. And we have many collectors loving this. And uh we are even recruiting new collectors because Minerva is recognizable now. That's the point. It's a signature element to signature. Clear signature. Minava was always recognizable in the past, but only if you paid attention on the other side of your watch. The side you never see. Yes. Because the movement you recognize at the the first sight calibre a minerva calibre is easy to recognise. You just turn the route around, you observe everything say, Okay, that's Minerva. It's unique. But on dial side it was not the case. So this bezel made it possible to transform the perception of the brand. And that's exactly what was needed at the time. The first point was clearly identity. The second point was okay, we have a lot of key calibers, but it's impossible to see them. They're always hidden. So I propose the team that we just just turn around the calibers for the for the chronograph monopusha, which is a signature by uh by uh by Minerva. And then we revealed the beauty of our calibers to the world. |
| Andy Hoffman | And this this product became a bestseller. Trevor Burrus Indeed. And how much of a technical challenge was that for the watchmakers here and your engineers? Because it it it is a an unusual way to bring forward the elements, the unique elements of uh Minerva calibers. It's a big challenge |
| Laurent Le Camp | . It's a big challenge because when you say I just want just want to turn around It |
| Andy Hoffman | 's been done before on on some watches, but uh it's not for uh a regular line of watches to run |
| Laurent Le Camp | the wrong way. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And it seems that and in the past there are no watch companies in this world that came to the idea to reverse, to turn around a chronograph mono pusher. On top of it, the caliber we are working with was about hundred years old, meaning that this caliber was never thought to be developed with complications or with additional elements coming on top of it. Because when you create a new caliber, you can think about the next steps. But 100 years ago, you created a chronograph for being a chronograph, not for having a moon phase or whatever. So it means we had to add components on top of this caliber that was never thought for having new components and we hope it will be working Yes. But I'm lucky because internally we have an incredible team, engine |
| Andy Hoffman | ers, and the manage it. And I just want to get back to that bezel for a moment. The signature bezel that you've added to the Minerva line of Mont Blanc Watches, you know, it's a fluted bezel. And what you discovered, or what was discovered in the archives, isn't in fact, is that, you know, you claim that back in 1927 this was a patented fluted bezel that uh had functionality and that's how you're using it in in the chronograph uh as well. Obviously there's another company that makes a that's well known for a fluted bezel. But I mean, what gave you the you know, the confidence to make that claim and to uh make that design element a key part of your identity. I felt it. I |
| Laurent Le Camp | really felt it. It's like um sometimes it's very difficult to explain things with words when it's something emotional. And when I discovered this flooded bezel in the archives, I immediately felt we have to do it. That's the point. And for me, differentiation is a key element to be successful in the watchmaking industry. If you are like the others, why would you be the first choice for your end customers? And I say here end customers, generally speaking, because I'm absolutely not looking for customers. Sorry to say this. But with my team together we're looking for fans. Which makes a huge difference and Minerva it's only fans. It's not customers. And this fans that really appreciate the flooded bezel. The flooded bezel clearly had a strong connection with what we have done in the past. The flat bezel is a distinguishing element that we have, it means you can recognize the minavatamp piece at a first sight. And this is something we can use for future complications as well. Imagine that Minara comes to the idea creating a chronograph with no pushers at all. And imagine that Minara is coming to the idea putting a flat bezel on top of the timepiece and this bezel has a function, the chronograph ones. That's what we have developed. And it's patented. So you see how an idea taken from the past from nineteen twenty-seven to be very precise can have an influence on the future developments. Now we have launched a chronograph with no pushers, no start, stop, reset functions with the pushers, but we only use the bezel on the right to exit three functions. This is patented and just the beginning of the story. Sometimes the flat bezel will be used as a function, sometimes it will be used as a visual signature, and sometimes it will be used to replace something. But that's for the next step |
| Andy Hoffman | Well we look forward to uh all of your novelties and new releases. But you talked about um you're not interested in customers, you're interested in fans. How does someone become a fan of your watch brand and this manufacturer? What is it that people need to become fans and to become, you know, deeply, you know, in their mind and in their emotions invested in a brand. Aaron Powell For me there are two elements |
| Laurent Le Camp | . The first one is the language. You have now we have seven thousand languages in this world. There is a new one. The one developed in Villere, the Minerva language. Hmm. The Minerva language is a specific one and when we use this language to the end customers, they transform themselves into fans. Having own language it means that we are bringing something new, like a new language, in terms of complication, in terms of watchmaking approach. But at the same time, we have to elevate the brand and we elevate the brand while being companion cultural, a cultural companion. Meaning that on top of everything, each timepiece is bringing a story that could be connected to different themes and it will help to connect much more with the cultural world and that's exactly where we want to be with Minerva. So Minerva has on one hand its own language, and on the other hand, Minerva is a compagnon cultural. And when you mix together these two elements, you have the new Minerva. That's that's my my point. Again I think that if you want to be successful you have to be different and differentiation is something that should be developed in accordance with the roots and the |
| Andy Hoffman | Aaron Powell One of the things that uh we've been looking at today is the packaging that uh the Minerva line of of watches from Mont Blanc come in. I mean that's something that you started on fairly early, not quick right away, but um uh it's a change that you made. What I hear from a lot of brands, what I see from a lot of brands is them reducing the size of the packaging, not focusing on the boxes that their watches come in. Um you're doing the opposite. Tell me why. Tell me how and tell me tell me why. I don't know |
| Laurent Le Camp | the way to success, but the way to failure is trying to please to everybody. That's for sure. And th that's exactly what we will never do here uh by Minerva. Luxury lies in details. Imagine you are at home and you have a beautiful packaging from Minerva and all your friends coming home say, wow, what's this? And then you start explaining the packaging. Packaging is so important because it's part of the product. We never start explaining the piece we have developed. We always start explaining the packaging we have developed before the piece. So the approach is completely different. And we started with this three years and a half ago. I can remember one of my fans, not of myself, fan of the company, one of our fans, he came to me Nava and I started introducing a product, very, very high hand. But I started introducing first the packaging. And was so amazed by the packaging we spent forty, forty five minutes about the packaging, but details, everything. He said, Laurent, I want to be back with my wife. And we have met a few days later with his wife together. And then this customer decided to buy watch over over 300k, but he never saw the watch. And he told me there is such a high level of perfection in your packagings that I'm sure the watch will be perfect as well. And he bought everything. So bought the watch But for me it's it's it's very important. It's absolutely it's key and uh I know that it's it has a huge cost and uh I understand this. But at the end, Minerva is using one tool. Only one. The hand. You were here by the manufacturer and you see all our watchmakers are working with hands, not with a machines at all. And we belong to these rare manufacturers doing everything by hand. Even the hairspring, as you saw today, is produced in house by hand. The point is that you don't have to do that. Why I mean why why do you do that? Because luxury for me it has to do with hands. Very simple. A beautiful leather bag should be made by hand. A beautiful writing instruments should be made by hand. A timepiece should be made by hand as well. Where human beings and its human beings speaking to human beings. I will tell you something if tomorrow during a few days you have no electricity anymore, you cannot use your cars, you cannot use your phones, you cannot use your computers, but you can still have a look at your beautiful piece on your wrist and you can still work by Moblo or Minerva because you are working using your hands. So for me it's something that will last. The communication started with hands in our history. So for me it's key point. But once we say Minerva is made as here in Switzerland in Villeray, when we produce everything in house, why should be different for the packaging? So the packaging we have launched, for example, is made with wood coming from a Swiss forest, one at wood. 100% when you open the box you can see box made in Switzerland. We are proud of it. It's very, very luxury, you saw today. And we play with the customers because when we give the packaging to the customer, we always say, okay now you have 30 seconds to open it. Or one minute. And the fan is trying to open the box, but they say, I cannot open it. And we have to explain how to open it. And every two days, we are coming with a new system for opening and closing your packagings. Meaning they cannot say I only collect Minava Tempestis, you are collecting the Minerva packagings as well. And we have some collectors, they collect all of them and they put them on furniture at home and expand to the friends what Minerva is made of. So these fans, now you understand why they are fans, they are real ambassadors for the brand. And with my team together, what we have to provide them, it's clearly the highest expectation in terms of luxury and in terms of creativity. So packaging will always be by us a key element because it's part of the Minava concept. Aaron Powell Indeed. |
| Andy Hoffman | And that packaging, if it's uh displayed uh out in the open, I mean it can be a conversation piece and it's uh it's a another way to get people having conversations about the brand and what it does. You know, how have you let's talk price-wise, has the brand you know repositioned itself in the time uh that you've been here? You know, much of the watch industry has raised prices. You have two. What's your average price now? Where was it when you uh when you arrived and and how are you getting to that uh to that |
| Laurent Le Camp | level? So today Minava piece is around forty, forty five thousand uh Euros approximately. In the past it was more than 20, 25. We increased the price at the same time we're increasing the I would say details. For example we introduced the flatted bezel always in gold on our time pieces. We introduced the new packagings, we introduced an upgrade in our calibres. We have developed new calibers. We are working with specific new engravings now on the watches. So that's where we are. Our fans say that we are very fair in terms of prices, and that's something we strongly believe as well. But we want to provide them with the highest quality at the best price for them. So we are very well positioned, I guess so. And it will always be something key for us. We want that people when they see man of a piece they expect a price once we expand the complication The fact we are working with German silver for the bridges and for the plates, the fact we are working with a snailed diamond cookie, the snailed finishing on the ratchet of the movements, the fact we assemble by hand, the fact that you have the possibility to know who is your watchmaker. At the end it's very interesting. You are the owner of a mineral piece and you have the possibility to know exactly who did assemble your watch. And if you wish, we can organize a meeting with your watchmaker. Yeah, you |
| Andy Hoffman | have you know roughly twenty employees here uh at Minerva, many more at uh uh lock. But uh eight of them are are watchmakers. That's a big per |
| Laurent Le Camp | centage of your uh of your employees. Yeah, and we and we keep them. We know uh some Japanese customers say it's a Japanese company. Uh say w why do you say this? Because they say everything has been thought to be long term and you keep your people. And it's true. It's true. We had people working by the company for more than fifty years. I think one uh for employees was working fifty eight years by the company, Minerva, and his father was already working by Minerva. So just to show you what it means being part of Minara. And our watchmakers that stay for many, many, many years. Each watchmaker is in charge of a few timepieces. We know exactly which watchmaker is assembling which timepiece and the customer that do appreciate it because I can meet the watchmakers. And all of this it explains that there is a very high uh perceived value as well. And I never had one of my fans asking for discount. Never happened. There is one price, it's the correct one, and uh our offense are buying at the given price. It's been a uh |
| Andy Hoffman | pretty wild ride in terms of the market and the time that uh you've been in charge here. How have you done, you know, I don't know how specific you you can get, but in terms of sales and growth over that period, because obviously there's been a boom, there's been a bit of a pullback and we're in a challenging spot right now for much of the industry for various um reasons |
| Laurent Le Camp | . So what I can tell you is clearly that in the last four years, very difficult once, Minava had growth year after year. Which is quite exceptional, I would say. This is thanks to the team working with, great team. We are all working together. It's full of passion behind. And thanks to our fans as well. They still believe strongly in Minerva. They asked the best friends to come to Minerva and buy Minerva pieces as well. So for some products now we have more requests than what can be produced. I explained to you today and we have launched a piece for three hundred three hundred twenty K. You have uh three times three pieces, chapter one, chapter two, chapter three. We introduced to fifteen to sixteen customers, all of them placed an order for this piece, but at the end we could only deliver nine pieces. And we have three customers asking for the three of them. So that's the magic of Minerva. Each piece we are producing is requested by the end customers, by the fans. That's why it's very hard, very difficult to find any minor available in our Montblanc boutique. You cannot find it. Most of PC are resolved before they arrive in the boutique. So now we try to increase the production so that we can have more pieces available in our boutiques as well. I just give you an example, we are now in Switzerland, if you go to Geneva you will see I think one piece now that we have sent to them, a split second, but will be sold for sure in a few days. And uh now we are preparing additional pieces for for the Geneva Boutique. So Minava is growing in a very good manner, but we are not we don't want to make Minerva something with volumes. Minerva will always be exclusive. We have a maximum we want to reach. We will never go over this maximum because we want to still provide our end customers, sorry, our fans with the same level of quality, meaning that they have the possibility to meet their watchmaker, meaning that we provide them with a very high level of innovation with limited editions. We need time to produce a piece. If you ask me how much time is needed for this time piece for example or this one, I will tell you, okay. It could be a few weeks, few months for assembling, a few years. It depends on We don't say to the watchmakers you have three weeks' time to produce it. It takes time. One of |
| Andy Hoffman | the pieces, the the extra you know, all your pieces are extraordinary, but with one of the extraordinary pieces we saw today, the Versailles. Talk about that piece and and the ability to make something like that and how it fits in with the brand identity. Um and then even, you know, it' parts of Mont Blanc, which makes much more entry-level priced watches. But let's talk about the Versailles and and then um talk about being mm Mont Blanc as well. So the |
| Laurent Le Camp | Versailles is an exception. It's only eight pieces. We decided to work with Versailles based on Exotbillon complication we have developed. In the past, it was patented in 2010. It's a tourbillon which is floating over the dial you have it's three millimeters over, it's half of uh bridge I would say maintaining the tourbillon. It's high complication and here again this is typically the recipe of how to create a beautiful Minava timepiece. First of all the packaging. The packaging could be a time machine. So you saw the packaging, we spent a lot of time explaining the packaging, the quality of food, what has been explained inside, time needed to develop it, it's a piece of art in itself. And then you have the watch inside. The watch dedicated to a specific event happening in Versailles in the night from twenty fifth to twenty sixth of February 1745. And the watch tells you about this evening. And during this evening, there was a magical music. But this music nobody knows about it. And this music was found again thanks to Versailles. They help us to find this music again that was played during this event. And this music now is inside our packaging. When you open it you don't see how it works, but you have a mechanism playing this music. And then the piece itself, I don't give a lot of details because people have to come back to you for these details, but is using high level of marketry, we are working with marble, we are working with opal, we are working with uh enamel uh champleve, black enamel, golden flakes and so on. It's a piece of art. I will just give you an anecdote. One of our customers he heard about he heard about it and his customers say okay, give me more information about it. No, because it's to be revealed on the first of October. And we just explained packaging and concept of Versailles and say, Laurent, trust you, I take the piece. I want to be sure to get it. Without showing the piece. That's the magic of Minaba. And this collector is a fan, it's true. He has many Minava pieces. And every year he says what are you launching next? And I want to be the first to receive it. So we have today this This fans waiting for Minerva, and these fans are our best ambassadors in this world. We pay attention to them with a team together, we pay a huge attention the way we treat them. We have even created a club, but I will not communicate about it. I will not tell you what is inside this club, how it works, but we have a club of fifty-eight members, and this club is unique in watchmaking, and we produce for this club members every two years a dedicated timepiece and they receive a lot of advantages. One of the advantages, just to make something exciting, we give the possibility to each club member to get the manufacture for free one day per year, and I can organize their board meeting here inside the manufacture, for example. And everything is for free. So this is one of the advantages. We have developed something that seems to be very unique and excellent in this industry. That's the feedback they're giving us. And now the next club 58 MPs will be launched in April next year. But most of our members say Laurent are Right. And this is a a club where it is invitation only. You decide uh who is in this club. Absolutely. I think the success is not depending on one person. I'm happy to with you today because I'm leading this business. But the success is what we do all at the same level within the company. Telling these stories |
| Andy Hoffman | , I mean you sound like a um a small little uh independent artisanal maker, but you're part of the Richemont Group and you and Montplan acquired by the Richemont Group is you know a a writing instrument maker, you're um uh part of the same company, and and Mont Blanc watches were created and then Minerva was rolled into that. How do you sort of square that circle of being this very exclusive and personal company with your fanslash uh client customers and being part of a |
| Laurent Le Camp | very big Swiss luxury group. It's something very interesting. Minerva has been bought by the Richmond Group in two thousand seven and then it was given to Montblanc. And Montblanc preserved the savour fair of Minerva. In a very rare way I would say. Many companies would have changed it, but Minerva has not been changed. Montblanc respected Minerva. The group is providing us with a lot of very key information. We have a lot of statistics, we have a lot of information about treason, duty free, about colours, trends, sizes, expectation of luxury customers and so on. And this information it's extremely useful for us not to make any mistake in terms of new development. So the group is really bringing this information to us, the Richemont intelligence, and it's extremely useful to be successful. So I see this very positively, how the group has uh integrated Minerva within Montblanc and how we can evolve and make the growth all together. Um something interesting as well is that we are part of Richmond. It's good because we have different discussions with uh different CEOs about uh what is happening and these discussions are extremely useful here as well because we can perceive the trends. And that's why for me it sounds logical to be part of Richemont because it's a big support and it helps us a lot, really. At the same time, Richemont has um an entrepreneur spirit because they trusted us regarding Minerva. What we have launched in the last four to five years with my team together is completely new, it's disruptive and we had the big support from the group and now we see the result. So we had four years growth in a row during very difficult time. And you see the products we have. So for me it was very positive. That's why I'm very thankful to this uh for this opportunity. Trevor Burrus Absolutely. And last thing, um |
| Andy Hoffman | tell us w w you know what you like to do with yourself when you're not working and not being the managing director. You like to do um what's called ultra marathons, uh, which is running around in the mountains for uh, you know, sometimes hundreds of kilometers |
| Laurent Le Camp | . This is an extreme sport. It's extreme sport. It's something I need. Uh I need for my balance. My grandfather was a marathon runner, he was 80, he was still running marathons. And he was told me Laurent, keep running. Because if you have any issues, we'll find solutions while running. He said running is the only sport you can be alone and you can focus on what is happening in your life and find solutions. And every time I'm running now, I have to say I think of my grandfather. Every time. So every time I'm running in mountains, on ice and snow, I think about my grandfather. I say ice and snow because I have a goal. My target is running the three coldest marathons in this world. The first one was it's done, it was in uh in uh Cyb Siberia. It's uh the Baika Lake, it was a frozen lake, it was up to minus forty two degrees. So I ran this marathon. The second one was in Antarctica as well, by the way with a Montblanc watch on the wrist to test it. It was minus thirty degrees. And the very last one is uh north of Russia, so I will not go for now for sure. But it on average f minus fifty eight degrees, it's only fifteen to twenty runners and that's my next big challenge. So I don't think so, it will be in the next months, but probably in one, two years we'll see. That's the goal And after uh we'll render Marathon de Sable, probably not alone. It's something you can do step by step. It's uh more in Africa, I would say. And uh it's something you you can walk as well, it's in deserts and in uh autonomy uh complete, meaning you have you have your own water and everything. So that's my next challenge. But first I want to close the three coldest marathons Well good luck with that. |
| Andy Hoffman | Um that is uh quite a pursuit and quite a goal. And um good luck with your continued growth at Montblanc and Minerva. Thank you for being a guest today on the busin |
| Laurent Le Camp | ess of watches. Merci Andy. It was a big pleasure, I have to say, uh, being with you today to have this opportunity to welcome you here at the Manufacture. It was the first time for you and uh I hope it was a great experience. I just would like to do this opportunity to say many thanks to my team because without the hard work and what they have done in the past. What we have done together will not be where we are today with Minerva and with Mont Blanc. It's a team who is that is really passionate about our products. When we decide it's a quorum, meaning that we try to decide all together what to do. We listen to each of them and uh it's a pleasure in this world to have this opportunity to work all together with only one goal at the end in our mind is being successful is Montblanc and Ménera. So many thanks to my team because we will not be where we are today without their daily commitments. Merci Laur |
| Andy Hoffman | ent And that's the business of watches for this episode. We hope you enjoyed. Please head on over to hodinky.com where you can join the discussion and leave any comments or questions about this episode or the business of watches in general. Who knows? We might even answer your question on a future episode. Thanks for listening and see you next time. Oh |