The Business of Watches [037] Former CEO Of Bulgari Jean-Christophe Babin¶
Published on Wed, 26 Aug 2026 15:00:00 +0000
Babin previews this year's Geneva Watch Days and makes the case for what sets the gathering apart from other watch industry events.
Synopsis¶
In this episode of The Business of Watches podcast, the host interviews Jean-Christophe Babin, longtime head of Bulgari and current president of Geneva Watch Days. Babin discusses the origins of Geneva Watch Days, which was created during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when traditional watch fairs like SIHH and Baselworld were cancelled. The event was designed with a decentralized approach, allowing brands to exhibit in their own boutiques, hotel suites, or manufactures rather than in a single exhibition center, making it more affordable and flexible.
Babin explains how Geneva Watch Days has evolved into a unique cultural event that complements Watches and Wonders, focusing on diversity and accessibility. While Watches and Wonders primarily features major established global brands, Geneva Watch Days serves as an incubator for smaller, emerging, and niche brands, with approximately 68 participating brands. The event emphasizes community-building, bringing together CEOs, collectors, media, and retailers in evening gatherings. Notably, 35% of Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève awards over the past seven years have gone to Geneva Watch Days participants. Babin also addresses broader industry challenges, including the bipolarization of the market where major brands grow larger while mid-tier brands struggle, and discusses the importance of maintaining Swiss Made standards while finding innovative ways to compete in entry-level segments through design, automation, and creative thinking.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Unknown Host/Interviewer | Welcome to the Business of Watches, the Hodinkee podcast, where we go behind the scenes to talk to the executives and the players making the watch industry tick. Today we are speaking with Jean-Christophe Babin, longtime head of Bulgarie, many other roles in the watch industry and watch jewelry industry over the years, and today the president of Geneva Watch Days, the gathering, the salon, the fair that happens at the end of the summer each year. Jean-Christophe Babin, welcome to the business of watches. Thank you for joining us. |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | Thank you, indeed. Thank you, Olinky. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | It's uh a pleasure, especially |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | I mean to talk about this forum. I would say it's more a cultural event than uh a typical watch fair which has been created uh during the Covid so it was born out of as the absence of any other watchfair as the institutional traditional watchfair had both decided uh not to run. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | In twenty twenty. So to yeah, talk about um you know how the events came about and then we'll talk about where we are now. |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | Yeah. Well you know that was very simple. I mean uh the traditional affairs uh decided not to run for a very simple reason, because the COVID was preventing public gatherings. And as the existing fairs, then SEHS on the one hand and Basel Fair on the other hand were relying upon a very centralized uh infrastructure, for instance the Palexpo exhibition center in Geneva. There was no way to postpone uh to further months hoping that COVID will have uh vanished in the meanwhile because uh the next months were uh occupied uh at Alexpo by other kinds of events or exhibitions. So uh obviously when you are tied by a very busy location, uh if you miss your slots, there's no other slot before the year after. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | Right. And when I realized that they |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | wouldn't run at all, I mean in 2020, I remember it was a Saturday morning. Uh I said it's crazy because the watch industry despite COVID needs uh watch fares. Uh definitely. Uh COVID is not a global uh pandemia, uh it's a rotating pandemia, meaning by that that it started in China, went westwards to Europe, then crossed the Atlantic to the US, then to Asia and back to China, where eventually uh it ended. So it's true that for Europe uh the spring twenty twenty was the worst period because it's when it reached from China countries like Italy, Switzerland which were uh pretty much hit by by COVID. Yes. But on the other hand, we knew that this pandemic was rotating so that sooner or later it would leave Europe to go hopefully nowhere. It went in the US, unfortunately. And then the idea was to run a new uh fair, but not a fair conventional, a fair which was fitting with the COVID constraints and which after COVID, if we would decide to run it, could be repeated and so uh I thought that this first should be decentralized because the main reason for the cancellation of Basel and S was that it was centralized in one location. So decentralization uh was mandatory not only to avoid pandemic but also to provide the brands with more freedom to exhibit more or less the ways they wanted, wherever they wanted, and according to their resources and ambitions, and not to be forced to rent uh expensive corridors in one single location. Only um obsession with that it should be run in Geneva State. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | Yes. But it could be in your |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | boutique if you had a boutique big enough for a showroom. It could be uh in a hotel suite, which is easy to to rent and to refurbish. It could be in your manufacture. Many uh watch maisons are located in the Geneva State. So the brand could choose where they would exhibit. But obviously the fair itself had to be uh a material institution and therefore we created uh the center of the fair which is a pavilion still existing today three times bigger than in twenty twenty uh, where the brands could exhibit their best species. So it was not really a brand showroom, but it was a showroom of all the brands, which was uh a world first, I mean, uh for uh a watch exhibition of a usually the brands are exhibiting only in their booths or in their showrooms so each brand uh participating could exhibit two or three or four pieces which were the most emblematic of the 2020 collection. The second thing is that this structure was also designed to allow uh the public to come every day to discover uh the exhibiting brands which uh was also a major uh disruption versus the existing fairs. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | Yeah, this was a change to allow the public to visit brands the same as journalists or uh people from the industry. |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | uh to really raise uh desirability interest relevance of uh luxury watchmaking, it was mandatory to treat the public the same way we were treating the media, the influencers or the collectors. So there were uh able I mean to come for free and it was since the first year uh quite a success and then by five six o'clock uh we turned I mean uh the public into the evenings of the fair. So every evening uh we were gathering under the pavilion, the participants of the fair, meaning on the one hand, uh the visiting media, retailers, influencers, collectors, and all the other hands, the representants of the brands, namely, I mean the CEOs and their teams. And this was also World First, totally departing from traditional first, where usually each brand is really defending its own interests and tries every evening to capture as many good clients as possible and to take them to a party. Here it was the opposite. I mean we didn't prevent brands obviously to invite clients it triumph but there was a location where every evening uh any brand could invite its clients uh its uh collectors and were um retailers, media, uh collectors could meet many CEOs all together. So it was like creating a new community where despite being competitors, uh we were first and foremost, I mean, a community of passionate people all revolving around uh jewelry. And last but not least, the organization was done directly by the brands, so it was led by a group of founding brands and each founding brand did delegate a couple of people to organize a fair in just three months because I mean uh we decided that in March, April, uh first for June, then reported to July, and then eventually end of August. We followed the pandemia. And thanks to the decentralization of the showroom and agreement with the hotel that uh if it had to be postponed there wouldn't be any penalty so it was win-win mm or lose lose, but uh it couldn't win lose. Uh which was also I mean enabled by the strong support of the Geneva State and City. They were so happy that one big event would happen in their city or year where everything else had been virtually cancelled. And eventually we could run them uh end of August. It was the first time ever. It was small, I mean we we started, I mean, with less than twenty brands, but it was not bad at all. Uh a good affluence, mostly European of course, because uh we were in the time of COVID, but also Middle Eastern. And uh I would say uh for very limited investments and last we made it extremely accessible also to small brands so that uh instead of applying a fee per square meter per share of the pavilion or whatever, we decided to have a tariff which was integrating the size of the companies. Right. So we had uh four or five different uh clusters starting as low as uh 10,000 Swiss francs for the very small startup of niche brands up to much more obviously for larger brands like uh Brightling, Bugari, Ullistada, and so forth. And this was also a world first to annihilate that the watchmaking was a huge diversity of very different realities, not only in terms of style, in terms of expertise, but also in terms of economics, in that if we wanted to organize something representing well the Swiss wash industry, we'd also to take into consideration uh the resources of uh those different realities which we did and which we still do know what is. So nowadays it's uh seventh editions, so it's incredible. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | Yeah, I mean the the question now is, I mean, obviously lots has changed. There are different gatherings. Um since the launch of Geneva Watch Days, obviously Watches and Wonders has been born. There's um many other gatherings. Dubai Watch Week continues once every two years. What is the place and purpose of uh Geneva Watch Days now and and and how has it evolved? |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | Well primarily I think that it's today very complementary to Watch and Wonders, and it's commonly annoyed as the second major watch event uh globally, which you know, run by a group of amateurs which uh primary skill is to manage watch companies and not organize watch fair is quite interesting. And by following the initial principles of decentralization, self manage, affordability, accessibility, and this community approach, it has become a real cultural event going much beyond a watch fair only and I will come back on that. Very complimentary to watch and wonders as we are welcoming uh more or less the same amount of brands this year will be 68 but, let's say around 60 and 70. We don't want to go further because uh I mean you all participants need time to have quality relation building and not a rush, I mean, between one brand to another brand. So we want to to limit it. And it's not easy. Catherine is a kind of uh gatekeeper of the show. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | Right. What makes it different for what else w |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | doondesers is is primarily and besides the approach I described already, uh the diversity. Uh Watch and Wonders is primarily welcoming the major established global brands and there's little room for the smaller ones uh first uh because of lack of space second because of a pretty high cost for a small brand it works by square meter. So whether you are Rolex or you are Franco Journe, you place the same amount per square meter, which makes quite a difference on the PNL. And then sure you have to build a booth. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | Yes. Early SEHH was very minimalist, |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | so people uh didn't spend too much. Now if you go to Watch and Wonders, I mean the buses are back again and obviously the cost is uh quite substantial, very affordable, I would say, probably for the major brands, but not even thinkable for a startup, a young brand. And then comes a complementarity where the GOS days have some uh I would say uh major watch brands uh I was mentioning Bright Ling rather than uh than Wool Ray but is much more skewed towards smaller brands, a more specialist brand, startups, revamped brand like uh for instance Ferdinand Berthaud, which is historical, but disappeared and thanks to Carl Friedrich Schuffel is coming back to life. So it's uh it's an incubator and it's really appreciated as such. Uh, because on the one hand you have the reinsurance of the Pillar Brands uh which uh Bulari uh is pretty much uh representing, but not only, with many others. But at the same time, uh for collectors it's definitely their privileged destination, |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | right? Uh because they are uh |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | passionate by watches, of course, and always eager to discover first real news and ideally from your brands. And one of the strengths of the GOS Days is really the huge collectors' community, complementing the public move by curiosity and visiting the pavilion. But the collectors are also visiting the showrooms, we take them to the manufacturers, and they can buy directly also from uh the brands the pieces that they deem interesting for public collections. So it's all about diversity and out of the 68 brands of the Jina West days, less than 10 are also in Washington Wonders. Meaning that uh between the 60 of Washington Wonders and the 68 of the January's days, eventually we managed to have room for 120 different brands to express their style, to express their DNA, to express their news in Geneva every year at a distance or four or five months, we talk about April versus early September. Thus providing you know collectors, retailers, media with a huge panorama, I think uh very common panorama of what luxury watchmaking means nowadays and not only the institutional part represented by the major brands, but also the very creative and unexpected part represented by maybe smaller brands, but which from a purely horrific standpoint are considered as extremely interesting, having in mind that some of them could become the major brands of the future. It takes decades, if not centuries, to make a major brand. And so being an incubator of the future major brands is also for us a mission uh and we are passionate about it. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | And should we think though in terms of the ambitions of Geneva Watch Days as it continues, do we want to see more brands? Do we want to see more larger brands, uh similar brands that are at Watches and Wonders? Or how should we, you know, expect the event to evolve in terms of its participants and in terms of of the focus for uh those who attend? |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | Well I believe the mix of brands is perfect, you know, uh few Angkor brands and many uh smaller brands either because they're young, either because they are just in a revival cycle or because purposedly the brand owner or owners are focusing on very small niches which are very interesting for the watchmaking industry, but not compatible with uh the watch and owners concept. So I think the concept is proving successful. So the main effort won't be to have more brands but to ensure the diversity of what we offer to participants in terms of variety. And the second point is to uh further turn it into a major cultural event and not a transactional event. Obviously these are transactions and we are very happy about that. But uh uh I would say the cultural uh dimension of the event is as important as the transactional dimension and in that it's totally different from any other um multi brand watch event existing nowadays. Biculture I intend for instance every morning you have I mean some uh CO panels, but not discussing necessarily directly on watchmakings. Some themes are related to watchmaking, others are not at all. It can be about design, it can be about lifestyle, it can be about luxury in general uh it can be about uh gen z or gen x and their relation uh to our luxury versus soft luxury we have some panels and uh some i call them a symposium in the afternoon uh where it's open to a different public and where again I mean you have experts you have moderators and uh always led by uh experts of the industry, but again, I mean uh going much further and beyond the silicium spring rather than uh a new waterproof uh system. And then we have an educational part. We work very closely, I mean, uh with uh Geneva Watchmaking School. We also organized an auction to the benefit of the watchmaking school so that they can uh reinforce their structure and uh the content of their own programs. So we are also fostering the emergence of future watchmakers, which we believe is absolutely mandatory, providing more resources to the uh most famous school in in in Geneva. We organized some workshops also for uh kids. Quite unexpected, but you know the familiarity, the proximity to what she is should start as early as possible. You know what you discover early in your life often remains in your mind forever. And this we believe is also part of our missions. We have some interactive activities like chronometry uh contests where you have put in competition several CEOs but not necessarily limited to CEOs in a very uh short uh time frame to try to set up uh movements as close as possible to the cost uh requirements. So it's really uh a big event, a big celebration of watchmaking with a very strong cultural dimension, uh, which really makes it something standing apart from all the other events we were describing. I'm not mentioning any longer watch and orders, which remains I mean the major transactional uh event of the global brand but I'm talking about the many other events that you can see here and there which are really primarily transactional and regional if not local. Here we talk about of something which is regular every year, which is very emblematic of the diversity of the Swiss watchmaking genius. And also some uh foreign brands which were welcoming because you know uh we don't want to be uh close to uh good creativity to to good ideas. So I mean the uh as long as the brands are presenting some interesting novelties uh and comply with some criteria which uh we define in terms of transparency, integrity, uh authenticity, uh we're also very happy to welcome brands coming from other countries. And this participates to putting watchmaking in the top of mind of 21st century clients, which is not obvious. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | Interesting. And you know, talk about I think um the whole industry and then, you know, governments from the local Geneva government to the federal Swiss government have become more conscious and more interested in promoting watchmaking in Switzerland's role and Geneva's specific role as a as a watchmaking hub. I mean talk about the place, the location where this event takes place in Geneva and then the role that the government and the and the local uh municipality plays and also that you know sort of changing desire |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | Well I have to say that uh we're very much supported by the Geneva State and City Authorities, not only I mean uh financially, but also uh facilitating all the access to uh security, uh you know, 68 brands exhibiting means extra security putting pressure on the hotels so that uh during that period they give very good rates to the participants of the event uh wherever they come from, whether they are uh media, whether they are collectors, whether they are people from your brands, because not everyone is living in Geba. Myself I'm living in a chatel, so I have to sleep somewhere. So we have a very strong support and we are uh today the only officially endorsed watch event from the Jeva State in N City, which says long about the vision I mean, of those authorities and their understanding that the future is not only made of established big brands which you can meet at Watch and Wonders, but is also uh very much related to the emergence of additional players with different ideas, different philosophies, and attracting to watchmaking, perhaps people were not so much interested by the existing Anchor brands, but more about uh more exclusive, uh, more original, more creative, more daring, niche brands uh which eventually create more jobs, eventually equip more wistes, and eventually uh add layer which is very interesting to the traditional group of brands uh which usually come to your mind when you think about uh Swiss watches or or luxury watches. And uh it's not just a statement, it's it's a fact. If I take the last seven years, you won't believe, but uh you surely know that I mean the old Hollywood red carpet of what's making the uh Grand Prix d'horlogerie de Genève. Since seven years, so the seven edition of the GOR days, 35% of all awards, 35% of all awards which have been uh awarded by the Grand Prix de Geneve have been awarded to participants of the G Waltes. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | So thirty-five, three-five percent, yeah. |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | Thirty-five three five one out of three that has gone to uh a brand uh attending the junior white days. So I would say uh except uh winners like Bulgari, which are not really emerging brands or small brands, but mostly to small emerging brands. Thus providing those brands with further legitimacy and thus proving our concept right that we are a real incubator and a real uh spotlight on a category of brands which are very important already nowadays and which then uh after uh the visibility of the G Watch days get a second visibility at the most prestigious World Watch Award, which is the Grand Prix Genève, which is a close partner, by the way, with Federation of Autorologerie, with the Chamber of Commerce of Geneva of the General Days. I don't know any institution in Geneva not supporting the Geneva Days, which again uh is something which is pretty unique. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | And you know you, talked uh earlier about, you know, the the cost for participants and how it's quite different than salons like uh Watches and Wonders and and you know, inflation and the increasing cost of um inputs and raw materials, the price of precious metals, all these things have contributed to rising costs in the industry. How have the the costs for participants at Geneva Watch days evolved over time and have we seen a big change uh in terms of how much uh it costs for brands to participate? |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | Well we didn't change much the tariff have not evolved. We have just created an entry level at 5,000. Why? Because we have noticed that during the Geneva Watch days, many smaller brands were organizing in Geneva, taking advantage of the presence of 500 media, 300 retailers, probably 2500 collectors, took advantage of the General Days to organize here and there their events. And with Catherine, we thought that it would be better for them to join the bandwagon to have access to the website for registration, for hotel fairs, for the programs, to have access to our pavilions, to be exhibited together with others. But we were conscious that if they did that, I would say uh autonomously and uh isolatedly, half of them did because uh the entry level was felt for them a bit too expensive. And so by creating a new level with obviously less advantages at the former entry level, because uh it's logical as well that if a brand like Bugari paying full price on high-press gets, I don't know, three displays in the multi-branch room. If you have access uh at the new tariff, uh you will get a nice visual of your watch of the year. So obviously there are some differences, but basically you are welcome in the pavilion the same way. You can come with your clients with media and meet and greet there, participate to activities, participate to the cocktail, and so you benefit from most of the advantage for an amount which is quite symbolic and uh make your life easier and it has been successful because eventually uh we had uh even to refuse some participants because this really was a strong leverage for them because they thought yes it's not crazy to be and if they are pleased and happy and many have been, they are asking to step up to the next level the year after, which is quite interesting as well, because they see what kind of extra privilege they could get, paying an extra ten thousand, which remains I mean compared to a traditional watch fair and ridiculously low. To give you an idea, I mean the budget of the Junior World Days is less uh than the size of a small uh booth at Wash and Wonders for one brand. And here we have 68. Of course, uh some have to pay some suit because they don't have a presence in Geneva, which adds some cost. Others are using their boutiques, so there's no extra cost for showcasing. It's just, I mean, arranging the boutique deviously. Others have their own manufacturer and so again there are no extra costs. So I would tell that the direct costs are just a fraction of uh single brand booths in Western Wonders. And the total cost remains a fraction because the total cost is probably if you account, I mean, for the suit which are rented here and there, for some private cocktails which can be uh given in the manufacturer. We talk anyhow, I mean, uh about very little amount of money compared to any existing watch event. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | Yes. Even secondary |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | regional or local events organized here and there as you were mentioning yourself. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | And so, you know, you've been around this industry for decades and you you just finished up uh a run as the head of the watch unit at LVMH. You know, from your perspective, give us a sense of where the watch industry is right now and what are the biggest, you know, business challenges facing the industry as a whole right now that uh, you know, we may see attempts to demonstrate at uh Geneva watch this? |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | Well what we see since I would say uh the last uh ten years and probably accelerated by COVID is a kind of bipolarization of the market where the bigs are becoming bigger but fewer, and where small, exclusive, creative, daring brands, uh, even though they represent medium low turnovers, are gaining more and more traction in terms of growth, of interest, of corporate, and where the brand that bit stuck in the middle are really struggling. And we see it with uh logical federation statistics where you see that the market in value has not suffered much from the last two, three years unstable international context, the value I mean plus one, minus one overall is there, but the volumes have dropped by 10 million in 10 years, which means that the average ticket has increased so that the share I mean of extensive brands is higher and higher. And expensive brands are not only, I mean, the major brands, but often are those niche brands I was mentioning to you, which you can discover at the gym tas. Often I mean those brands because they craft take Ferdinand Berthoud, they don't craft thousand of watches per year, but the watch is araftirc are selling for hundreds of thousands of euros and it's an example. But I could mention many others, I mean in in that direction. So this is a bit and probably the challenge for the uh Swiss industry now is to stop the volume drop so to continue to innovate of course to continue to have uh mandatory big players that you absolutely want on your wrist in your collection, I mean you useless to mention the names, but you can easily guess them, to offer even more newcomers or revived brands coming back after 30, 40, 50 years, you know, many disappear during the quartz crisis. And uh some entrepreneurs or the brands are reviving them right now. And this is very interesting because it adds diversity, and trying to recreate relevance of the medium segment. I mean the watches between uh let's say uh one thousand and five six thousand uh Swiss Foreign retail Price |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | right which have been suffering |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | uh even though the volume uh loss comes essentially from below one thousand where the market has been impacted by the connected watches, which is not the case uh above 2000 euros. I mean, above 2000 euros, people have two watches, they have I mean uh D Swiss watch, whatever the brand, whatever the price, and often you can see them on the other wrist with the connected instruments. Below 500, it's more either or. And this segment has suffers quite a lot also because 15 years ago when I moved from Tiger to Bulgaria we also raised as a Swiss made let's say criteria |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | yes to be transparent and |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | really uh honest with the client and this obviously has reduced the entry from Switzerland because many of those entry brands couldn't comply with the new 60% uh added value not defined uh by the total word but by the case and the movement uh and the uh and cost which were uh behind uh and so this has also contributed, but we found that there were too many abuse in those times of brands which were Swiss only by name, but which had virtually nothing Swiss except I mean a very cheap uh 10 Swiss franc warts movements and all the rest was coming from other countries and that it was not really fair to the client to claim the Swiss made. And I think we were right because it's like I mean champagne is champagne, it comes from champagne, and that's it. And uh and for the Swisswatches, we have to protect uh a unique expertise, which means timelessness, which means superior quality, which means uh superlative maintenance and all this uh mean that you have to define some criteria uh to which you have to comply if you want to be part of this label. It's a label like champagne is a label. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | And you know, the last thing I'll ask you here as we look forward to Geneva Watch Days, you know, from your perspective, obviously you've spent time lately at more at higher end luxury brands at Bulgary, et cetera. But how can Switzerland and Swiss made watches compete at that entry level? What's the pathway for for Swiss made watches and the you know the the industry that's centered here to remain competitive and and a player in that market, where the suffering is, as you say? |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | Well, uh the first thing which is interesting is that the largest uh Swiss uh brand by volume is also one of the few which is hundred percent Swiss made. And this is swaps. And it costs from eighty Swiss francs upwards, up to 300 uh from some mechanical versions. And this is driven by design, it's driven by artistic collaborations, and it's proving that thinking out of the box and when uh Mr. Ayek did invent the swatch, obviously the straight to a Japanese quartz, and he had to find something different, which was even cheaper than quartz watches from Japan or quartz watches made in Switzerland, but also emotionally attractive thanks to the design, thanks to the colours, thanks to the artistry. So this is an example, it's not the only one. I think uh when we have a brand like Pissot which came already with the Touch twenty-five, twenty six eight years ago, this is a way well it today it cost probably one thousand Swiss francs, it was launched at 600. So again, this could have been, I mean, in those times, probably the equivalent of the Apple Watch. Because think that it was born 20 years before the Apple Watch. So we can see in Switzerland initiatives, but we should do more, of brands which manage their way building substantial volumes at reasonable prices while complying with Swiss made rubbe. It's not easy. It requires a lot of creativity. It requires thinking out of the box. The other factor that obviously the competition is not only the connected watches competition is more and more also coming from cheaper uh Asian watches especially from uh Japan and more and more from China. and Japan is not, I mean, a cheap manpower country. It's quite expensive. China used to be, but it's not any longer such a cheap manpower country. But what do they do? It's not copying because if you look at brand like Casio which traditionally work watch and they moved mechanical uh last year, the brand is selling uh I mean a mechanical watch for five hundred Swiss front, which is uh quite good. And if Japanese can do it, uh Swiss of course can do it. Because if uh in the high end it's mostly manual, uh in the entry, uh many process steps can be really industrialized and most of the components of the parts even the assembling uh can be automatized |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | sure but the cost of those machines are |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | the same whether they are in China, in Japan or in Switzerland. And the uh depreciation is the same as well. So obviously if you take a shiming watch from Bulgarie, eighty five or 90 percent of the value is the cost of our watchmasters, and it takes one euro per watchmaster per watch. So you know it's uh it's a bit uh uh near you cannot automize because you will produce three or four per year. Uh there's no it makes no sense to automatize. If you want to produce several thousand of tens of thousands, then uh automation tends to have costs converging because the manual added value is decreasing uh logically, you know. Uh and uh you have had a lot of steps in the recent years coming from 3D printing, for instance, which is pretty economical and pretty interesting in terms of uh quality perception. Uh but 3D printing causes the same anywhere. Uh you have also, I mean, uh the gradual disappearance of stamping for the cases. Uh more and more, I mean they are directly machined uh like we do in the uh draw industry since ages |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | yes and this also is |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | bringing cost down uh but the cost of the machine uh doing that uh whether it's uh they are usually swiss but are costing quite a lot of money but if it's purchased by a japanese brand it it will be purchased at the same cost so I think that we still can gain in efficiency combined with creativity, with more thinking out of the box, so that eventually I mean the Swiss watches will regain volume, especially in the middle price. There's been a lot of polemics about I mean the collaboration between Swatch at Old Marpigue. I think we shouldn't be so conventional and traditional to immediately attack it or criticize until we understand uh what it can do. But this could be, even though it looks like I would say shocking to associate, I mean one of the most extreme expensive watch brands together with the most affordable. But why not? You know, I think we have to be open-minded. And this is probably my final and closing message on the world days, it's an eye-opener because it's introducing new brands, new ways of thinking watchmakings, which can contribute to a glorious Swiss watchmaking of the 21st century and maybe the collaboration I just mentioned won't be present at the G1Js but is part you know of this new way of thinking more open-minded to sacrilege ideas which could really provide further steam and momentum to the Swiss watchmaking industry. So we shouldn't criticize, we should analyze, we should really uh follow and we should ourselves ask uh why did they do it? Uh because they are not stupid, neither at Otmar, neither at first group. How successful is it? Does it really damage your brand or not and ask for ourselves what if we were doing not the same thing at all but if we were thinking out of the box the same way they have thought about the box and I congratulate both of them because this ging about the box is surely very interesting to attract uh younger generations but also uh collectors to an industry which otherwise uh probably would be stable at best and surely declining as we see in volumes uh for sure. |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | Definitely. Well that's a great place to leave it. Jean-Christophe Babin, the president of Geneva Watch Days. We look forward to seeing you at Geneva Watch Days in uh August and September. Thank you very much for joining us. We |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | can't wait and maybe we'll announce a few surprises in the next week so it's not over |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | Thank you so much Sandy, thanks Odinki, |
| Jean-Christophe Babin | and uh looking forward to see you there. And that's the business |
| Unknown Host/Interviewer | of watches for this episode. We hope you enjoyed. Please head on over to Hodinkee.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. |