8 ★ FT Special^ Report 9 November/10 November 2019Watches&Jewellery
With his cropped salt-and-pepper hair
gelled into razor-sharp spikes, tanned
skin and athletic build, Jean-Marc
Pontroué looks more like a man who
trains paratroopers than one who
commands a Swiss watch company.
He was drafted into Panerai in April
last year as part of a swingeing and
well-documented reordering of parent
group Richemont’s senior management
line-up. As the brand’s new chief
executive, the former head of Roger
Dubuis was tasked with injecting new
life into group chairman Johann
Rupert’s favourite child.
The Frenchman is off to a fast start.
He used this year’s Geneva watch fair
to introduce voguish consumer
experience and sustainability strategies
that he believes will rapidly advance
the company’s fortunes.
We meet below deck on Panerai’s
yacht, Eilean, an elegant 70-foot ketch
built in 1936 and rescued a decade ago
by Mr Pontroué’s predecessor Angelo
Bonati. Once a flamboyant prop in
Duran Duran’s 1982 music video “Rio”,
it is now a floating maison for the
brand, used for hosting VIP guests
while doubling up as Mr Pontroué’s
mobile office.
What attracted him away from Roger
Dubuis, where he was still working on
establishing a global footprint for the
brand? Size, it seems, mattered.
“Panerai is one of the key success
stories of the watch industry,” he says.
“It didn’t really exist when the group
[Richemont] took it over in 1997, andtoday it’s one of the top 20 brands in
the watch industry in terms of business
and development.”
Richemont does not report turnover
by brand and Mr Pontroué is tight-
lipped when invited to qualify his
statement. The Swiss investment bank
Vontobel’s 2018 estimates place it just
inside thatranking with turnover of
SFr435m ($445m), not far short of
Richemont stablemate Vacheron
Constantin.
Mr Pontroué also says he was
attracted by the idea of working with
two of watchmaking’s most easily
identifiable designs: Radiomir, first
seen in 1936, and Luminor, introduced
in 1950. “Many brands want a
recognisable product like these,” he
says. “It makes life much easier than
when you don’t [have them].”
In that vein, Panerai launched a trio
of limited-edition Luminor
Submersible models earlier this year,
sold as a package with exclusive client
experiences. One will send buyers to
the Arctic, another diving in Tahiti,
and a third training with an elite unit in
the Italian Navy — Mr Pontroué claims
his customers will be the first civilians
to swim, dive, shoot and crawl
alongside the division’s Comsubin
commandos. Adventurous buyers can
pick up the latter package for£34,800
($45,150). “You have to think about
how can you make it fun, without
people suffering,” he muses.
“This experience facet is to support
Submersible, because I don’t want to
build a travel agency,” he continues.
Until now, Submersible had been a
Luminor sub-category, but this year he
split it out to give Panerai a fourth
product line, alongside Radiomir,Luminor and the slimline Luminor
Dué. The limited-edition watches were
“the easiest programme to sell this
year” and had sold through to retailers
even before they were shown at
Geneva’s SIHH watch fair in January.
Next year, he has plans to introduce
a further six limited-edition watches
tied to experiences, one of which will
be specifically for the UK market.
Another will be with the star Indian
cricketer MS Dhoni in a bid to “get a
head start” in theincreasingly affluent
country, where Panerai currently has
just three points of sale.
He concedes that these experiences
will not necessarily boost turnover
directly. “This year, we will sell 67
watches thanks to the experiences,” he
says. “That won’t change the life of
Panerai or Richemont. But in terms of
brand exposure, it’s the best campaign
we’ve had in years.”
Products sold with experiences are
increasingly common across the luxury
industry, but Mr Pontroué says the idea
was inspired by a project at Roger
Dubuis when the company created a
unique tourbillon watch for the
Emirates Foundation, an Abu Dhabi
philanthropic initiative. It was
advertised on Emirates aircraft for six
months, which he says reached 27m
people. Passengers were encouraged to
make a bid in excess of $280,000.
He says it attracted 50 bids and later
sold for $400,000 to a Kuwaiti
passenger, who was flown first class to
the company’s Geneva headquarters to
receive his watch. “It gave us an
indicator there is a sleeping demand
for these experiences,” he adds.
Mr Pontroué believes he is
pioneering sustainability in
watchmaking too, an area that a
growing cohort of luxury watch brands
are now experimenting with, including
Oris and Carl F. Bucherer. This year
Panerai introduced a watch with a case,
strap and packaging made entirely
from recycled materials.“But that was only 20 per cent of
the value of the watch,” he says,
pointing to the higher cost of
mechanical movements, which Panerai
now makes in-house.
“Next year, we’ll add more elements,
so we reach 40 per cent [of the value].
My idea is to grow this and one day bethe first brand to reach a 100 per cent
recycled watch.”
He expects it will take at least five
years to get to a point where 80-100
per cent of a watch will be made of
recycled materials, but insists: “We
strongly believe people will pay much
more attention to this in the future.”How client experiences
can win brand exposure
InterviewJean-Marc
PontrouéPanerai’s
chief explores novel
ways to package its
offering, writes
Robin Swithinbank
‘My idea is to grow this and
one day be the first brand
to reach a 100 per centrecycled watch’
‘There is a sleeping demand for these
experiences’ — Jean-Marc Pontroué
PaneraiW
omen buy and wear
more fine jewellery than
men, yet it is the latter
who havecommanded
the industry behind the
scenes,withbrandslikeHarryWinston,
Tiffany and Cartier all founded and led
bymen.
A handful of high jewellery maisons
have broken this mould and placed a
woman in the top spot in recent years,
however.
“How do we relate to the world as it is
today? How do we talk to women and to
new generations?” Céline Assimon
recounts early discussions she had with
the board of De Grisogono, the Swissjewellery brand that shehas led since
January.She is the first female chief
executiveinits26-yearhistory.
The board had decided to combine
the roles of creative director and chief
executive. Ms Assimon, the former
Louis Vuitton global head of high jewel-
lery and latterly a Piaget director,
replaced founder and de facto creative
director, Fawaz Gruosi — a man’s man
who was often on the red carpet flanked
by supermodels and who threw splashy,
celebrity-filled parties at Cannes — and
itschiefexecutiveJohnLeitao.
The success of some of the world’s
most recognisable maisons suggests
that having a man at the helm does no
harm —Tiffany & Co, led by Alessandro
Bogliolo, reported net sales of$4.4bn ni
2018 and last month the French luxury
group LVMH made a $14.9bn bid for the
brand — but De Grisogono’s appoint-
ment of Ms Assimon was an effort to
bring the maison closer to its growing
femaleclientele.
How to connect with this group was,
shesays,“oneofthefirstdiscussionstheboard had with me when I was
approachedtotakeonthebrand”.
Others have had similar thoughts. At
Richemont — the Swiss group that owns
a clutch of jewellery brands including
Cartier — Catherine Rénier was last year
appointed chief executive of Jaeger-Le-
Coultre, while in 2017 Chabi Nouri took
the top role at Piaget. A year earlier,
Richemont’s chairman Johann Rupert
had said he wanted to see “less grey
men, and less grey French men” in sen-
ior roles in the jewellery industry. Ms
Nouri replaced Philippe Léopold-
Metzger,whohadledPiagetfor18years.
Over at French luxury group Kering,
HélènePoulit-Duquesnewasmadechief
executive at Boucheron in 2015.She
says being female provides many
advantages in leading the brand. “Being
awomanhelpsusunderstandbetterthe
needs of our clients,” says Ms Poulit-
Duquesne.
The jewellery industry is changing —
youngerwomenareincreasinglybuying
jewellery for themselves,according to
De Beers data— and one way for mai-sons to better understand the customer
istohireleadersintheirclients’image.
“Purchases used to be led by gentle-
men, but we’re seeing more young
women buying jewellery,” says De Gri-
sogono’sMsAssimon.
Boucheron’s Ms Poulit-Duquesne
agrees. “Women are becoming more
powerful and autonomous,” she says.
“We see more young entrepreneurs
buying expensive pieces for them-
selves.”
And in this context a woman-led
brand could have an edge. “The advan-
tageIhaveoveramaleCEOisthatIwear
the product, I test drive the jewellery
every day,” Ms Assimon says. “The jew-
ellery has to follow me throughout my
day — being a mother, running a com-
pany,travelling.”
One significant change she has made
since taking over De Grisogono is to
make the pieces lighter, she explains,
switching metals from silver and gold to
titanium and aluminium. “Jewellery
should be as considered as our footwear
choices in that we don’t want to be inpain at the end of the day. Comfort is
key.”
Ms Poulit-Duquesne says sheroad-
tests Boucheron’s pieces, too. “We
always try the products to put ourselves
in the shoes of our clients who will wear
thejewellery.”
A female perspective among the top
brass has also led to the rise in more
fashion-forward fine jewellery, from
broochestoheadbandsandearcuffs.
It is also shifting the way such pieces
are marketed.De Grisogono recently
launched an advertising campaign that
is more lifestyle focused, says Ms Assi-
mon,where chicly-dressed women are
shown in leather trenchcoats wearing
everydayjewels.
“Up until now, the jewellery was
showcased as still life on a white back-
ground. We’re now mixing our collec-
tions with one another on models in our
imagery, as no one wears one collection
only.Asajewellerybuyer,Iwanttoseeit
styled.”
Ms Poulit-Duquesne takes a similar
view. When designing the collections,she says, Boucheron’s creative director
Claire Choisneconsiders the outfits cli-
ents might wear pieces with. “We
believejewelsshouldbeworn,”shesays.
“Ajewelinasafeisadeadjewel.”
These jewellery maisons are also
updating their retail spaces to cater to a
growing female consumer base: stark or
intimidating interiors are being replace
withplush furnishings tocreate a softer,
morerelaxedenvironment.
Boucheron spent 18 months over-
hauling its boutique in Paris’s luxury
retail hub Place Vendôme. The store is
now replete with cosy sofas, a dining
room and private apartments where cli-
entscanstayandvisitthespa.
De Grisogono, too, will in timewill
reconfigure its retail spaces, Ms Assi-
mon says. “When I sit down with the
retail teams, the feedback is that 50 per
cent of our shoppers are now female,”
she says. “[For] our special orders — for
a headpiece, a transformable necklace
—100percent[are]femaleclients.”
“Really,” she adds, “the future is
female.”Female chiefs reflect maisons’ largest client base
StrategyAs more
women buy their own
jewellery, brands act in
bid to capture market,
writes Grace Cook
‘How do we talk to
women and to new
generations?’Céline Assimon
De Grisogono
‘The jewellery has
to follow me
throughout my day— being a mother,
running a company,travelling’
Hélène
Poulit-DuquesneBoucheron
Chabi Nouri
Piaget
Catherine Rénier
Jaeger-LeCoultre
NOVEMBER 9 2019 Section:Reports Time: 11/20196/ - 17:53 User: maxine.kelly Page Name:WJW8, Part,Page,Edition:WJW , 8, 1