VANITY FAIR ON TIMEand concentrate. You can’t drift off for a second because that’s
the difference between winning and losing. Plus the fresh
air and just enjoying the moment,” he says. When Harrison
spoke to Vanity Fair he was preparing for the biennial Fastnet
Race, a 608-nautical mile competition that runs from Cowes
to Plymouth via Ireland.
But not all CEOs feel compelled to race. Omega’s head
honcho Raynald Aeschlimann takes a positively chic and
relaxed approach. “Business is competitive enough,” he says.
“Sailing for me is about relaxation and enjoying nature.” His
ideal day at sea is “a good 15-knots wind and a blue sky...
island-hopping on a large catamaran, with a lot of space and
room to relax”—and a rubber-strap Omega Seamaster Diver
300M. Harrison found his true ocean calling as an 18-year-old
windsurfer-cum-Harrods salesperson. “In those days it was
quite civilised, and we closed at five o’clock. I could get back to
my flat on the King’s Road, get my windsurfer and be down on
the south coast by six-thirty. You could windsurf until nine or
ten o’clock at night in summer, then pack everything up, pub
dinner on the way home and back in London by midnight.”E
arly sea legs seem to be something
of a theme among watch skipper
CEOs. Hamilton’s Sylvain Dolla
grew up sailing a Hobie Cat in St. Tropez,
and today can be spotted, twice a year,
on a Hanse 345 in La Rochelle, sportinga Hamilton Khaki Navy Scuba Auto. Nicola Andreatta of
Roger Dubuis grew up on Lake Como, and, as soon as he
got his driving licence, was up at 4am to windsurf in nearby
Valmadrera. “You were going from stars to the shining sun,”
he remembers. “It was very poetic and an amazing sensation
to windsurf in that kind of landscape. You feel so powerful
being in charge. It’s basically you against nature.”
Andreatta is something of a water-sport junkie: he also sails,
wakeboards, surfs and has his scuba certification. In the late
1990s he was part of a crew on a Swan 44, a 1973 Sparkman
& Stephens-designed beauty which won three World Cups.
Not satisfied, he joined the crew on a Swan 45, taking home
another world championship in 2005. He concedes that Roger
Dubuis is not linked particularly with aquatic sports: “But all
these water sports I mention are generators of adrenalin. And
Roger Dubuis is all about adrenalin and emotions. This is how
I connect with the brand that I’m managing.”
Sailing may be synonymous with Panerai—it even owns
the gorgeous Eilean, a 1936 two-masted classic ketch lovingly
restored in Tuscany—but for CEO Jean-Marc Pontroué, his
aquatic sport of choice is waterskiing, and his watch of choice
a rubber-strap Carbotech. “You have the impression of the
freedom of winter skiing, but you’re on the water. It’s a highly
demanding sport but, unlike winter skiing, it’s simultaneously
painful in the legs and arms. But once you are up, it’s super
fun.” It can be pretty dangerous too, as Scheufele can
personally attest. An adept waterskier who only monoskied
in his day (“I liked going into the curves and jumping
the waves”), Scheufele has been left behind by the
boat on more than one occasion: once by his father
on Lake Geneva as dusk was setting in, and again
in the warmer waters of Kuwait by a client “who COURTESY OF PANERAI (PONTROUÉ, EILEAN)Jean-Marc Pontroué
Inset above: Fortunately for the watersport-
loving Panerai CEO, the brand owns the
stunning 1936 two-masted classic ketch,
Eilean. For waterskiing, Pontroué wears the
rubber-strap PAM960 Carbotech
Karl-Friedrich Scheufele
Below: The Chopard Mille Miglia Chronograph model
is the wrist accessory of choice for the brand’s co-president,
pictured on Ruboli II on Lake Geneva in 201974