“Day & Night” magazine spoke to Jean Christophe Babin – CEO of Bvlgari during the recently concluded Geneva Watch Days that took place in Geneva, August 30 to September 3, 2021. Read on to understand his views on Geneva Watch Days and its future, how Bvlgari is able to offer a WorldTimer at such an aggressive price point, and about the new Gerald Genta Retrograde watch with Mickey Mouse…
Can you tell us about Bvlgari at Geneva Watch Days 2021?
The second edition of Geneva Watch Days (GWD) is bigger and better than last year. We have 25 brands, 250 media, and 200 retailers present in Geneva. GWD is becoming the Hollywood of the watch industry, because of the concept itself and it is the right time. It is ahead of Chinese Golden Week, of the Indian festival of Diwali, Christmas and the Chinese New Year.
It is now decentralised, and the brands are free to pick a location in the city, where they can welcome their guests. Bvlgari is doing it at the Ritz-Carlton, some brands are doing it at their manufacture, while some others are hosting it at their flagship boutiques.
It is not only about product; it is a lot about watches and culture. Every day, we have a couple of webinars that are live-streamed for watch afficionados and we are surrounded by the art of watchmaking. We also invited Beatrice Venezi – the youngest orchestra director in the world – to deliver a couple of concerts to our guests.
Last but not least, it is extremely cost-efficient, as we can welcome our guests in great comfort without investing tons of money. All the brands are pooling together our internal resources and this is creating a nice sense of collective belonging, not only to a brand but to a community – the Swiss watch industry.
What is the future for Watch Days? Is it always going to be in August, and always in Geneva?
For LVMH Watch Days, the city is yet to be decided; we believe that it is important in January to have a first watch event, together with our sister brands from the group. We will be in Geneva in April; not necessarily with Watches & Wonders, but at the same time as the event. We most probably will have the third edition of Geneva Watch Days in August 2022. One day perhaps GWD will also be exported to other countries. We could have GWD in Dubai, Beijing and New York. We believe that GWD is becoming a strong brand, with its own franchise, and it is the right format for the future for watch exhibitions.
Why is Bvlgari using an integrated movement for the Octo Roma WorldTimer? Isn’t it extremely expensive to create an integrated movement for just one watch?
Bvlgari has acquired a lot of knowledge over the past 20 years on complicated movements and not just on chiming watches or minute repeaters. Thanks to that, today we can develop this kind of complication. The cost is reasonable as demonstrated by the retail price, which is CHF8,000. You need to just set the home time to – for instance – Dubai, which just takes a few seconds, and then immediately, you can read the time in all the other cities versus the time in Dubai. We believe that luxury watches should offer very good value for money. It does not mean it is cheap, but what you get for that price is very good value. We have two versions in the WorldTimer: one in stainless steel and one in DLC, so that it appeals to a broad group of clients – steel for the traditional clients and black DLC for the younger, urbane ones.
How is Bvlgari able to offer complications in the Octo Finissimo and Octo Roma at such aggressive pricing?
There are two reasons: Most of the components are crafted internally; we manufacture our cases and all our movements, except for the quartz movements. All the assembling is also done internally, so this provides us with a cost advantage because we don’t have to give a margin to an external supplier.
Because we are doing everything internally, we do not have to work or wait for the supplier’s schedule. It is our own workshop with our people, and we can schedule production accordingly. We have plenty of time for product development and to market the product. We also gain a lot of time for replenishing our supplies. Downstream, most of our watches are sold in our boutiques, and so we know what exactly is selling a lot, what is selling averagely and what is not selling well. We are able to fine-tune our production plans accordingly, and can maintain a low inventory, which is another cost-advantage. Inventory, of course, is cash-consuming and if we maintain a low inventory and quick time-to-market, we can be pretty profitable. Because of all of this, we derive a good gross margin despite offering an absolute price that is very reasonable.
Until recently, Bvlgari has been pushing the Octo Finissimo, and now the focus is on Octo Roma; do both these lines target the same clientele or do they differ?
Octo Roma is not a thin watch; it is a more classical style when it comes to dimensioning. It is 41mm, with a caseband that is more familiar. Octo Roma is more mainstream in terms of construction. Regardless of the WorldTimer, Solotempo, or the Central Tourbillon Papillon, it is naturally mainstream because it is not ultra-slim. Conversely, the Finissimo because it is record-thin, is considered more of a second watch or a third one by watch lovers. Usually, the main watch is a thick one, probably in gold or steel; it is rarely in titanium. Finissimo is mostly in titanium, and is usually bought by watch lovers who already have several beautiful watches. Octo Roma or the Solotempo can easily be your first luxury watch; Solotempo costs around CHF5,800, the WorldTimer in steel around CHF8,000. So, the Octo Roma and the Finissimo actually complement each other.
Can you tell us about the Gerald Genta Arena Retrograde with smiling Disney Mickey Mouse watch?
We had the historical collaboration between Genta and Walt Disney, so that was the starting point. We now want to present Genta as a niche brand and not as just another Bvlgari brand. That is why all the new Genta watches come in an Arena case; we believe that this case is iconic and totally unique, and is easily recognisable in the industry as is the retrograde movement. The Gerald Genta Arena Retrograde meets those criteria. Instead of using regular hands, we are using a world-famous character Mickey Mouse to indicate the minutes; when his hands reach 60, they happily swing back to zero. We have completely redesigned the dimensions, case, and the movement from the old one.
Bvlgari has decided we will not use the retrograde movement in Bvlgari watches, but exclusively only on the Genta watches so that combined with the Arena case, Genta watches will have their own organic character very different from Bvlgari, even though everything is manufactured by Bvlgari. This is not a one-off collaboration; we started with Mickey Mouse because he is the most popular Disney character, but he will be joined by other characters so that we have the full-fledged Walt Disney collection in Genta watches.
