Richemont’s Specialist Watchmaking maisons – A. Lange & Söhne, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Piaget, Roger Dubuis, and Vacheron Constantin – hosted “Experience Time” – a cultural interactive experience that aimed to shed a stronger light on the watchmaking industry in the Middle East. The Dubai edition of Experience Time ran from December 8 to 12, across the maisons’ flagship boutiques in The Dubai Mall. We speak to Michael Guenoun, Richemont’s International Distribution Director of the Specialist Watchmaker division, and architect of Experience Time
Why did Richemont organise the Experience Time event? And what was the reasoning behind bringing all the SWM brands together under one umbrella?
Our Maisons across the globe are continuously pushing the boundaries of luxury watchmaking to allow our clients to immerse into the heritage and the innovations of our Maisons in the most qualitative way. This is translated in the most recent event held in Dubai, as we provided our clients the opportunity to discover our ancestral know-how, craftsmanship and services through tailored and interactive activations.
Through Experience Time, for the first time in Dubai, our Watchmaking Maisons were able to bring together a week filled with exciting activations. Clients were able to digitally register for the multiple events our Maisons were offering. For example, they could attend a watchmaking class with the exclusive Maisons such as A. Lange and Söhne and Roger Dubuis; or discover the metaverse through a special event at the IWC Boutique. Jaeger-LeCoultre proposed a workshop on the technique of perlage; while Piaget organised a craftmanship exhibition; and Panerai and Vacheron Constantin developed interactive activities linked to the beauty of straps and personalisation.
The launch in Dubai actually follows a first edition launched in Geneva, however we were determined to make sure it is adapted to the market needs, taking into consideration the input of our partners, Maisons and of course clients.
How did the idea of Experience Time start?
In 2021, following the difficult years of the pandemic, we wanted to once again bring life and excitement to Geneva, the capital and heart of watchmaking. We started by bringing together animations across each of our Watch Boutiques. For the first time in Geneva, our clients could browse across our Boutiques, were welcomed across a full week with special activations and experiences to fall in love all over again with our beautiful Maisons and creations.
We realised that by grouping and aligning the calendars of the activations on one specific week, we were able to drive much more interest and traffic compared to individual brand activations. We noticed new unexpected synergies across our Maisons – and through an easy-to-use digital platform, we were able to create a seamless journey of discovery of the watch industry for both our known watch aficionados and for those with curiosity to explore this world further.
The Specialist Watchmaking Maisons cater for different clients; was it difficult to organise the communications so that they are all on the same track?
Each brand has its individual strategy – their own territories, their own expressions, and their own creations. This is fully reflected in the variety of experiences developed by each brand. This does not mean that it will prevent the customer from discovering the other brands. This was all part of it; that all of us communicate at the same time, creating events that can address a wider audience and also facilitate cross-discovery, from one brand to another. Each brand is communicating individually and promoting individually yet, at the same time, making a collective impact and increasing visibility.
While the first Experience Time happened in Geneva, the second one is now in Dubai; will each edition of Experience Time occur in a different country?
From the very strong positive response we got in both Geneva and Dubai, we are thinking of expanding this to the other major cities of the world. The need to interest new audiences is critical and we see that in Dubai, as we had a lot of new customers who are new to the watch industry, which was very promising. We are also communicating a bit differently, catering to our local audience, which positively contributed to the success of the event. We are definitely considering extending this to other parts of the world, but will have to think about where, and at what intervals.
