Zenith, alongside other LVMH brands, chose to unveil its latest watches and news about the brand in an online, one-week event, through a mix of digital and physical presentations and one-to-one meetings in 15 countries. “Day & Night” caught up with Julien Tornare – CEO, Zenith – to learn more about its new launches and brand strategy…
Last year was the anniversary of the El Primero movement; how important is El Primero for Zenith?
It is super-important; when I came on board, I was frequently asked “Is El Primero a strength or a weakness for the brand?” I, of course, think it is a strength. How many brands could dream of having such a legendary movement? Something that is considered as the best chronograph in the world, the only movement that remained as it is over all these years. Most movements evolve, or change over the years, they discontinue or bring in new ones. We have kept it as is over these many years; it is definitely a great asset.
You would not kill a great asset like that just for the brand and other models to shine, and to occupy centre-stage. For me, the issue of Zenith that we need to improve and have been improving is the awareness of the brand, our models, and the desirability of the brand. El Primero is a big strength for us; many brands would kill to have such a movement as an asset. I think it is fantastic, but we have to work on the rest of the brand.
What about the future of El Primero movement?
El Primero has been the same since the beginning with the Calibre 400; now we are launching in the Chronomaster Sport, the Calibre 3600, which is very similar to the Calibre 400 but with minor differences. But it is an evolution and it will continue to evolve. For instance, in this version, we worked on the reliability, durability, and efficiency of the movement. We also worked on the modularity, because if we want to add complicated models on this one in the future, we can. On the older El Primero, it is not so easy to do. We have also improved the power reserve from 50 hours to 60 hours, and so on; and there will be more.
Is the movement thinner as you might add more complications on it later?
We could not make it much thinner as it was already thin. The Chronomaster Sport has a diameter of 41mm, and is 13.6mm thick; a very reasonable thickness – I would say the thinnest automatic chronograph. We will be able to add modules on it; it will of course be bigger and thicker, but we can add them and that is an advantage.
Can you tell us about the Icons project?
Icons is a great project; when we launched the Revival during the 50th anniversary celebrations of El Primero, I could see the vibe for vintage watches increasing. At the same time, the value of Zenith watches was steadily going up at auctions. We are reaching really high prices at auctions. I realised that there is something strong about the brand. There are very few brands today that can enter the auction business successfully. But for us, it is not difficult.
I thought about how we can offer something different to our clients and I realised that many people buying watches (of many brands) in the secondary market or at auctions are not always happy with what they buy. Sometimes the price is high, the movement has been modified, some parts are not genuine, it is not working, and so on. There is a bit of uncertainty.
We decided to work on 12-15 iconic references produced by Zenith in the 1960s, 70s and the 80s, in a programme called Zenith Icons. In this, we basically acquire back watches from those years, we restore them – we have two dedicated restoration watchmakers in our manufacture. We never touch the outside because collectors want to retain traces of the past, patina and so on.
But on the inside, we check everything. We are the only entity in the world that can have every single spare part from day one. If you bring me a watch from 1968, I can repair it and renovate it with the original parts; that is important. We do this, we give a certificate, we guarantee it for 2 years, we give you a booklet with a history of the watch, and we sell it in our boutiques only.
This is a very ‘cool’ programme because you benefit from the guarantee of the brand and you get all relevant information. When you have these watches in your boutique, you also use them to communicate. If I showed you a few watches from 1965 or from 1980, and I have the Chronomaster Sport next to it; I can say “Look at this Chronomaster, which has evolved from these watches!” It is a great communication tool, and a great way to work in, in the long term, what I call ‘brand equity’. My job is to build the brand for the long term; I want to make the brand very, very strong and this is a good programme for that.
Additionally, this is very meaningful for young people as we all talk about sustainability, transmission, circular economy – Icons ticks all of that. When you buy a Zenith Icons, the watch has already had 4, 5 or 10 lives. You are the new owner and you give the watch another life, another experience. This is exactly why young people are buying vintage; because they buy something that is used, and has already had some lives. I like it because it is a great talking point about values.
When we produce a new watch, the watch is going to live forever. How many objects will still be here in 300 years? You and I will not be here; but if you have a watchmaker who can put some oil and regulate the watch, it will still be in a good condition in 400 years. We build timepieces that will be here forever. It is a very important angle of communication for the younger generation.
When did you come up with the idea of re-launching the Chronomaster Sport? How long did the project take? Did you originally plan it at that price point?
We decided on it in mid-2018, when planning the 2019 anniversary celebrations of El Primero. I knew we would celebrate the anniversary in 2019 and in 2020 I wanted to come back with a very clear strategy on the Chronomaster, which means Revival, the Classic line, and the Sport.
The Chronomaster will be the second pillar, next to Defy – both will have the same weight and importance in the brand philosophy. In the Chronomaster line, we have the Chronomaster Revival, Chronomaster Classic and the Chronomaster Sport. In the Defy line, we have the Classic – with three hands, the Defy Midnight, and then we have all the things around the chronometry, the Defy 21, and a new one coming soon, and of course the high complications. It is very simple now; we are organised with two big product lines. The Pilot and Elite lines are important but more tactical.
As for the price range, Zenith has always been within CHF 7,000 to CHF 15,000; I wanted it to be CHF 10,000, and it is.
Did you originally plan to debut the Chronomaster Sport during the 50th anniversary of El Primero?
No, it was planned in the footsteps of the anniversary, which means 2020. It was supposed to come out in June 2020; it was in May 2020, at the last minute, that I decided not to go ahead with the launch as I felt it was not the right environment. I decided to keep the Chronomaster Sport, Chronomaster Revival A385, and the Defy 21 Urban Jungle for this year; originally all three were supposed to have been launched in 2020.
How has the reaction for the watch been – in terms of sales, pre-orders and people’s reactions?
I have never had such a great reaction earlier, not even when I was working with Vacheron Constantin. We launched on a Thursday night around midnight, and the next morning at 6am when I looked at my emails, I had tons of emails from two regions – Asia and from the US West Coast. My main retailer in Singapore texted me to ship him as many I could, because he had already pre-sold 33 pieces. I first thought he was joking, but as the hours passed, I realised we had something very strong. People from all over – from Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Asia, and Middle East – were calling for shipments. Our Dubai retailer called to say that they were sold out quickly; it has been super crazy.
Does this scare you?
No, I am very happy because we all went through a very difficult 2020 – physically, mentally and psychologically. We had been working very hard at Zenith for 3 years, and this has been a big reward for everyone. Everyone is very happy; all our branch managers have been very excited and happy, and colleagues from other brands, such as Rolex, Patek Philippe, have been calling to congratulate us. It is a major accomplishment, but we are not done; we will build on this.
Will you be able to meet the demand?
Not immediately, but we will grow and develop. We will increase the production, but 2021 will be very tough. The demand is three times what we have in the pipeline; we need to speed up and there will be more deliveries by the end of the year.
