In which field have you expended most energy since your arrival at the head of Blancpain in 2002?

Even through the organisation of all the departments had to be re-examined, we had to focus most of our efforts on logistic issues. Blancpain enjoyed strong growth in 2000 and its infrastructure had not kept pace. The entire computer system has been changed and the flows adjusted; we have had to recruit a certain number of staff members with profiles that were lacking, to handle the integration of our subsidiaries abroad, and naturally to ensure that this new set of elements operates in an efficient manner!

Have you found the personnel you were looking for in order to cope with the increase in your production?

2004 also concluded with double-digit growth, unfortunately hampered by our production capacity. We have already recruited and we are still looking for several people in Le Brassus, such as watchmakers and polishers, but we in parallel we are coming up against a saturation of the space available, a situation we are currently working to resolve. We are busy renovating our farm in Le Brassus which should be operational this summer to welcome the new personnel. It will be inaugurated at the end of September during the ceremonies to mark Blancpain’s 270th anniversary.

Have you managed to profit from your previous experience with the wine and cigar bar you set up?

Certainly, and indeed in several respects. To begin with, I profited from setting up a small enterprise with all that implies, particularly as regards recruiting and management, which are essential in the hospitality industry. Also, I have been able to observe a considerable similarity between these two types of customers: lovers of good cigars and of good wines sometimes turn out to be passionately interested in timepieces. For my part, it is once more all about sharing a passion and communicating values that are not that obvious. When it comes to exceptional wines and chronometers, it is largely the positioning of prices and the talk that goes with it all that determines whether the undertaking will finally prove a success.

Thanks to my work as a retailer, I have acquired a better understanding of their problems and this helps me to motivate and advise them in a judicious way.

What do you learn from the discussion forum and its moderators on your web-site?

These forums (such as ours and Time Zone, for example) give us two types of information: they may help us to quickly detect a dysfunctional element in our organisation or our product, and to react rapidly as was once the case in one of our subsidiaries. But above all they transmit the opinions of passionate watchmaking devotees, who I might call “horological freaks” in the best sense of the term. Their opinion counts. It is in fact a way of establishing and maintaining contact with extremely interesting people and collectors whom one can then invite to exclusive previews, for example. We thus have two moderators for our forum; I spend a lot of time on it myself, as well as the head of our PR department.

How are your 4 collections evolving and what proportion of sales do they respectively account for?

The growth we are experiencing affects all lines in a fairly balanced way. Between them, the two major Léman and Villeret collections account almost equally for around 80% of our sales, with a few variations according to geographical areas. We are also noting an increase in demand for complications within these two lines. The collection symbolising the “grand complications”, Le Brassus, is well established and ranks third. It cannot by definition grow very much. Then come the Specialities, with a more daring design. We plan to present an exceptional creation at the 270th anniversary, and half a dozen new models at Baselworld.

Between sports as varied as diving and horse-riding, art, the Monaco Yacht Show and charitable organisations, what is your target public and how are these communication themes defined?

These operations are first and foremost part of the Blancpain philosophy, characterised by the quest for excellence. Our faithful clientele is consistently in search of aesthetic elegance and respect for traditions, values with which we can identify. The ties binding us to the Monaco Yacht Show and to Prince Albert are a natural part of this approach, and this extremely upmarket sailing show is an excellent match for Blancpain. As far as equestrian sports are concerned, Blancpain is mainly associated with thoroughbred Arabian horse competitions, which symbolise the quest for beauty by preserving the most prestigious types of lineage. As for diving, it is exclusively linked to the historical Fifty Fathoms model and we are not associated with the sport as such, even though I personally enjoy it very much! As far as charities are concerned, we are not the only ones to contribute to such work and I work on the principle that one should never hesitate to do good whenever possible. On a more general level, we are looking at the creation of a new advertising campaign and I would like to go off the beaten track. I do not wish to involve our ambassadors, since these personalities are friends of Blancpain who participate in our events and I am simply happy when they feel the desire to do so.