Horological Meandering

Joepny
1970

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Dear Monsieur Rupert, there is another change you must make

As an admirer of many Richemont brands, a happy owner of Richemont creations, and a follower of watchmaking history, I am excited to hear that you will be announcing a new leader to replace Monsieur Kern in November.  May I be so bold to suggest that your thoughts do not pass over your crown jewel at Plan-des-Ouates and miss an opportunity to right the ship there.  You see, the glorious vessel - Vacheron Constantin - that has been in existence for over 260 years is lost in the competitive waters of true high-end watchmaking.  Vacheron Constantin needs an injection of creative energies and imagination that does not exist at Plan-des-Ouates.  Take a page from Monsieur Arnault when he appointed Marc Jacobs to be the creative director of Louis Vuitton - yes I know you dislike Arnault - but this is a delicious opportunity to provide your own answer to what he did.  Vacheron Constantin needs to be revitalized and it has to be done by an outsider.  There are a few creative talents that you may have heard about from casual conversation -- Romain Gauthier, Bart & Tim Gronefeld, and Rexhep Rexhepi.  The financial statements may show you that VC operations are profitable after the economic challenges of the past 2+ years.  But Vacheron Constantin's profitability cannot hide the weakness that is an open secret:  there is a lack of a powerful imagination manifested in VC's offerings.

Ignore the rote platitudes from the watch bloggers and the watch consultants whenever a new VC watch is released.  For the love of all that is good, ignore Hdinky because they played VC like a fox guarding the hen house.  Ignore the showmanship of the one-off Les Cabinotiers pieces; we all understand those are academic exercises for industry bragging rights.  There is a straigthforward test that you can send an underling to make:  go to Gubelin or Bucherer in Geneva; find 5 clients in various age groups who are actively looking to buy haut de gamme watches but have not made up their minds & do not own a VC watch; put a Vacheron Constantin offering in front of them with comparable offerings from A. Lange & Sohne, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and an independent (depending on the category for example Chopard or Kari Voutilanien or Richard Mille or FP Journe); ask the client to rank in order of which he/she would purchase; tally where Vacheron Constantin falls in the rankings; repeat this exercise in your major cities like London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Hong Kong, & Shanghai.  (Now your underling cannot cheat and just always look for the Asian clients because yes, we're aware that Vacheron Constantin is still very strong in many parts of Asia.)

What am I getting at:  well let's start with minute repeaters, rank VC's vs. PP vs. AP vs. FPJ vs. Chopard; let's rank tourbillons:  VC vs. ALS vs. PP vs. AP; let's rank perpetual calendar chronographs:  VC vs. ALS vs. PP; let's rank world timers:  VC vs. PP vs. Chopard; let's rank dress chronographs:  VC vs. ALS vs. PP; let's rank annual calendars: VC vs. ALS vs. PP; let's rank sporty chronographs:  VC vs. PP vs. AP vs. RM; let's rank dress time & date watches:  VC vs. PP vs. KV vs. Chopard; let's rank metier d'arts watches:  VC vs. KV vs. Chopard.  We can give credit to the current staff at VC for producing a few handsome offerings that may be near the top of the list in one or two categories.  But you will see that VC lags behind in more categories than in those where it is a top-2 leader.  It's time for a change.  The tradition of Vacheron Constantin is elegant classicism, but elegant classicism does not preclude creativity, excitement and ingenuity.  Cramming dozens of complications into a one-off giant watch is not convincing enough in the today's marketplace.

If you want to see creativity, excitement & ingenuity, let's go back to the gentlemen we mentioned Messieurs Gauthier, Gronefeld, et Rexhepi.  Look at what they've done.  Hire one of them and make them the creative/design watchmaking head of Vacheron Constantin.  I suspect not one of them will want to leave his current job without a great deal of arm-twisting/convincing.  Let them keep their independent business.  Throw wild and crazy money/business arrangement/opportunities at them.  Get the 260+-year-old ship back under the hands of a true creative talent; the seas are furiously rough and your competitors are far ahead in the horizon.

Best,
Not a watch blogger who wants a single thing from you


P.S.:  Tell Monsieur Schmid to stop promoting his own self-brand and focus on his job:  A. Lange & Sohne.  This message has been edited by foversta on 2017-10-09 12:28:59