Jaeger-LeCoultre

patrick_y
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Great Interview; Super in-depth information!

This was a fantastic interview and I feel that I am becoming greatly more aware of the developments of the watch companies in Switzerland. Extremely extensive and informative.

So, there was a dinner that went along at this interview right? Who's going to tempt me with the photos? I hope I see the photos after I've already eaten so I don't feel too hungry.

However, I'm saddened and surprised by one thing. I was not aware that one of my favorite watchmakers had left Jaeger-LeCoultre; Eric Coudray, one of my favorite master-watchmakers from Jaeger-LeCoultre who had served JLC for many years and designed the Reverso Repetition Minutes (one of my favorite Reversos) and the Gyrotourbillon I - left Jaeger-LeCoultre? That's a big blow to me; I think it is equivalent to the surprise I had when Michael Schumacher left Formula 1; my naive question was "how can Formula 1 survive without Schumacher?" Today, I'm surprised that JLC has unfortunately lost one of its best Master Watchmakers; Sylvain Golay and Eric Coudray were (to me) the men I admired from Jaeger-LeCoultre. I have always loved Jaeger-LeCoultre and it was my personal favorite for ten years; and to me, Sylvain Golay and Eric Coudray played a big part in my appreciation for it. Lastly, it seems that Monseiur Coudray left on unhappy terms, I can only wish him the best in his future occupation. I hope Sylvain Golay still works at JLC.

Regarding Question #9, permit me to make my own one-sided comment; I wonder, what is JLC doing to instill more value into its watches? A return to a more classic size? More classic materials? Less groundbreaking and less super-modern designs? I think JLC can learn a bit from its sister company Lange; Lange really has state of the art technology but in very traditional and conservative cases and dials and thus has a broad mass-market appeal, it only doesn't sell mass-market because of its price-point. Whereas JLC is constantly pushing the envelope in both technology and design but is trying to hit mass market appeal with - what I consider to be - a very niche market piece. Personally, I like Jerome Lambert, I think he is intelligent, young, and dynamic; I think he runs the JLC company in a very young dynamic way like Google or Apple; but I'm starting to wonder if the designs of the watches have become a product of that - the designs of the watch has become too young and too dynamic. Richard Mille watches are very nice very special dynamic watches; but I would argue that it's a niche market watch. I think some of the new JLCs are very similar to these Richard Mille watches but they're targeting too broad of a market. So, to sum this all up; what is JLC going to do to improve the value of the product? Personally, I'd like to see JLC focus on one particular product at a time instead of establishing so many new product lines in the past few years.

The ramblings above are from the naive mind of a person with little more than consumer context. I know I don't know the whole story, I'm just commenting based on the little I think I know. For all it's worth, it at least shows what one consumer is thinking and wondering.

A great interview and Amen, Long Life to the PuristS!