A Few Minutes with Jean-Claude Biver
Every so often, there are individuals who come along and change everything. Some are revolutionaries – creating something completely different. Some are visionaries – seeing something in a way that no one has before. And sometimes in a very few instances, a person comes along who is both – and it turns out he’s a pretty nice guy, too! Jean-Claude Biver was kind enough to spare me a few minutes this past week.
James Henderson – What was your first watch? Was it a gift? Is there a story behind it?
Jean-Claude Biver – It was an Omega Constellation from 1958 offered by my grandfather for my first communion. In our countries in Europe it was a kind of tradition in the catholic families that the grandfather offers a watch to his grand child for the day he goes to church for his first communion.
JH – Why watches – being that your family originally came from Luxembourg, and that you were a business school graduate – why not banking, pharmaceuticals – or given your gift for languages and people skills even politics?
JCB – I was always fascinated by watches. A mechanical watch takes me back to the steam machine that I played with when I was a young boy. Now watches are my toys. There is nothing better than to work in something that you are passionate about. You never get the feeling that it is work! And that makes life much easier, much more pleasant and more comfortable.
JH – If you weren’t doing what you are doing now, what other job could you see yourself doing?
JCB – My job is my passion, and I cannot imagine for one-second not having my passion as my work. So if I was not working with watches, it could be cheese or wine. I am already making about 5’000 kilograms of cheese at my farm and we are known for making one of the better – if not the best cheeses in Switzerland.
JH – In light of all of your success, I have to ask – have you ever had a watch launch that did not go “exactly as planned”?
JCB – Many things didn’t work out exactly as we had thought they would, but you always learn through defeats or mistakes. Each failure, each mistake has to be identified, recognized and quickly corrected. You will then realize that the mistake and failure helped you to climb the steps that are leading to success.
JH – For many of us, it seems that you are a bit of an horological alchemist – what you touch seems to turn to gold. Your track record with Blancpain, Omega and Hublot seems to be the work of at least five top watch executives, not just one! This is clearly more than luck. So at the “Jean Claude Biver school of Watch Executive Excellence” – what would three best practices be?
JCB – First of all it is HARD WORK, HARD WORK, HARD WORK! In addition you need creativity, vision and a lot of help from your people, your suppliers and your customers. And last but not least you need to be spared bad luck.
JH – Okay, on a different note, like you, I am also an avid cyclist – so steel or carbon fiber?
JCB – Carbon, because I have to save some weight were I can do it easily (easier for me to buy an ultra light bike than to loose a few kg….). So for me it is carbon because I love high technology, and I also love new materials. And finally I believe that a bike is more than a bike. It is also a high tech machine, and I love high tech machines.
JH – Any thoughts of sponsoring a football club or a cycling team?
JCB – We are already the Official Timekeeper of the next Euro 2012, the next World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and Official Timekeeper of the legendary team of Manchester United. Therefore, we see no need and no sense to extend our activities in Football. We do not consider entering cycling as we cannot be active in every sport.
JH – Of all of the famous folks from the world of sports, entertainment and business – who made the greatest impression upon you?
JCB – In sport as an individual Andy Schleck, because I realize what it means climbing 3 or 5 summits and riding the Tour de France. As a businessman certainly Steve Jobs for his creative genious and as a team the Spanish Football Team. They play the most modern and sophisticated football today.
JH – You more than anyone – with perhaps the exception of Mr. Hayek Sr. resurrected the Swiss watch industry. What made you set your sites on Blancpain in the first place? There were, to be sure, several other options out there – why Blancpain?
JCB – There were a few reasons. Blancpain was the oldest watch brand in the world and we could buy it for less than $20,000. Blancpain had gone out of business some 20 years before we bought the name. I believed that it was right to use the oldest watch brand in the world to give rebirth to traditional watchmaking.
JH – Who else out there is making watches that excite you?
JCB – I love Patek Philippe and I am not only a great admirer but also a avid collector of their pieces. It is a collection that I have assembled mainly for my children. Most of the pieces of this collection are “museum pieces” and of course I never wear them, but look at them with my children at home
JH – In the private world of Swiss watchmaking, you have a reputation as one of the friendliest and outgoing people around. This seems somewhat contradictory in the watch business. Has this always been your way of doing business?
JCB – I have three commands in both my private life and of course my business life -1. Respect2. Sharing3. Forgiving.When you live and respect these three commands, you are guided by love. Because love means respect, love means sharing and love means forgiving.
JH – Was there ever a moment back in the early days at Blancpain where you might have regretted your decision? Did you ever wake up in the early hours of the morning with your stomach “talking to you”?
JCB – No, I don’t remember having had any regrets, except for a certain time, the regret of having sold my brand. But if you ask me today what I would wish for me second life, I would want exactly the same as my actual life, 100% the same.
JH – So for your third act, and I ask this with all respect – why Hublot of all companies? As a football metaphor you could have signed with the watch making equivalent of Juventus, Real Madrid or Manchester United! Hublot was certainly under the radar of most of the watch press.
JCB – I wanted to start again in a “start up”. Anyone who has ever worked through the excitement, creativity, reactivity, vitality, dynamism, and emotion you get in a “start up” company will understand why before the end of my career I wanted to have this “start up” feeling again
JH – Your fashion style has changed a bit over the past few years – lately your suit jackets almost have the same drape of a lab coat – or dare I say it, a watch maker’s…as the son of a fashion designer I can’t help asking – any connection or significance?
JCB – No, it is probably the result of my age, which helps me in being more simple and modest. That’s the beauty of age – you become wiser.
A big thank you to Mr. Biver – and also to Hublot who kindly provided all of the photographs.
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