Ulysse Nardin's Odyssey of Innovation and Tradition with Francois-Xavier Hotier

Embark on an exclusive journey with Francois-Xavier Hotier, the esteemed president of Ulysse Nardin North America, as he unveils the heritage and innovation that propels the brand to the forefront of the watchmaking industry. From the genesis of the 1846 marine chronometers to the bold strides with the Freak watch revolution, FX illuminates the path that has secured Ulysse Nardin's place as a paragon of avant-garde luxury. His personal anecdotes within the horological world, leading up to his current stewardship, add a rich narrative to the already fascinating tale of precision and prestige.

Witness the harmonious dance between tradition and cutting-edge technology, where the mastery of the Classico collection and the daring spirit of the Freak S Nomad coexist. Ulysse Nardin's craftsmanship and the meticulous enamel dial-making at Donzé Cadrans stand as testaments to a brand that values engineering prowess over mere marketing. The episode peels back the layers to reveal how Ulysse Nardin's unwavering dedication to innovation has not only crafted a legacy but continues to drive the pulse of modern horology.

Finally, we address the pressing matters of sustainability and the significance of community in the watchmaking sphere. Discover Ulysse Nardin's commitment to an eco-conscious approach, forging partnerships with organizations like One More Wave to support disabled veterans. Reflecting on the importance of maintaining a passionate and innovative business culture, we delve into the ethos that transforms customers into ambassadors and shapes a team as cohesive and dedicated as the Navy SEALs. Join us for an insightful exploration of how Ulysse Nardin's timepieces are more than just instruments of time—they are harbingers of change and craftsmanship.

Check out Ulysse Nardin:
https://www.ulysse-nardin.com/usa_en/

Transcript

Blake Rea: 0:00

Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of Lonely Wrist. Today we have a very special guest, Francois-Xavier Othier.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 0:10

Codename FX.

Blake Rea: 0:13

We practice this. We practice this Hello everybody. And FX is the president of Ulysse Nardon, North America. Welcome, welcome.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 0:22

Thank you.

Blake Rea: 0:23

Yeah, north america, welcome, welcome, thank you. Yeah, walk us through the early days of un um and how we got until the modern powerhouse that you guys are, that I know and love uh, I love you say modern powerhouse, um, so, uh, let's split.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 0:38

Uh, you know we are on the world, uh, 178 years now. So let's speed the story in two parts, if you want. First part is 1846 and beginning of the 80s. Mr Nardin opens his workshop and it's really a family story of four generations becoming experts in chronometry, the famous marine chronometers. In the 80s, rolf Schneider, an entrepreneur, took over the company and, despite the quartz crisis and all the mess in our industry, he was very daring and he brought Ulysse Nardin into the world of high complications. So really shifting from marine chronometry to high complications. And you heard from marine chronometry to high complications. And you heard about our Ludwig perpetual calendar, our striker, chiming watches, astronomical watches, amazing years of really R&D.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 1:39

And then 2001,. Space Odyssey we bring the Freak, and the Freak is a total disruption of the industry. I think we'll talk a lot about the Freak. The Freak is the first super watch or, like Mr Schneider used to say, the first, I think, the first modern art in contemporary watchmaking, if you want no hands don't dial introducing silicon to the industry. And we are still at UN. We are still in the age of the freak, which is very R&D driven kind of a counter culture. I believe into watchmaking and also the freak is a defining moment for the manufacturer because it's the first super watch creating a trend of super brands. And I mean, before the Frick, a watch is flat with a dial.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 2:41

You know, and a rotor spinning behind, or maybe a tourbillon best case After the Frick. You see the birth of MB&F, you see Urwerk, you see Richard Mille. You see plenty of very daring people doing very crazy, crazy stuff. That's why we are still in this age and today, like for the last two years, we love to consider ourselves like an exclusive independent manufacturer twisting haute horlogerie since 1846. And we are an independent manufacturer after management buyout.

Blake Rea: 3:23

So it happened like two years ago now and that's, that's a that's an advantage in itself because, you know, most of these watch brands are a part of some conglomerate right, some big, you know big, uh, a big conglomerate there. They have all the control, the puppet masters right, and you guys can pretty much do whatever you want, right, with autonomy yeah, I mean, uh, to a degree, we, we are some kind of manufacturer of freedom.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 3:47

You know the way we work and I love, I love you say that, or you, you insist on that because, uh, it was the best pr story ever for this. Now, you know, we've been in family business entrepreneur with mr schne, we've been part of a caring group for a few years with a few other brands like Balenciaga, gucci, and it was not really our Saint Laurent, it was not really our world. And becoming independent again is bringing back all these collectors. You know all these collectors who are choosing Audemars, piguet, richard Mille Moser today, and BNF, et cetera. Now they see UN back to their world and it's an amazing hype we have around us. We are super excited, in fact, by being independent.

Justin Summers: 4:41

I'm curious, FX, could you share with us a bit of the journey of how you became the president of Americas for Ulysse Nodon or UNSB for US?

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 4:52

yes, thank you for asking. Listen, I'm like everybody and I think on your show you know, like when I was a kid, I love, I love watches. Type of you know. I remember my first KZO I love watches. Type of you know. I remember my first Casio. I was like a teenager, you know, the one with the solar panel. I was so stupid. I was like 11 or 12 years old, I was so stupid. I remember camping with the Boy Scouts and to make sure my watch has a lot of power, I put it in the sun and it totally exploded.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 5:22

This is the beginning of my watch journey and after I moved to mostly to mechanical watches always love watches. I think like at some point it came as a flash my dad coming back from the Gulf War, the first one his pilots offered him a Breitling. For me I was 16 years old probably at this time it was like a talisman on the wrist of my dad. This thing is precious more than a car or whatever. I still did a very different career Someday Patrick Pruneau, who owns Ulysse Nardin connecting the dots. Patrick Prenot gave me a phone call after a headhunter called me whatever and introduced me to Tyke Hoyer. I met Jean-Christophe Babin, now in Bulgaria. And you know, I was like this French boy who knew nothing about tagoyer, except steve mcqueen looking good with a monaco, and I thought, oh my god, if I move to tag, I will look good too. Um, and I got a monaco very fast, uh, and there's a story. So I went into tagoyer, I opened their subsidiary in russia Amazing market, a lot of fun.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 6:46

After I moved to Christian Dior it was LVMH. But while I was in LVMH, patrick called me back six years ago now, while he just started in Ulysse Nardin. I think he started on a Monday and he gave me a phone call on a Wednesday and said FX, I know you love watches, I know you love stories, I know you love to crack business case. There is one to crack, it's Ulysse Nardin in North America, are you interested? And I was like listen, I'm doing, I'm good, I'm in Paris, I'm in Christian Dior, it's amazing. But yes, that's cool. And a few weeks after that I told Dior that I would leave the company, move to Miami and got into East Nardone. That's the story. That's amazing.

Blake Rea: 7:36

It seems cool too because I guess, as my perception of you, east Nardone, you guys are much bigger in markets like Russia, you know, like Russia has a fascination for un? Um, in places like switzerland and germany, right, um, you guys are kind of catch, like america's kind of catching up in terms of the popularity from the brand, right, I mean a fair assessment for me, right um, like it's true, I, when I was living in Russia, I remember looking.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 8:07

I knew UN pretty well in fact Better than Patek Philippe, if you ask me Because you saw all the elite of the country having UN and sometimes people in the US ask me, like why UN has been so popular in Russia, for whatever reason. Everybody knows that. Of course it's before. Now we are not anymore in this market, but I think the reason is, of course there is an explanation it's big, it's gold, it's a bit cliche about the Russians, if you ask me, what I remember from Russia is customers could be extremely educated, especially in engineering, mathematics, astronomy and Ulysse Nardin.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 8:52

When many brands were doing 3N watches and best case scenario, if you want, ulysse Nardin was already pushing the agenda Ludwig, perpetual Calendar, astronomy, cold Watches, the Freak and the Russians they get high complications very well, they are super educated, engineer minded, uh group of people you know. So I'm killing the cliche of his big and chunky and his gold, full of gold in the time. Uh, I think one of the reasons was really it's a very intellectual brand, you see, and some of our customers, they wear this type of people, yeah, I mean, that makes a lot of sense.

Blake Rea: 9:31

Um, you already kind of touched on this, but I kind of want you to harp a little bit more on. You know, obviously, what do you feel like sets you in apart from other other luxury watchmakers? We talked about the autonomy, um, but in terms of of craftsmanship and philosophy, obviously we know you guys are pushing the envelope in terms of technical innovation, but from the horse's mouth, what do you think sets you in apart in terms of philosophy and craftsmanship?

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 10:02

I think you answer the question in your question. It's really an R&D-driven manufacturer, but it's also 170, it's almost a two-century-old manufacturer but still very R&D-driven. What you have to understand is that the mindset in Nulis Narnin is changing a little bit now. But it's really an engineering watchmaker mindset, not a commercial marketing mindset, if you want. And you see that in the history of marine chronometers it's because we mastered a law that our chronometers were so reliable at sea. High complications, the freak everything, sustainability, all of these aspects are R&D driven. So I think that sets us apart, being on one hand, a classic, two century old manufacturer but still being so future forward, and the other answer it's more a storytelling answer.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 11:07

Blake is I think there's a duality in Unis Narnia, a very it's like it's a duality, it's not like we mix, it's really a duality. One hand, if you look at who we are, our collections, our watches, simply you have the marine and the divers. There already is a spirit of exploration. You know this heritage of manufacturing marine chronometers for 55 navies. We did about 20,000 chronometers. We made an estimate it's about 200,000 miles of chronometers navigating around the planet. So this is one aspect of of at least not a duality, because the other aspect, with the blast, I've got the blast here. With the blast, or the Frick, it's very R&D, driven, like the Frick, I've got my, my vision here. It's like over 20 patents, you know, and these two worlds, heritage, pure future, pure high-tech. For me they live very well together and I guess that makes UN pretty unique.

Blake Rea: 12:23

Yeah, I mean there's not too many brands out there that chase like modern technological innovation, like you do, but are still grounded by like heritage, Like. So if you look at like the Marine or you look at that, even the diver, you know these are more traditional pieces, like traditional collections from you guys, the diver, not so much because you guys have fun there, but when you look at the blast or the freak, you know I mean these are modern high horology, like innovative timepieces, and you guys have these two kind of catalogs within your portfolio of one big catalog in a way.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 13:00

It's true, and you know that. You know, with age, what is innovation is called heritage at some point. Let me show you something, sure, yeah.

Blake Rea: 13:10

This is a first here, first on the podcast. So you better be watching the YouTube, guys, if you want to see what FX is about to show.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 13:18

Yes, sorry for the guys listening, but I'm showing a marine chronometer. It's the First World War. It's my private collection. It's not a UN owned. I own it.

Justin Summers: 13:33

How much?

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 13:34

I'm just kidding, you don't want to know Don't say it out loud, I'll never sell it. Yeah, so this chronometer was used in a naval academy between the war and during the Second World War in San Diego to teach cadets about navigation. This object, which is today a classic museum piece, over 100 years old, at the time it was extremely innovative. It was top innovation, top high-tech navigation instruments. So you see, even if we talk heritage and classic, somehow I believe you, you talk, uh, high tech.

Blake Rea: 14:15

You're just high tech of the beginning of the 20th century that's so cool man the um go ahead I was just gonna say something that most people don't know, that I've noticed about un is um, like if you look at your, your classico collection, like what you guys are doing, there is like like early like 18th century, like patek, like you know, with like hand-painted dials and you know enameling and having fun with materials and like you know it's something that I think is so unique you don't see it anymore. You know you don't see brands doing that.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 14:58

I hope someday, blake, justine, I hope someday you're coming to Switzerland and visit our manufacturer. That's pretty stunning. On one hand, you have this innovation lab and everybody's an engineer working on these fancy computers and working in 3D printing or even 3D printing. This is how, basically, we 3D print a thick S that's so cool and you can, in fact, dismantle the parts. So you have these labs working purely with engineers, and a few kilometers away, you have Donzé-Cadran and you see people working in 860 degrees Celsius making enamel dial. It's the same ecosystem. That's pretty incredible. I I agree.

Blake Rea: 15:55

I wish you guys, come someday I was. I was trying to schedule in january when I was in geneva and I was like right there in the lock, um, like doorsteps away from you guys at zenith, and uh, and yeah, we just weren't, weren't able to to make it work, I guess because you guys were gearing up for Watches and Wonders. Congratulations on the Freak-esque Nomad. That watch is insane.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 16:21

Thank you. Thank you, huge success. If you want one, forget it, it's sold out already.

Justin Summers: 16:28

But we expected that.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 16:30

We expected that anyway.

Blake Rea: 16:32

Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, know, because when we were talking before watches and wonders, you know you were talking about like, oh, we're just going to do one release, and I was like that's a little weird. But you know, that's a bold take. You know, because you see, every brand is releasing 20, 30 watches, 15, you know 17, I just they're just they're just filling their catalog, um, but it really goes back to showing, you know the brand, you know the, the maison as the brand, that you are where you don't care about that. You just want to have a really great release, one really great release, versus filling your collection and filling your portfolio and giving an overwhelming amount of releases. You guys put all your concentration, energy and effort into one amazing release. I mean.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 17:22

Yes, you understand very well our intention and also the freak encapsulates everything about about you. The Freak exists because before there was under 78 years of R&D, development, creativity, craziness, you know imagination, and we want people to see us as the Freak. Yeah, Because people know already about our diverse. We've been doing divers for over 60 years now. We've been doing marine crometers for more than a century. We want really people to see us as mastering high complication in a contemporary way and the freak, which is again, as I said before, the first super watch and I think people missed that. People know the Freak. If you're a collector, a watch guy, you heard about the Freak but you may know better Richard Mille, for example. In a way, I want to believe that Richard Mille exists because the Freak appeared on the scene. The same way, I want to believe that contemporary art exists because Picasso someday with some other guys and decided that cubism is a new way to represent reality.

Blake Rea: 18:47

When we get Richard Mill on the podcast, we'll ask him.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 18:51

Oh, please do If we can make it happen.

Blake Rea: 18:51

I've been waiting when we get Richard Mill on the podcast, we'll ask him oh, please, please do, please do If we can make it happen.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 18:55

I've been reading I need to search that again, but I've been reading a revolution about the freak and in this revolution there were a few quotes and I remember Max Bessner not Richard Mill, but Max Bessner from MBNF saying I don't want to start a quote, mbnf saying, uh, I don't want, it's not a quote, right, but he's saying something like, uh, uh, the freak helped him to get into pure creativity, while before what she's were very classic in a way, something like that.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 19:23

And, um, I love this type of uh testimony, you see, because, in fact, uh, big, big people in the industry today, uh, know that the Frick was a creative moment, you know, like a disruption in the industry. We didn't do enough of a job, I believe, to communicate this message and we had plenty of other people creating even their brands after the Frick take over this field of contemporary watchmaking. Today, collectors come back to UN and realize, oh, the Frick was there in 2001. Really, seriously, and, yes, seriously. That's why, at the show Blake, we were showing the Frick as Nomad Next to it. You are the 2001 first Frick, yeah, so people can see, if you want the origin, uh of this piece.

Blake Rea: 20:18

Yeah, craig, um, shout out to craig, craig, send me a. Um. He was keeping us up to date with so in the watch group I think I was telling you, but he was keeping literally play by plays of posting pictures of your booth of like all the watches you guys were displaying. That's true. We had almost 100 people watching his daily updates in our chat. I felt like I was there because of him.

Justin Summers: 20:43

He was just providing a little window for us.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 20:47

Yeah, we had an amazing show. I think what's very unique with this show versus the years before is usually it's a very B2B. You know, you meet your retailers, they see the collection, they see everything and it's great this year we have a lot of collectors, a lot of, I said, on the weekend. You know it's open to the public.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 21:06

You have serious collectors, coming with serious watches on the wrist, and they come to the Frick. That's what they want now and it's no surprise if today in North America, the Frick is our number one collection. Before it was in the fringes. You know, today the Frick is what people want and I think that's amazing. Finally, this Maverick, you know, gets the love it deserves yeah, yeah, um, let's talk about how you balance.

Blake Rea: 21:42

So we talked about this. We looked at your traditional collection. How do you balance your traditional collections with innovation and then meanwhile, introducing new technologies, new materials, like having the creative uh ability within that space, like that's probably a challenging question, but how do you stay grounded while pushing the envelope?

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 22:04

uh, yes, um, how can I answer? Uh, it's a challenging question. Um, I would say if you have a longstanding heritage, you can afford to be disruptive. I don't know if it makes sense For me. It makes sense, in fact, and you know, to create something you must master. You know some craft. A great example, I believe, is the hour striker. You know the chiming watches, the automaton.

Blake Rea: 22:38

Yeah.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 22:39

In the 80s, ulysse Nardin, while everything was broken by the quartz crisis, ulysse Nardin came and went into this amazing hour striker, chiming watches, minute repeater and we brought back a tradition. In fact, we miniaturized what you see in Venice, in Italy, and I think that's pretty stunning. If you ask Ulysse, today we have the blast tourbillon hour striker. It's an ultra-contemporary, contemporary watch. You have a mechanical on off button to activate the gong. A membrane in the back is 86 decibel, if I remember well, so it's pretty loud. Yeah, it's a totally skeleton, so you can see the gong uh, motion. You have a tourbillon on top of that. The case is very angular, very futuristic. But we can do this today because for the last 40 years we've been working with automaton chiming watches, arrow strikers, minute repeater. So I don't know if I answered your question, but again you find find in us this duality of remaster or craft. But we want to reinterpret traditional complication in a very, very modern or futuristic way and I think that defines again pretty well who we are.

Blake Rea: 24:11

You guys were the first to introduce silicon, too, inside of a watch movement. From my understanding, you know, everybody thought you guys were crazy, like why would you use something so fragile inside of a watch movement? But now everybody's doing it right. Yes, it's 2001.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 24:29

The freak appears. There's no crown, no dial, in fact, and it's introducing the silicium. You display time with the flying carousel and this is a watch introducing silicon. Silicon has plenty of good properties, if you think about it Like you know. It's anti-magnetic, no oiling, no friction. It change shape and come back to the original shape.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 25:02

um, so yes, we introduced it I think after pate philippe in 2005 introduced uh uh cilicium, but we we master in fact silicon again because we produce it in-house. The department producing our silicon is called Sigatech in Switzerland and we launched the first silicon escapement wheel in 2001 with the Frick. We bought the hairspring in silicon in 2007, a balance wheel and also a diamond seal, which is a diamond-coated silicon escapement wheel in 2017. So it's a lot of innovation again inside a 200-year-old company.

Justin Summers: 25:50

Yeah, I love that you guys are always like innovating but yet you're still grounded, like blake said. I think that that's such a cool thing. Um, I'm going to switch kind of subjects for us fx. Uh, what trends uh are you guys currently seeing within the, you know, the luxury watch market space? Um, and how is uin responding, uh to these ongoing trends that are happening?

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 26:13

Yes, oh, trends there are. Are we responding to the trends?

Justin Summers: 26:20

He's like we're making them.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 26:22

Yeah, I may sound very arrogant, but I think we started it in a way. So let me come back to the first question of what are the trends? I mean, coming back from the show, I think one trend is like complications Brands are really investing into complications and research. I think that's great and I think, more commercially, I guess you guys would agree there's a trend with niche brands, small manufacturers, very contemporary, disrupting the usual codes of a three-hand watch with a date maybe, and I think that's a trend today, very contemporary, pushing the agenda of design, the agenda of complication, but, you know, in a very creative way. I think that's a trend and why I was saying I may be a bit arrogant is somehow I feel again that when we created the Freak, after years and years, more than two decades of reinterpreting the Frick, all this blast, tourbillon, I think we have participated to create this trend and this trend is today, more than ever, very, very strong and that's great, that's very cool.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 27:51

There's many brands. There's many brands. There's many manufacturers, many companies doing traditional watches and date and chronograph. There's many of them, there's a few doing something extremely creative and contemporary and I think these brands are creating, in fact are creating a new world, new opportunities for the industry and keeping it relevant as well.

Blake Rea: 28:19

Let's shift into sustainability, because we know, you know that is pretty important for you. You know what initiatives has UN implemented to address environmental concerns and your manufacturing process? How are you eliminating that carbon footprint?

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 28:46

The first thing, blake, is that I think our industry, like take a diver, for example, 95% of the parts of the components if they are not made in-house because we do most of the watch in-house they are made by suppliers like 30, like 20 miles away in the valley, basically. So the ecosystem is really like our neighbors are working with us. So that's one thing. The other thing is that we are trying to build our watches with as many recycled or upcycled materials as possible, and you look at some watches we've done, like the Divernet. It was a concept watch we launched in 2020. Now it exists as part of the collection with different names. This watch we used like fishing nets.

Blake Rea: 29:52

Yeah, recycled fishing nets.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 29:54

Exactly mixed with recycled carbon fibers and we created a new material and we do the case with that, the steel, for example. We may use in some cases, stainless steel upcycled from the car industry, or we will use our own stainless steel that we use for parts, you know, when we build the parts and we recycled it again to make other parts. The carbon, the carbonium, carbonium, carbon fiber, melted at high pressure, high temperature. We will use carbon fiber from the aircraft industry as crafts from the aircraft industry. So there's plenty of ways to make your own manufacturer, your own industry or the watches themselves basically more sustainable. And I wanted to say something here.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 30:49

It's not only about UN. In fact, UN is a hub. What we do is we work with plenty of startups uh, you know, like partnering with them in order to have the best, the best quality possible uh materials. We test it and when it's good, it comes into a watch. So there's like a few companies. Some of them are based in Switzerland, some of them like for the fishing nets recycled fishing nets. It's a French startup called Phil Labs, I believe, yes, and there are some other companies like it's an Austrian company working with us with stainless steel recycled from the automobile or it's laboratory Lavoisier for the carbon fiber. So you see, there's an ecosystem created around Ulysse Nardin to push the agenda further.

Blake Rea: 31:46

Yeah, I mean I didn't imagine you and your team getting in boats and going in the middle of the ocean and scooping up like nets and stuff. I mean, obviously you guys need to leave that to the specialists while you guys focus on your watchmaking.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 31:59

Yes, and there's a lot of quality behind it. You know it's easy to find a fancy material and put it on a watch After. Is it a true diver watch and you can go at 300 meters dive? I'm not sure. Meters dive, I'm not sure. So there's a lot of a lot of tests, a lot of uh interactions with these companies to get a perfect quality and not disappoint anybody.

Justin Summers: 32:22

Yeah, that makes sense what are, um, what are some of the biggest challenges that ulysses nardone has faced? Uh, in the recent years, um, and you know, particularly with, like global market fluctuations and things like that uh, never a dull day.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 32:38

I've been only six years uh, actually started and I feel like I started yesterday. So many things, uh, if I may answer in two ways. The first, first way, there's the business model. We spend a lot of time with the new team streamlining our distribution, streamlining our collection what you said, blake focusing on what matters as a message we want to send, repositioning the Frick in the heart of collectors. There's been a lot of work internally and also we've been moving from being a caring-owned company to becoming independent. That's a big stretch.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 33:27

Suddenly, it's a different way to manage your money. You know it's not like you have money coming from the company and you do your thing. You have to make sure everything you do is useful, efficient. The other answer is the market. You have this normal market 2018, 2019, and then COVID like what? At some point it was almost.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 33:58

Some people thought it's existential. Okay, you know there was this crazy buzz and purchase attitude after COVID and I think now we are back to some kind of adjustment. You see, buzz and purchase attitude after COVID and I think now we are back to some kind of adjustment, you see. So, ulysse Nardin, if you want to put UN performance inside this cycle, the last six years, we have destroyed a lot of value and reduced our distribution to work with the best and mostly to give the best experience to the collectors, because that's what matters.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 34:40

People must be proud to have a UN on the list and that's why we really kind of changed our business and now it's doing pretty good in fact, again kind of changed our business and now it's doing pretty good in fact, and again getting out of caring. The post-COVID years have been very, very good for us. I think there's a trend again in this market when people are kind of tired of having always the same brands or collecting the same brands with different iterations and they want to go into manufacturer, independent manufacturer brands. They want to see the behind the scenes. You can't imagine how many people ask us oh, can we visit your manufacturer? If I go to Europe, and I'm usually saying yes, yes, of course you can, we can organize that. There is a real interest in manufacturing, how you do, how you build your watches, what's behind the scenes, not the marketing what's behind the scenes, and I think it's a benefit to UN again very well.

Blake Rea: 35:48

Something I was expecting you to say is obviously you know you're in Miami, you're in Florida and you know UN is based in Le Lac, right in Switzerland. So I'm sure there's challenges between working with the Swiss side of the company and your side. You know. So explain to our listeners. Like you know what that's like, you know like how does that work? Like you know, obviously by the time you come into your office they're getting ready to leave. You know, for the day.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 36:19

So you know, I'm sure that's a challenge uh, yes, I mean, you know we go surfing, they go skiing at the end, right? No, no, um, you start early and I guess all uh, all uh, all my friends, all all the other guys in the industry, we tell you the same. Uh, you start pretty early because you know it's already morning for you, it's already afternoon there. So usually when I'm driving I'm already on the phone, so we have an early day. That's one thing. Otherwise, you know what I love with UN I think it's part of the spirit of freedom we have is, as a market, we are pretty free. You know, there's a strategy, there's a direction, which is very long-term, you know. But the team really does. We do what we have to do. You know what I mean. So we work a lot with all the manufacturers because they ship the watches, they give us some materials to work with, but mostly we are building up our story here and I think that's very cool.

Blake Rea: 37:30

Yeah, you get the hats in Switzerland too, right.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 37:33

Yes, yes, and they are made from recycled plastic collected in the ocean as well.

Blake Rea: 37:38

I felt like I was feeling pretty sustainable today that boy got an ocean hat. Yeah, um, I'm curious and you may or may not be able to answer this, or you can probably beat around this question, but let's talk about the future of un. You know what? What do you see as the biggest opportunity for the brand moving forward?

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 38:05

Um, it's, uh, I think UN participates to design, uh, the future of the industry. Um, because we don't want to repeat the recipe of the past. Many people, including us, master the recipes of the past. The real question is, what else can you bring to the conversation? What is the next innovation or what is the next interpretation of classic watchmaking you could bring with a mindset which is like future forward, design forward. So there's a lot of things happening. I can't tell you too much because you know our industry loves secrets. Yeah, exactly. So let's tease you guys a little bit.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 38:58

The Frick, of course, frick is a laboratory on the wrist. It's already an incredibly complicated time-only watch, if you think about it. It carries a lot of patents and there's a lot more to do. So the Freak will see some more developments. Also, it's interesting to mention, if you noticed noticed that a genius called Ludwig Hochlin is back to since we've been independent coincidence, probably, ludwig is back. He helped us with the Blast Moonstruck, which is an incredible contemporary astronomical watch. And Ludwig I mean, if somebody doesn't know on the podcast Ludwig is a philosopher, an archaeologist, a watchmaker, a genius watchmaker.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 39:54

He carried the innovation of the most complicated astronomical watch With Ulysse Nardin. He brought the perpetual calendar. You can adjust forward and backward, so he's really somebody incredible and he's back to UN so there would be some development. He participated to the Frick, obviously, so Ludwig is back. So I think that if you love complicated watchmaking and science, you'll be happy. Otherwise, the marine collection, all the divers, they are our heritage. At the same time, they are ultra-innovative. We play a lot with sustainability. We play with new materials, the diamond seals, the silicon. So here again you will see development that if you're a watch lover, you will love Again, not because we are doing a copy-paste of what we've done before, but because we are going. We explore new territories, if you want.

Blake Rea: 41:00

So it could be fun, something I I actually didn't know. I didn't understand until, like you know, when we were in vegas together, um, but I got to take apart a freak, you know I like, so I took it apart and I put it back together, which, you know, from my understanding, not a lot of people get the chance or the opportunity to do at some of your, your events. But something I noticed is like how simple it is to like maintain, you know, because people focus on there's a challenge right as you go up market and you develop these crazy technologies, servicing those watches becomes an issue. So something that I noticed that, again, not many other brands do is, you know you guys are focusing on another side of sustainability, which is continue in longevity of your product and serviceability, and silicon helps.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 41:53

And I will tell you in short simplicity is complexity. On one hand, you're right the Frick, it's like a Lego. I'm talking about a Lego. I've got one. It's a Frick-esque Lego. That's cool Moving parts and everything I'm going to need one of those.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 42:16

The Frick is in a way simple to assemble if you have an experience like that. But what is the complexity? What has been the research, the genius, the mindset, the engineers, the creativity involved to get there At the end? It doesn't have to be complicated for the sake of being complicated. It must be complicated or it is sorry. It is complicated because it's bringing something new and then in a century the Freak S Nomad will not be a complicated watch. It is today because we are pushing an agenda, but I love. You say it's simple, because I kind of agree. You have like, really you built a puzzle. And it's simple because I kind of agree, you have like, really you built a puzzle. And it's also very self-explaining. You know the gear trend, the balance wheel, this six feet long spiral giving all the power. It's kind of easy. You know the minute is given by the gear trend. There is an hour, this for the hour.

Justin Summers: 43:17

Everything's easy, but gosh, uh, how many thousands of hours of work to get there yeah, I personally I love that, the like you mentioned, blake, that it's simple, like in no offense. You know that's not taking it, hopefully, in an offensive way, but I love that simplicity also kind of uh portrays like a more legible watch to me as well, like something that draws me to the freak is. I'm not looking at a fully skeletonized case. That's super, just everything everywhere all at once. It's just, it's very unique and it's a breath of fresh air, which is something pretty cool.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 43:56

And Justin agree. We, we, we love that watches must have ergonomy. You wear your watch, you know that's right. So, yes, so that's important.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 44:08

But just to the point of simplicity, if I just list for the nurse here, if I just list a few aspects of the Freecast Nomad which we just released, you have silicone balance wheels and air springs, diamond seal coated escapements, a double oscillator linked by a vertical differential. It's less than 5 millimeters. It has 69 parts using nanotechnology. The ball bearings are smaller than a millimeter. You have a grinder which is an automatic winding system. 20 patents on the watch. Of course, no dial, no crown and no hands, because it's a freak and it's made of anthracite, pvd-coated titanium, carbon fiber case and the hour disc I will will call it not really a dial is a guilloche made by hand on a more on a more than 150 year old machine, traditional way, with 240 strokes that you have to do in three hours without any stop possible. So yes, it's kind of simple, but you know it was the effort that the research and like development that went into.

Blake Rea: 45:25

It is not simple whatsoever, not at all, but the product is yes I, I was waiting for you to say to um, no base plates. So, like you know, like this is, I've done a bunch of watchmaking events and stuff and you, you know everything is housed by a base plate. You know you drop everything and it kind of assembles everything. But you guys were just like no base plate, let's get rid of it.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 45:46

Why? Why it's a freak. It must be different. You know, jean-christophe Sabatier, our product director, you have to meet someday. We'll tell you that the Freak is about kinetic. You know, yeah, usually in a watch you have a case. It's not moving. Inside you have your caliber, your dial and your hands and this part is moving. In a Freak, everything participates to motion, like everything, including the case. You know, the gear train is connected to the case. He said the bezel is turning because that's how you change time. Everything's in motion. So, yes, when you have a watch event and I hope some of the people here on this podcast will join our events when we are doing our road trip in the USA you will find it kind of okay. I built it, it's pretty cool. But remember, like all the research and years of development to get there, simplicity is complexity.

Justin Summers: 46:49

Love that. Your listener, Don, is known for some pretty high-profile collaborations. I know you guys are. Can you tell us about a recent collaboration and its impact on the brand?

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 47:03

Listen, when you say high profile, you probably want to know about some superstars or something super complex or R&D. I will disappoint you. I will talk about something I really personally love and I will say my team is super engaged and it's one more wave. For example, you know the history of 3D Snowden is connected to the sea, the marine chronometer. So with an anchor on the logo, so I think it's everybody got that.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 47:34

We started to supply the US Navy pretty late, in fact, in 1905, during the Roosevelt government, mostly on torpedo boats. That's why the collection torpedo, torpedo and on submarines. So we were the watch, the navigation instruments, if you want, of US Navy and the submarines. So there is this storytelling in US Navy. And then my dad, a veteran, the team in the USA is involved. You know they care about the topic of the veterans and, very organically with the team, we said, okay, why don't we do something? Why don't we do our part with the veterans, knowing that we have a connection with the sea? So we partnered with the Medal of Honor Convention, so we presented the watch in Annapolis, which is incredible for us in 2018.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 48:36

And we partnered with One More Wave. So One More Wave it's an organization created by Navy SEALs. They are based in Coronado, like in San Diego, they have a shop where they do custom surfboards for disabled veterans. This one with the handles is made for somebody on a wheelchair so you can grip the board and paddle like that. We are raising funds. We did two collections to raise funds. We give to the organization. We do fundraising events. Our customers have been giving money to One More Wave and we became their number one partner, sponsor, if you want.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 49:23

And we target with the team. I don't want to give the numbers, but with the team every year we say, okay, how many veterans we help? It costs $2,500 in average to create a custom-made surfboard, all the equipment about $2,500. I mean, you talked about Craig Blake. Craig is original sales. Craig's son flew with Craig to San Diego oh, when his son has his Bart Mitzvah to volunteer and help the veterans on the beach. So his son like I think, 13, 14-year-old. He has seen what it is to be a disabled veteran, what it is to go surfing to recreate a community and he did a fundraising in his school. It's just to tell you how engaged is the team. So of course most of the brands will tell you about fancy collab with fashion brands or another hollywood star, my team, you know we, we do that with one more wave.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 50:30

We work also with o search, a marine biology organization. There are a lot of things you don't see that we do on the side, uh, and it's it makes, you know, the team super motivated and us super connected. And if you ask me about our customers, you remember, blake, we had a small event together in Vegas. A former NFL player came. I told him about the story I don't know if you were around. I told him about the story of One More Wave, because I was wearing these days a diver One More Wave.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 50:59

He bought it and I told him, like you know, it's not really I care that you buy the watch or not, because the watch will be sold anyway, uh, but I would really be interested if you can connect with them, have a conversation with them, as a guy is a good businessman, so maybe you can help. In fact, and, uh, and they are talking right now. I just made a connection. He sent me proactively, sent me an email asking fx, can you connect me with with the seals and, uh, the vets? I made a connection and the guys, uh, are talking right now that's amazing, that's cool.

Blake Rea: 51:31

Yes you led up to the fact that it wasn't about celebrities, it wasn't about endorsements. But you know what you just touched on, I think is is more important than any of that. You know you guys are making a real impact in the community. You're touching people in a way you know that others aren't. You know you're providing a you're, you're benefiting a great cause and um, and I think that's way more exciting than getting X, y, z celebrity to to where you in and spending who knows how many tens of thousands or millions of dollars to secure that just for product placement. But you guys care more about impacting the community than you do about having your watches seen in the right manner, I agree.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 52:14

If you talk with the team the UN team and feel free to contact them or you will see us at events anyway. But if you talk with the team, they will tell you what I say very regularly when we have meetings uh, it's. You know, it's great to have good results, it's great to overperform the market and stuff like that, but it's not the stuff you tell your kids or your family on the weekend, right when you barbecue in florida. No, uh, what you tell your team is uh, oh, my son is doing a fundraising for the veterans. Uh, what you tell your team is oh, my son is doing a fundraising for the veterans. What you tell your team is there is a shark tagged by O-Search and the shark is called Ulysse. You know, that's the things people share with their families. That's what makes you proud.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 52:59

You know we don't fight only for market shares. We do something more than that. We have, like. You know, we spend like 10, 12 hours a day working for the, the brand, or traveling. What do you bring to? What's the story you tell to your buds? You know so I think that's that's why we do that. And if you ask me, uh, what's the collector's response? That's what I said, collectors are really engaged because they see us as real people, not like pushing some advertising somewhere. They see us as real people. They love that and I love like we have a customer in Miami who's hosting events fundraising for One More Wave we must have. This thing is out of control and it's great. You know there's a story behind uh, ulysse nardin making and making watches and selling watches through retailers.

Blake Rea: 53:50

There's more than that yeah, let's shift the conversation a little bit. We're almost here at the end of our time, um, you know, as a as a leader for a brand like ulysse Nardin, what have you learned from your tenure at UN and how has working at Ulysse Nardin impacted the future of not only your personal life but your professional life?

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 54:17

Listen, I think that time is not your enemy. It's something I repeat every day. It's kind of a motto Time is not your enemy. It's something I repeat every day. It's kind of a motto. You know, I love to think that. You know time goes so fast. You know social media all industries like, including ours is very short-sighted. You know what's the success of the month, what's the results? Are we beating competition, retailers and user numbers? You know there's something very fast-paced forced to you. So I love to tell the team listen, guys, time is not your enemy.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 54:54

Sometimes going too fast for industry is making mistakes. What you really want to do, what you really want to do, is making people proud and happy to wear a timepiece on the wrist, you know. So I think that I'm tuned like that. I want the team to be tuned into the collectors. You know the club members, as I love to call them. We love to believe that what we do is we to serve these people and they are happy to be a freak, they are proud to have a freak and they are our best ambassadors. So I don't know if I answered your question, but that's something I've learned is under the pressure of today tonight. Let's do things so well, let's execute things so well, that tomorrow will be shiny bright, and I believe that in our industry you know we are 200 years old that's the way we should process, you know, every decision.

Blake Rea: 56:01

Yeah, and of course, diamonds are made under pressure, right, you know so. But another question that I have for you too is as, as a leader, you know, when I think of you know the brand, you know I think about innovation, I think about excellence, I think about, uh, development and overachieving. You know how. How do you, how do you foster, how do you grow that culture within the brand? You know, because obviously you're responsible for growing the company, right? If you were just sitting there doing nothing, you know you, you guys, wouldn't be doing anything, right, you wouldn't be pushing the envelope. So so, when I, when I think about those values of ulysse nardone and then translating them into strategic business decisions, how do you foster that culture?

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 56:51

I think it's about energy. You know how you go forward to everything. I think I bring a lot of energy to the team and the team is super energetic. You know uh, I don't say they go running every day, but kind of you know, before work, uh, there's a lot of energy in the team. We uh, when we have an event we have like a round table and okay, we, las vegas is calling who wants to go people always volunteer. I have watchmakers coming just like that all across the country. I think this team is super energetic and uh not focused on uh reporting or computers.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 57:33

This team is on the field because we have a wholesale business model. We work through retailers. Um, we want also to to meet the customers, we want to meet the collectors and I think my team is really tuned into serving these people. Flying to meet these people. I mean, in May, I've got full May, it's two weeks of traveling. June, I've got two weeks of traveling as well, including bringing ambassadors and bringing collectors to Switzerland. So the team, everybody in the team Craig is traveling all the time. My VP sales is in the air all the time. My marketing is flying next week to New York.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 58:12

We are very much in contact with our collectors and we get a lot of feedback, and these feedbacks are also extremely useful to improve, in fact, our conversation with them. And that's one thing. And the other thing I want to say is I think this team is working super well, like a Swiss clock, you know, extremely transparent. We share all information together on a daily basis. We make a lot of decisions collectively and I love to say to tell them you guys are coming back to the Navy SEALs. I love to tell them you guys are like Navy SEALs, each one of you is an expert in something, but each one of you is able to replace the other.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 58:56

In case you know, and I'm very proud of them. To be honest, the brand is fantastic, watches are fantastic. I mean, I say that because I believe it, otherwise I would have stayed with Christian Dior. It's an amazing adventure all this and other, but the team makes a difference anyway.

Blake Rea: 59:16

Something I was waiting for you to say, but maybe you don't notice it because you work for the brand and I don't. So I can look inside to you and notice this. But maybe you don't notice it because you work for the brand and I don't, so I can look inside to you and and and and notice this. But you know, you guys are so passionate. You know, like like Craig, for example. You know like every time I see Craig, like he is just like like an excited kid in a candy store to show off the newest product, the newest release, like the newest innovation. And you know, obviously I've spent a lot of time with him and you know you can see the shimmer in his eye. You know that passion, that excitement, that enthusiasm, that you know a lot of other brands. You know I'm speaking from my experience that I don't see. You know a lot of other brands. You know I'm speaking from my experience that I don't see. You know like, oh, let's just slap a white dial on on it and call it a new watch.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 1:00:10

You know, um I don't think that the mentality of the team is to be on payroll. You see, um, I think you have this uh secret well kept which is really snin, this incredible manufacturer, and again, you have to see it by yourself in Switzerland to understand how incredible is this company, in fact, this heritage, and look at the empowerment of us. We are given Ulysse Nardin and we are in a long-term strategy and you're responsible of taking it to collectors, you know. So there's a lot of excitement.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 1:00:52

We don't depend on advertising. You don't have advertising in every magazine, you know, like saying, oh, this is a watch you have to own. You know, you don't have all of this. You really have an amazing product, amazing retailers, and not a lot of them, just a few selected. So our distribution is super exclusive and you have a team which is like, totally behind it. And I think this recipe is very simple. In a way, it reminds you probably of building up a freak, but it takes a lot of again, but it takes a lot of again. It takes a lot of work, a lot of skills, uh, I I guess uh to to get there.

Blake Rea: 1:01:31

you know yeah, and and something to. So I, I sat down with, uh, roman marietta from from zenith and something, something that we also talked about, that I've never heard anybody talk about and I'm sure you probably think a lot, but with a brand like Ulysse Nardin that has such unique heritage, it's your obligation to uphold that heritage, to keep it true to, to, to balance, you know, because you, you have to stay pure, right, when you're responsible for such a unique history. Being pure, being authentic, um, and it's a huge responsibility, right, you know it's not again.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 1:02:19

Uh, I mean, I'm a businessman in a way sure, sure, sure but it's not about the numbers, it's about what you leave behind, you know.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 1:02:27

So, yes, there's a lot of responsibility. It's pretty big, but it's cool. You know it's pretty cool. I mean, it's an amazing industry. You meet super cool people, everybody. I mean you guys, you know you have conversation with people who are passionate the press, the media, the influencers. They are passionate. So it's very exciting and I think we excite each other. You know, when we have conversation about watches which is very true to our industry, I guess could be the same with the car industry, probably same with the car industry, probably especially fancy cars. It could be the same with some other industries. But we are fortunate to be in this passion-driven uh world and that's amazing. I think we are very fortunate being here yeah, well, we've covered a lot here.

Blake Rea: 1:03:17

Um, I didn't want to take up too much of your time. I mean, you know, thank you for spending it with us. Something we've been doing recently is, you know, we've been giving our outlet to our guests at the end of the podcast. So, like I said, we've covered a lot. We've talked a lot about your leadership and the brand. Is there something that you feel like we didn't cover here in our podcast today that you have the opportunity to talk about it right now?

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 1:03:42

Listen, you ask a lot of good questions. I hope that you know the secret well-kept of UN will be will raise interest, you know, among your crowd and they will search online and what he was saying. What is this information about? What is Diamond Seal? I hope people will be curious. You know, after this conversation and again, if you, if somebody has some questions I don't know what is the media on YouTube, but I'll be very happy to take questions and answer. Again, we are super transparent, super open and passionate. Yeah.

Blake Rea: 1:04:18

Yeah, that's why we knew we had to have you on Again. I just want to thank you so much for your time to have you on Again. I just want to thank you so much for your time. Thanks for coming on. You know, I knew immediately that we had to have you on Just again. Like I talked about the passion, that's what we're here for. We spot it, we recognize it, we appreciate it.

Francois-Xavier Hotier: 1:04:38

I'm sure our listeners will also do the same, and so, yeah, so thank you for coming on, thank you, justin, thank you LonelyWist and hello everyone. Yeah, I hope to meet you soon somewhere in the USA.

Blake Rea: 1:04:51

Yeah, and everybody. We will make sure we link their social media, the Ulysse Nardin official, and we'll make sure everybody knows. Everybody probably knows who you are by now, but take a look in the description and we'll make sure we plug them and you know you have ways to contact them. So all right, guys. That is it and we will see you on the next episode. Thank you.