Lonely Wrist: All Things Watches & Horology
Lonely Wrist dives deep into the intricate world of watches, unearthing the stories, craft, and passion behind every ticking piece. From timeless classics to modern marvels, this podcast winds through the history, mechanics, and cultural significance of timepieces. Whether you're an avid horologist or just someone who admires the beauty of a well-crafted watch, Lonely Wrist offers a unique perspective, uniting enthusiasts and curious minds. Join us every episode as we explore the art of watchmaking, discuss the latest trends, and interview watch industry experts, all while appreciating the silent yet profound voice of every watch's lonely wrist.
Lonely Wrist: All Things Watches & Horology
Maurice Lacroix's Global Impact and Innovation with CEO Stéphane Waser
Ever wondered how a luxury watch brand keeps its pulse on time? Join us as we engage with Stéphane Waser, CEO of Maurice Lacroix, who shares the secrets behind the brand’s sustained success and its unique market presence. From Turkey to the uncharted territories of the US market, Maurice Lacroix has cultivated a reputation for offering high-end craftsmanship at accessible prices since overcoming the challenges of the quartz crisis in the 1970s. Stéphane takes us on a fascinating journey through the brand's unique origins linked to silk and brush trading, revealing how historical roots have shaped their distinctive identity.
Dive into the transformative years post-2008, where Maurice Lacroix pivoted from a product-centric approach to building a unified global brand. Stéphane reveals how the Aikon line, born out of meticulous market research and aimed at millennials, has become a cornerstone of their success, accounting for over 70% of sales. This episode uncovers how strategic shifts and innovations have revitalized the brand, allowing it to thrive amidst economic challenges and a changing consumer landscape.
Looking ahead, discover Maurice Lacroix's forward-thinking approach to sustainability and authenticity. Stéphane shares insights into the innovative use of materials like Powerlite and their commitment to social responsibility through initiatives in Northern Thailand. Forget celebrity endorsements; learn how the brand is opting for genuine connections with passionate individuals who embody their urban spirit. With a focus on Gen Z's values and transparency, Maurice Lacroix is setting a new standard in the watch industry, balancing traditional craftsmanship with modern expectations.
Check out Maurice Lacroix:
https://www.mauricelacroix.com/us_en/
Support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2237102/support
Visit our Blog: https://lonelywrist.com
Watch our Youtube: http://youtube.lonelywrist.com
100% Viewer Funded: Donate Here
Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of Lonely Wrist. Today, sitting in front of us, we have the CEO of Maurice Lacroix Stéphane. What's up, brother?
Speaker 2:Hi everybody Doing great Preparing some end of year sales, so quite busy.
Speaker 1:Do you guys have a big holiday planned? I'm assuming?
Speaker 2:I mean there's a lot happening. You know we're international, so we cater to 81 markets. So you have all the Diwali's coming up and then you have of course the whole Christmas festive season. Then of course you then go to Chinese New Year, russian New Year, chinese New Year, so there's a lot of festive and holidays coming up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I literally was just in istanbul, like last week, and it seems like every corner has a maurice laquad dealer, which is awesome massive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, turkey is massive. We are really well represented in turkey and it's it's been doing very well. Actually, turkey is one of our top five markets.
Speaker 1:It seems so, because here in Vegas which is weird because there's only one dealer in Vegas and they have a very limited selection and Justin's in Raleigh and he said there's one dealer there too. But it was really hard to see your product until your rep came and we spent hours just going over the collection and, needless to say, I was super impressed. It's a shame how underrepresented you are, which is the reason why you're sitting in front of me. Hopefully. Thanks for the invitation, so we can let everybody know how awesome you are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we've been in the US since the 90s but it's been ups and downs. We did some. What happened? A lot in the last 20, 30 years. We did some strategy changes which repositioned. So at one point of time we're retailing watches between five hundred and thousand dollar. Then there's one period we were retailing watches between five and ten and basically what we're doing now is is back to kind of where we were successful the origins. We are very comfortable in a price range between $1,000 to $3,000. So that's where we're home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you guys are super young 1975, I believe. How did the brand kind of get its niche carved out? And in the 1970s everybody was making watch brands like it was cool, right. So it's a very saturated time to start a watch brand. Uh, let's talk about the early days of the brand and how you guys were able to carve such a unique identity in a crowded segment already yeah, I think the um, you know, 1975 or the 70s, it was even more challenging.
Speaker 2:Because challenging because you had a lot of watches and watch brands. I think there were about 1,600 Swiss watch brands. Today there's only 650 Swiss made. But in the 70s, what also was what we call the quartz crisis, where the quartz started to sell, sell well, and then the interest for mechanical automatic watches really went down. So this is also something very most like. Why I mean we like challenges and how did we make it the main idea?
Speaker 2:was that that period of time, um, you know, if you wanted some very nice mechanical complications, as we we call it, or very high in watchmaking, you had to really put a big, big, big lump of money on the table to get that. And what we have been doing since the start, which is at the center of the brand idea, is bringing very high in watchmaking at accessible prices. So in that period we were known for the masterpiece. We have some beautiful masterpiece. Um, you know, we did retrograde, we did day and night indication, also very simple big dates and, um, what you also call small seconds. So you know, it's all very fine watchmaking details, but we were bringing this at very accessible prices, around $2,000, $2,500 at that time. And this still continued.
Speaker 2:And today, if you pick up one of our best-selling collection Icon, the retail price is about $2,000, $2,500 for a mechanical watch. But it's a lot of quality. You got, of course, sapp sapphire crystal open case back. You have a screwed crown. It's water resistant to 200 meters. But you also have a easy strap exchange system. So you can, you know, you can go from a steel strap to a leather strap or rubber strap very easy. So there's a lot of advanced benefits of, and it's a lot of quality, and usually when people look at our products, you know when they start to know us. They're always impressed with the quality. Get the price you're paying I.
Speaker 1:I would say I definitely felt that. Um, you know, obviously I've held a lot of high-end watches half a million to a million dollar watches because I'm in Vegas, I've got that luxury to do that but within a split second it's easy to tell that you guys have a really high-quality product. I just noticed that so quickly.
Speaker 3:I'm curious, stéphane, what inspired the name behind Maurice Lacroix, and is there a person or a story behind it that influenced the brand?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean. So the family. I mean the family that owned Maurice Lacroix, because Maurice Lacroix was in a family-owned company in the 70s. It belonged to a big trading group and the main activity of these people was basically silk trading and brush trading industrial brushes and this company has been existing since 18, 1812 or 1850, something like that. And um, when maurice lacroix came to life, well, first this company was also distributor of swiss watch brands, very prestigious swiss watch brands which are amongst the top 10 watch brands today and you know they. So the whole silk trading and brush trading was happening from Asia to Europe.
Speaker 2:And, being the Swiss company at the beginning, people were telling them you know, you're Swiss kind of you get, bring me this watch or that watch brand. And basically they opened an agency for those brands. So they were also distributing, so they were going to get the silk, the brushes and then distributing the watches to asia. And with the time they were so successful at that, they opened private label workshops. So basically these, these same customers starting saying you know, I like that watch, but I would like to have something similar, 100 pieces of that with my name, of my company or whatever. So that was kind of the 50s and 60s was the swiss watts industry was very strong on private labeling and in 1962 they, they basically purchased a private labeling workshop, which I'm sitting here today. It it's in Seigneur de Gilles in Switzerland. That's good. And so that was 1962.
Speaker 2:And then the demand was so high. So in the 70s they said, listen, I mean, we have so much demand, we should do our own brand. Right, and there was. So you know, they had a board of directors. And what was the thing is? From the board of directors they say, okay, we need to name very French, because in the 70s France was the country in the world, it was setting the trends for fashion, it was setting the trends for luxury. So everything that was French in the 70s was the thing right, and a bit like New York in the 90s. So that's why they said okay, and there was Maurice Lacroix sitting on the board. Maurice Lacroix, because you know 1975, it's not that you were doing 20 generations of watchmakers. And they said, yes, let's take his name. And that's how it started.
Speaker 1:Ever since I had the chance to meet with your rep out here, it seems that your brand has been haunting me, because me and Justin Justin was vegas not that long ago but, um, you know, occasionally I'll go to this like, uh, it's like a pawn shop and it's a very special pawn shop because they're owned by a national chain of pawn shops and, let's just say, somebody pawns a watch in like Iowa or like Minnesota. You know, there's not a huge luxury mark like market there. So what they'll do is they'll ship the watches to Vegas, where there's buyers for these high end watches. And I went in there and your mysterious seconds is sitting there and I was like like this is a crazy watch. Um, still might be there because you know they're more in the jewelry side than they are in the watches side. Uh.
Speaker 1:But then, um, I reached out to, uh, to andre, and I was like hey, dude, like look at what I have in my hand. And he was like how much is it? And I I still need to get back to him about how much is it, because it's, it's probably really cheap. Um, you know, cause they let stuff go like super quick, but I mean it, it's crazy. And then when I went to Turkey, I just saw you guys on every corner, um, and almost everybody in the shops that sold your watches was wearing your watches, and it was just really cool because, you know, here at least, like I said, you guys are really underrepresented, you know. So you have a huge challenge ahead, especially in the North American market, because you have such a great product and people just don't don't have the opportunity to get hands-on with it yeah, I mean it's, it's really we have to do it step by step.
Speaker 2:You know, um, us is one of our focus markets for the future. Um, what we also have to do, or had to do, because it's it's been a lot of structural changes, and so first we need to get the basics right For next year we're going to have a strong team in the market, and then it's, I mean, at the end it's about building the awareness. I mean we already are present in about 60 to 80 shops, but I agree with you, you know, in the US is so big, so you have to make choices where to grow first. And also online is quite important. I mean, basically today we do 99% of our investments in terms of visibility is online.
Speaker 2:So digital social media and we see also we have an e-commerce. Of course, it's running since two, three years, but last year we took the opportunity to put on Salesforce to have better efficiency in terms of, you know, targeting, also in terms of the whole sale process, because that's quite key. That's very smooth, especially for the US, because you guys are so mature in terms of watch market, in terms of shopping or purchase experience online, so it really has to be seamless, and so these are kind of the elements we're putting into place to make it grow. And of course I mean thing number one is to get us known, because once you know us and you start getting into our products, people are really amazed what the quality we have, the variety, uh, the programs we have. So it's quite, you know we have, we have, we have love to offer. Uh, we also do manufacture, so we have our own engines in some.
Speaker 2:Some watches, like you talked about, mysterious, seconds yeah yeah, we know, you have mysterious second with Mercury gravity. Uh, we have a square wheel, and then we also have skeletons which are our own engine, if you want, our own movement, which we assemble here in in this factory. So it's, you know, it's, it's very interesting program we have there. But that's the high end, it's not the bulk of our sales, but it's also things we do to show the people how good we are in terms of craftsmanship. What can we do? And the prices are quite good on these kind of manufacturer or in-house developments. We're between 5,000 and 10,000 Swiss francs. So again, this idea of being very accessible, having great watchmaking but at accessible prices, is very important.
Speaker 1:Based upon some of the homework that we did. You joined the company in the mid 2000s. Is that?
Speaker 2:accurate 2008. January 2008.
Speaker 1:And the later Justin said 2008, but I didn't want to be entirely wrong. I'm sure, since you've been there since 2008, I mean you've seen the company change a lot Right During your time at Maurice Lacroix. What have you seen change and how do you feel like the brand's direction has shifted?
Speaker 2:I mean you feel like the brand's direction has shifted. Yeah, I mean, you know the the nice thing. So it's now 16 years. We had the 2009 crisis, we had the 2014 crisis and we had covid. So you can imagine these are all challenges, which I mean, which you always say you know challenges. You can see it two ways. You know you can see it in a negative way.
Speaker 2:I like to see it as opportunities. Um, so the when I joined the company you know it was, it was more kind of a product brand but not a brand. So it was about you know, yeah, we had like so many different lines, not very consistent message. Um, in the us you had a different collection than what you have in Europe and what you had in Asia. There was kind of no red line or kind of global brand image. So, 2008 with them. So, and also in 2007, 6 and 7, we I don't know if you know about this, but ETA, which was delivering all of the watch movement, sort of threatened they would not deliver the industry anymore. So we were at a point where, like, okay, what do we do? Do we just stop with the brand or do we try to do it ourselves? We did ourselves, but the issue with doing it yourself is then it's small volumes, which means you know if you want to offer the still offer products. They are. They were like five, ten times what you were offering before.
Speaker 2:So there there came also the crisis in 2009 and what we had to do we had to reposition the brand. So that was an opportunity to me where the ceo came and said guys, we have to rethink this. So this is when, when we started building the brand, you know, and building kind of what is this brand about? You know, who do we want to focus to? What's our space in this whole watch industry? What are the price points we need to hit, and that sort of kind of the 2010 to 2015 period. What we were still missing that period is we didn't have a hero product, so we were trying a lot of stuff. So, uh, you know, that's when we launched the pontus s, that's when we did the partnership in barcelona and we did some. We started a lot of digital, digital activations, digital campaigns. So that was quite new. You know, being on facebook in those years was like, oh my god, you're gonna have a customer, he's gonna ask you a question.
Speaker 3:But we thought okay, you know, let's start let's start the communication.
Speaker 2:There's something good to it. You know, if people can talk with us and maybe you know we can talk to them know about the brand. So that was quite interesting. And then in in what we did in those years. So in 2014, they gave me the brand lead and then we were talking a lot to retailers, talking a lot to distributors, and they're all telling us bring back the old Calypso.
Speaker 2:But if you look at Calypso, that was a watch from the 90s, very successful. So we were selling hundreds of thousands of that watch in the 90s. But if you look at the design in 2014, it was like can't bring this, it's like too outdated. But the head of design was quite smart and we said listen, if there's so many feedbacks about this watch, there must be something. And if we sold so many of those watches, there must be something. True, right? So we did a design study, we did market research, because we only had one shot. So we wanted really, you know, to be sure it works and doing market research, yeah, and doing market research in the watch industry.
Speaker 2:I don't know how familiar you are with the watch industry, but it's not a common thing. So it took us two years to redesign this calypso, which became the icon. And what was interesting with the market research? Um, suddenly, because before, like all the watch brands, you're like okay, it's two,000. So it has a certain price point. So who has the money? Oh, you're 55 and plus you have a career, you're a business owner, whatever.
Speaker 2:But the thinking was we're talking to the older generations. And then suddenly, through market research, they're like you know that quartz chronograph icon? Well, if you're 20 years old, you are interested and you have uh, you have already signified your wish to to purchase it. So we were like, okay, that's interesting. And, um, so, digging more on market research, debriefing everything, we, we saw that, yeah, there was really a market out there, 25 plus, um, and then we sort of, yeah, who are? Who are these people? And it's like, oh, millennials, never heard of that. So, getting into the topic of millennials, this then pushed us. Then we changed the whole communication, we repositioned basically the whole communication and then also at the end, we actually repositioned the whole brand.
Speaker 3:And that's I was going to say the icon I think has helped push that as well. Was going to say the icon I think has helped push that as well. Uh, because a lot of like the millennials kind of the younger generation, are looking at that more like modernized design. Uh, you know, compared to some of the other pieces and uh, I know that's been one of y'all's probably biggest sellers, I would say the icon it is.
Speaker 2:It's more than 70 of the sales today. So in seven years, six years, that's great, you know it's, it's, and it's basically the icon which made, which kind of put us back on the on the chart, that's awesome, good business what was the shift from like the icon to like the icon tide?
Speaker 1:you know like, how did that transition? Were you just saying, hey look, we want to offer something a little bit more like price approachable, or you know like, because the tide is a very cool watch too. You know like, yeah so tides?
Speaker 2:how did that come about? I mean, so we were 216 millennials, right, obviously, these millennials in in to two, 20, 21, uh, they were then 30. So we knew there's another generation out there. So, getting into the Gen Z topic, trying to understand what these guys want, also in terms of, uh, purchase potential or kind of sales potential. It is a big market, um, but of course, as always from the watch industry, ignored because not these kind of older people and young people don't buy expensive watches and so on. But we think it's different and if you go into that and what was happening is, so sustainability is big on their agenda. So you know they're highly connected. They are also very demanding. They have strong opinions about what they purchase and also sustainability is a question mark we have Plus.
Speaker 2:At the same time, it was interesting we were getting more and more requests from customers about sustainability. People were asking, kind of, what's your packaging? How much plastic do you send when you send out watches? Um, what are you doing? Uh, with your whole logistic distribution costs? Are you, are you looking specifically at sustainability topics? Um, I got questions like do you have vegan watches? You know?
Speaker 3:everybody's worried about the footprint. Yeah, but it's also a fair point because of the oils.
Speaker 2:You know what oils are you using. You know everybody's worried about the footprint, yeah, but it's also a fair point because of the oils. You know what oils are you using. You know is it, is it synthetic oils? Um straps, of course, you know calf or imitation or substitute. So I mean all these questions and and I mean the thing is sustainability being high on the agenda of the gen Z, we started looking into is it possible to do something. So it was not about doing something completely sustainable, but doing something more sustainable. And this is how we got into this cold tide topic, because plastic is a big problem and then thinking of OK, you can recycle it and make a cool watch, and the advantage of it is you can give it any color you want, so that you know it kind of becomes very funky because you can start to do huge variations. So that's how the tide came about that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:I was gonna ask you um, how, how does uh, how does maurice lacroix uh ensure the quality of its time pieces and uh, what sets its manufacturing process apart, uh, from other, you know, watch brands um.
Speaker 2:So I mean, what's what's different versus most of the watch brands, but not not the top ones, is?
Speaker 2:I mean, we have a whole development in-house.
Speaker 2:So I have technical developers, I have people working on designs, then I have the whole development process internalized, meaning, you know, working from a design technical drawing, from a technical drawing on the prototyping, prototyping, then of course, pre, pre-series, pre-production, and then of course, you're going to your production.
Speaker 2:Um, so this is quite particular because if you master the development of movements and then we have all our you know assembly lines here and and also what you do is you have quality control incoming, which you tend to be more strict, that you can be very flawless in terms of your production, very streamlined, and then, of course, at the end of your production line, again you've got quality controls. And basically what I was saying is we're able of doing the high-end watches and this high-end watches, so the most expensive watches are designed by the same teams, developed by the same teams but also checked by the same teams and produced by the same teams or assembled by the same teams than the guys who will do the low lines. So, meaning, the expertise, the competence we can do we have on the high end. We give the same attention on the low end.
Speaker 1:Something I noticed too that, like, I guess you don't really talk about anymore, or at least people don't give you credit for, but you guys were one of the first brands to really kind of push this idea of alternative materials, like, and when I when I say like, when I look back in, like power light right, like in 2013, like you guys were working on power light and people were like, why are you spending money developing materials like nobody cares? You know, um, and then now you see every single watch brand out there has some type of proprietary materials. Um, I mean, that's credit that you guys deserve, that you don't.
Speaker 2:You know you don't take the throne there, you know yeah, I mean, we're being very swiss, you know, very understated very discreet but, I mean yeah, but this year we worked a lot on materials.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you follow a bit our launches, so, um, we did a few very nice bronze executions beginning of the year on the Pontus S and on the Icon. We launched a few weeks ago the titanium. And, of course, one material which is quite difficult to master but we're about to launch is the ceramic Icon ceramic through, but we're we're about to launch is the ceramic icon. Ceramic so it's, and and ceramic, you know it's, in terms of the quality. So there's a black one, a white one, and the black is matte and the white one is really white, white. So it was so white that, you know, we have the anti-reflecting coating on the dial, because we want to dial, too, match the pureness of of the ceramic bands and case. So the white has to be really pure. And when you we did this at the end of the process, we saw that the anti-reflective coating was giving it a yellowish, brownish tint. So we even worked on the anti-reflective coating to have something really pure white. So that's going to be quite interesting. And the black one, matte, is really cool. And well, you know, ceramic is very breakable.
Speaker 2:So we had to reconceive the whole watch in terms of the strap, the, the bracelet, because in in a normal steel steel watch, a steel strap, you have pins, but if you put pins in a ceramic braids it just snaps, just shatters. And also the design of our icon. You have a kind of six grips or six claws on on the bezel and these are screwed from beneath. Well, ceramic you cannot screw something from in beneath, it just shatters too. So we had to. It's a monoblock bezel and also the strap is completely new design. But we wanted to keep the. You have to keep the icon proportions or the design.
Speaker 1:So it's been uh, it's been actually two and a half three years development to get that and because it's more risk, like well, it's one of the most accessible ceramic proposal in the market ceramic is incredibly challenging to work with and, uh, I have a few ceramic watches and you know, of course, everybody's like, oh well, the watch will just shatter and if you drop it I, I haven't had that happen to me, thank gosh, um. But you know, I I have seen some of the stuff that you do, which you know, with pbd and uh, and I guess, for me personally, I have a bias against pbd because, uh, in the like, I had one of the early bell and ross watches and it's like you know, you look at it and it's scratched and it goes right to the steel and you're like, okay, well, you know. Or if you look at some of the um, the mid-70s pvds with like, uh, like the course, yeah, the porsche design chronographs and all that, and I mean they just look like shit. You know, uh in in modern, uh, in a modern collection, but uh, but I'll be excited to see um.
Speaker 1:And I guess you know, obviously we talked to a lot of watch brands and we know you guys are super far out. Like you know, you're looking at your next five, ten years, do you guys? And you don't have to give us all the details, but I'm sure you have something new that you're getting ready to drop. You know that maybe might take the icon away from the mainstay. You know a new collection. If you could give us a taste.
Speaker 2:So next year is the 50th anniversary of Maurice Lacroix. So I mean there's a different way to look at it. I mean some brands you know it's a tendency to celebrate 50 years and you redo a best of of your last 50 years. But we are younger brand, so we've got 50 years of experience. But it's also for us to kick off the next 50 years. So there will be um. It will be a very interesting year to follow Maurice Lacroix. There will be at the beginning of the year an opportunity we're bringing back. What we're missing today is even a more accessible watch, mechanical Kind of everyday watch, but Maurice Lacroix quality will be around $1,300. That's one part of it. Another area we haven't been very strong, but we have strong, big opportunities, is ladies. So, ladies, there will be a very beautiful launch next year. We're actually what's interesting is we're relaunching something, a shape we had in the collection in the year 1992 thousands and we worked a lot on developing, redesigning the shape internally. But interesting enough it's.
Speaker 3:It's very close to things we had 30 years ago but it's not a square cubitus okay, all right, glad to hear that you guys are focusing on like ladies watches too, because I I feel like that's that's kind of the thing, is it's becoming of the day that like ladies watches are becoming more prevalent? Uh, it's good to see ladies kind of getting into the market more too. Um, so that'll be exciting to see we've talked.
Speaker 1:We've talked to some like females in the industry in, like you know, the concept of making a female watch is just. It's like shrinking it down and throwing diamonds on it, or throwing mother of pearl and they're like come on, like this is bullshit you know so so what power do you?
Speaker 2:yeah, we have one collection with this, ladies only. Currently it's fiaba and um. It's exactly what you say. I mean design and men's watch. Make it, shrinking it. It's not aAPA and it's exactly what you say. I mean designing a men's watch and shrinking it.
Speaker 2:It's not a beautiful ladies' design and the same thing around you know being I mean, we see it every day being good at designing men's watches does not mean you're good at designing ladies' watches. It's a huge challenge and it's you know, and you look at some brands who are very good with ladies' watches. I mean, basically you're good at one or the other, but there's very little brands who do both. Yeah, but getting back to the 50th anniversary, and then, of course, I mean Icon has just been launched, if you want, because it's been six years, seven years now. So our focus still remains icon and and next year we just want to bring icon to a next level. So there will be some, you know, some reinforcement of the current what we do, but we'll also think about how can we bring it also a new in new areas, new territories, without alienating where we're good at, which is kind of the classical icon today, and this has to continue.
Speaker 3:Now we know that you guys have influencers, ambassadors, people like that that can help drive these products. How important are these partnerships for Maurice Lecoy, and what qualities do you look for in these ambassadors and influencers?
Speaker 2:I mean the whole thing about ambassador influencers. First thing is the world has changed and the point number one is about authenticity. So, exactly on these people, it brings us nothing if we pay somebody millions for a few posts. Of course it's out there, but people will know, especially the younger generation. They know, okay, it's paid, so is it really relevant? So, point number one, it's about really having authentic relationships. So the friends of brand we have are really people who are interested in what we do. They don't do it for the money, but what we try to do is we try to create projects. We like to develop things together and so you know partnerships we've done in the past or things we're bringing on next year. There's two or three interesting collaborations and it's all fun stuff. And it's also fun stuff in this.
Speaker 2:We like to be perceived as an urban brand because of our you know these younger generations, uh, propentially, you know their playground is the city, is the urban environment, and so you know to speak to them, to be relevant to them, you want to do things in the urban environment. This is why we're big into basketball, three by three, and this is why we've done things in the past like formula e because it happens in the city, with this, this kind of modern volleyball, which was always stadiums that were building up in cities. So you know, there's, it's always the city, the city, the urban environment. Right, we have an ambassador. She's a skateboarding, longboard skateboarder. We have people who do urban dancing. They're kind of street dance, hip-hop for tide. We did a red bull dancer style, which is kind of a hip-hop street style contest. So you see, that's really the, the urban environment is where we try to play and that's that's where we have our customer base. And then you bring in the watch, kind of the Swiss watch message.
Speaker 1:I also noticed that you guys used to have more maybe should I say his name. I think you know where I'm going with this but you guys used to have more sports-focused influencers, specifically tennis stars that are no longer with you. So I guess it seems like the mentality has just shifted right, because you're going after seemingly a different audience than you are now. Yes, is that where the direction change happened in your ambassador program or friends of the brand?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. Because going with superstars everybody knows you pay the millions. And then how authentic is it them pushing or being portrayed or doing something on social media with your brand? You know it's so. You go with that brand because just this person has been paid millions to to work with it. Or are you going to work with someone or appreciate a brand where somebody who stands behind it really likes what we do and there's a reason to the person, a reason why this person works with you. So we I mean we we definitely will not work and not working with big names.
Speaker 2:And it's also, you know, it's not the idea of the brand. The idea of the brand is to do exactly what we did in 2004 and is to take people in the becoming and a system. So you know, the whole campaign claim is about your time is now, and we always say, you know, success is a journey, not a destination. So it's all these ideas which are very strong here and the brand is younger. You know, it's about your beginnings, it's about your first successes. If you have somebody of the, of the quality of you mentioned before you're at the end of your career, you've done it, you're the best, you're number one, right that makes sense.
Speaker 1:You know, out of all the years I've been in the watch industry and all the brands we've worked with, I have never heard somebody say that authenticity is important and it is.
Speaker 2:it is the number one important point If you're a social media today and in something that, like our, our first podcast guest was Jose Perestroika.
Speaker 1:Do you know who Jose is? No His his name is. His alias is periscope okay but he, yeah, he's an investigative journalist and he kind of exposes the, the big brands and all of the, the bullshit that they put out and skew and um, and you know a lot of these brands are really hiding a lot of you know important information from their customers. And we, you know we can use every single watchmaker ever. Who's ever lied about using an in-house caliber or you know, or whatever right, but it's.
Speaker 1:It's refreshing to hear you say you know, because I've never heard anybody say that. And you know, that's what I think. When we started Lonely Wrist, like, the whole concept and project was to first of all give everybody like an equal playing field. Right, we're like you know, we could, you know, promote the big boys. Right, like you know, we could, you know, promote the big boys right.
Speaker 1:You know, all the Richemonts, all the Swatch Group products, all the LVMH brands. But we're giving everybody the equal playing field to come on our platform, right, because we feel like every watch brand caters to a unique market, like a unique customer segment. So creating an equal playing field and then transparency, you know, being honest, being genuine. You know I used to sell watches and I can't tell you how many times I told people to not buy a watch because it was a piece of shit. You know, and I'm glad to hear you say that, to be honest, um, but I'm sure, as you, as you transition into targeting a younger crowd, you know obviously switch watchmaking kind of like hangs us laurels on tradition, right, like being traditional. So how, how do you guys balance like being a traditional watch brand versus like targeting a new generation of people? Who who wears these all the time?
Speaker 2:yeah, but I mean that's um, and the answer is with the gen z's. They're the best example and they really give you the the answer. The thing is with gen z's, you know they're, they're over connected, they um, they learned, you know, get this right. After two years you throw it away and um, there's. So there's different elements because I mean, these people are over connected, so they need to get a grip on something right.
Speaker 2:And what is interesting with swiss watch making? It's, it's Swiss watchmaking, it's a traditional Swiss heritage, just like the work of leather for the handbag industry. Or you have fashion, with the big fashion brands, high-end fashion, haute couture. All these luxury categories have something always rooted in very traditional things. What they also learned about is it's not only about the traditional part, but it's about the quality part. It goes together right. And look at what's happening at the moment the whole vintage market, not only for watches, but look at what's happening with Hermes bags, chanel bags, 30, 40-year-old bags, which are sold more expensive the price of new.
Speaker 2:And what these younger generations have learned is, first of all, you don't throw it away. After two years you pay a bit more money, but over the years, if you look at the usage and you can also can take care of it, especially watches. You know you can. You got a problem, you got a battery, you can. You can repair it. You can. You have a problem with the movement? You can fix it. And you can use a watch 30, 40, 50, 60 years. So on one side you have something to hold on. You learn that it's more expensive but quality, on the long run you have more out of it. And then there's, of course, the whole sustainability thing, which is about not wasting or throwing things away, but repairing it, taking care of it. And then there's also the cultural heritage part, which is relevant. I mean, look at the number of projects of artists who are reinterpreting traditional ways of paint, of crafts, um, you know, in different fields. Um, also look at the high-end fashion. You know, every year, of course, they have to come and bring four or five collections, but a lot of the inspiration, you know. Then you got the 40s, then you got the 50s, then you got 60s. I mean it's always getting back because you need to have something to to hold on, and all these things are quite interesting with this, this new generation, and we there were, we were all thinking, okay, smartwatch is coming out. It's dead, but you know, at the end the watch, what is the watch? It's dead, but at the end the watch, what is the watch? It's not the extension of your iPhone on your wrist.
Speaker 2:The Swiss watch tells a lot about who you are. It's like a handbag, it's like a piece of fashion that you recycled in a vintage store. It tells a lot about you. It's a lot about taste, distinguishedness and also character, attitude. Are you going to buy a black PVD or black ceramic watch and you're going to be dressed all in black? Or you like the color stuff, or are you more kind of the elegant type, or are you more on the disc elegant type? Or are you more on the discreet side or are you on the showy side? So you know it's a very intimate and personal communication you have versus your peers and in this society where thing is so fast, so connected, where you're losing your values, I mean watchmaking has some solutions or has some things you can take out of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I definitely think that there will always be newer technologies that come out that will always try and take somehow from the watch industry and try and flip things differently different trends, if you will. So, while we're on that subject, what trends do you see emerging in the luxury watch industry and how do you guys plan to stay ahead of those trends?
Speaker 2:I mean, what we see a lot is about kind of the no gender or kind of men's watches becoming smaller, ladies' watches becoming bigger, and at the end, what we see is women sharing watches of their men's and vice versa. So that's, that's an interesting one. Then you have a lot on development, on more colors. So I think people need more time for expression, and one which is huge. But it's not only watchmaking, it's in all over, in all goods categories, it's collaborations. I mean, i've've I've never seen so many collaborations, not only in watches, but in apparel, in fashion, yeah, you name it.
Speaker 2:there's not one category, one industry that doesn't do collaborations today it's a lot about like who you know, With who you work right, there's some good examples and there's some less good examples, but I think it's also nice to stretch the brands and then to go in reaching out to new communities. It's a bit about expanding your brand footprint. There's actually a lot you can do. And the good thing about collaborations the more you do, the more you learn, because we've been doing stuff with designers like 10 years ago and at the beginning it was like, okay, what are we going to do with that designer or that architect or that artist? But at the end this person has another vision and what we've done out of the collaborations we ended up finding always very interesting ideas which then found their way again in the collection one way or the other years after.
Speaker 1:You've talked a lot about targeting a younger demographic Gen Z, millennials, I mean, I didn't see anything like this, but I'm assuming you guys are working on programs or initiatives, things like that, that kind of contribute to the community and support ethical practices and watchmaking. Um, maybe not, maybe so. If yes, uh, can you tell us about some of those things?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean the. The best example was tide, where every you know 20 of the production costs were going to this foundation in northern northern thailand where they recycle, get the bottles plastic bottles out of the ocean. So it served two ways. One is that there's so much plastic waste in those regions, there's less fish, meaning local communities. Uh, with the fishermen, they were sending more their kids out to um to get fish and not getting education. So what we were doing is we were paying them the price we would pay them for fish. We were paying them in kilos of bottles plastic bottles recycled, which means you know they go out whatever they do less fish, more fish or plastic bottles they would get a fixed income and which allowed them to send their kids to school. And then we were also paying warehouses infrastructures, because there's parts of the world where, especially Northern Thailand, it's not the levels of quality and infrastructure you have in modern civilizations as we use it in the US or Europe. So it's nice also to be supportive, develop that and at the end you get the plastic you recover finds its way into a watch. That's one of them.
Speaker 2:But I always say sustainability or these initiatives. It's not about the reports and the greenwashing. It's about doing them. And the question is always it's not what do you do, but when do you start right? And once you start, there's no way back. And well, I mean, anyway, in terms of sustainability, it becomes a standard. I mean, you know, look at the generations coming, they're very high expectations, very demanding. It becomes a standard. I mean, look at the generations coming, they're very high expectations, very demanding, and it's important that you deliver on that agenda. And I've seen, I've heard, I've seen some customers saying you know, oh, how does this? Is this watch packaged? Oh, does it come with that? Okay, I'm not having that watch because I, this company shows me they don't understand what my values are and I have other expectations. So, okay, the watch is fine, but the packaging, it's a no-go.
Speaker 1:So I don't support this cause something that I've heard you talk about, which again is very refreshing, is customer feedback. You know, like you said, hey, look, here's what our customer wants, here's what we've heard. You know. It sounds like you know, because you guys are I mean, I'm going to use air quotes here, but a smaller watch brand um, that you guys actually can listen to your customers, like if you look at some of the big boys out there, like they're not even going to listen to me or justin or any of our listeners or anybody.
Speaker 1:I don't give a shit about any of us you know, they're like hey, and you know you can look at the most recent cubitus release, where you know the ceo came out and said well, you're just a hater like we don't care what you think you're never going to want to protect, you know.
Speaker 1:So the fact that you're actually listening to your customers is something that is also very unique in the watch industry, you know so. So, I mean, it seems like that's very important to you. And and how do you? You know, I'm sure there's listeners out there that are that have your watches and have your products in their home and on their wrist how do you engage your customers and how do you communicate with them?
Speaker 2:I mean, first thing important is we always say we listen to customers. It's not a marketing claim. I mean you can go on the website now. There's my email address and everybody who writes me an email. I respond to them and and our our point of view is, you know, a customer giving you a feedback. It's not a critic, because every feedback you get you get is half a solution, it's half a proposal and you know, the success on icon has been based on market research and most of the things we do is based on feedback because our customer know better than we do what they want. Our distributors, our retailers are facing everyday customers with requests. You know, and the best way to do watches and to develop watches is to develop watches. You sell. A watch that sells is a watch that has been decided. When there has been a decision behind from a customer, he says, yes, I want this brand because I like the design, I like the brand spirit, whatever. So ignoring your customer feedback is sort of ignoring the sellability of your product.
Speaker 3:I know earlier we were kind of on the subject of working with ceramic and how difficult it can be. I'm curious, kind of reword this in a way, but can you share one of the most challenging projects that your team has worked on in recent times and what made it so groundbreaking for?
Speaker 2:the brand. I mean ceramic definitely, because I mean it took us one in three years and now we're delivering the first batches. But we also plan, you know, big batches. We have high quality controls. So our supplier are sweating at the moment because they can only deliver half of the quantities, but we've got big orders there. Titanium was also a challenge. So all the materials, as long as you get out of the steel and the gold, it's all materials which, okay, it's sexy. They've got better, better um characteristics. I mean yeah, but then again it's very complicated because the titanium watch we have, for example, um on the three hands, so we have an ultraviolet color and the other one is a tone-on-tone gray, same color as the titanium. We have been smart enough to say we want the strap to be polished and brushed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was really a good idea. It gives it that wrist roll ability. It looks better.
Speaker 2:It looks more qualitative, but it's been also a very big challenge. You to polish titanium, that is is quite challenging.
Speaker 1:I'm a I'm a huge fan of, uh, forged carbon, like I. I start to see everybody doing carbon, like forged carbon watches. I'm like, yes, yes, this is what I want you know, like this is what I'm into. Um, and I, I know, because everybody just says how hard it is to work with because it's fragile, but you have to form it right before it becomes strong and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So if you're into forged carbon, I mean, we did the collection in 2014 on the Pontus Pontus S Regatta that was forged carbon and for the only watch project we presented the Gravity on forged carbon. We still have a few cases. So if you want to have your customized and unique watch, you can choose the color of the dial and we still have some cases left.
Speaker 1:I have. Ever since I got a chance to get hands on with the Pontus, I've been waking up in the middle of my night dreaming about them, because it's a sick watch, you know, it's just so good, it's just so good, and yeah, so I'm gonna have to get in touch with you about getting some of the, getting one of those.
Speaker 2:You got my email, stephenvazercom, very easy.
Speaker 1:I was laughing because whenever you said, oh, my email's on the website, I was like, well, that would have made our life a lot easier because we went through the more formal channels to reach here, you know, going through your rep and going through your leadership team, and I was like, shit, that would have saved us a lot of time. I'm I'm really curious, you know, since you are, you know, a leader in the watch industry. You're a CEO. You know what have you learned in a leadership role at a watch brand and what are some of the valuable lessons that you've learned about leadership management?
Speaker 2:and you know, while you've been at maurice lacroix, I mean, the the most important thing is is about the team. You gotta gotta get your team engaged. Um, you know, it's not about my decisions or my choices. I mean, we all are people with various tastes but I think it's really important to to support the team, to give the team the chance to express themselves, and my job is is more about, you know, it's more about kind of being a coach or, you know, assisting them. I'm there just to check that we're respecting and we're going to the direction of the Nolan style We've set ourselves and checked that the strategies are right. But the big leverage I mean we're 60 people here in the factory and globally the brand is about 120 people with nine subsidiaries.
Speaker 2:But it's about, you know, so youaries but it's about you know so you're not a big, you know you're not a huge team, so you need to have the, you know, the I will always say the power of the multiples. Together you achieve more team.
Speaker 2:So that's, that's, that's, that's what you need because you don't in terms of resources. I mean it easy when you've got millions of budget, you can engage all the people, the smart people we have to take a call on. You know, do we engage this guy and we get that? We engage that guy and we get that? It's like we only have one position here, right.
Speaker 1:And how did you transition from just being with the brand to kind of running the brand. Because I never got that story from you and I'm very curious.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I joined as marketing director in 2008. And I mean already when I joined. I mean I saw the brand. I was like whoa, it has a lot of potential but there's a lot of work. There was a lot of work about this clarity in the collections, clear brand positioning, also processes. What also a lot of people forget or never. They forget that behind a lot of success, brand success, it's not only about the marketing and the product. It's also what happens on the backstage, especially in production processes. So what we've been able to do in a few years with less people to produce faster and meaning producing faster.
Speaker 2:Your retailer is happy because when he has a customer and he doesn't have the watch in stock, the chances he gets delivered quite fast and there's he can repurchase is, with most like what, very high. It was not like that when I joined. When I joined, if you wanted to reorder, repurchase a watch which was non-stock, sometimes it would take you a year, year and a half. Today, just and a half. Today, just a few days, wow. So it's a different world. So this means also better confidence from your retailers, from distribution partners, because they know they have to carry less stock because anytime they can call and somebody in the back has it on stock and it's delivered quite fast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean. Times have changed and I'll find our final question reaching the top of the hour here. I'm sure in your mind, as a competent CEO, you have the next decade planned, know, for the brand. So give us some of your you know uh milestones that you hope to achieve, because what we're going to do is we're going to check back with you in a couple years and see, and see where you're at to achieve those I mean the.
Speaker 2:The northern star we have with a big vision is we want to be among the top five or the top players on this 1,000 to 3,000 watch category. So it means in 10 years we'll still be in that price segment. We'll still offer you very high quality, we'll be offering you craftsmanship, we'll be offering you design, iconic designs and basically quality and after sales and quality and production. Right, this is where we're heading. But what I also learned is not to plan too far ahead, because you get the challenges.
Speaker 1:So it's much more important you're agile that I like that, just knowing how to pivot well, thank you so much for spending, you know, just about an hour with us, sharing your passion for the brand, the future, uh, walking us through some of the concepts and some of your leadership strategies. Uh, I can't say I'm. I'm humbled enough just that you spent some time with us and, um, and I'm a fan, you know, uh, I can't wait, I can't wait to watch you take over, and I'll be sitting there, as you know, rooting with my little marisa quaff rat flag, um.
Speaker 1:But but thank you, you know I just really want to thank you for spending time with us and um and giving your perspective, you know. Thanks you guys.
Speaker 2:Thanks for the chat guys very interesting and, and you know, if you really want to help us speak about else, because this is really what we can use and help. So awareness is is our number one challenge. Once we got sorted the awareness part, we can. We can, we can pick up on the product quality.
Speaker 1:This is the phase one for us the podcast. Then we start rolling out YouTube videos and articles and all that.
Speaker 2:I'll be there anytime.
Speaker 1:Everybody. We are going to link Maurice Lacroix's website down there in the description of the podcast, the YouTube video. Check them out, find your local dealer, get to them, get hands on with these watches. You do not want to miss out on this great brand. Thank you so much, stefan, for coming on Thank you guys, thank you. We will see you on the next episode at some point. Thanks everybody Bye.
