On the award ceremony for the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève final November, one winner provoked a couple of double takes.
The victor amongst six finalists within the annual design competitors’s Problem class which, final 12 months, targeted on watches priced at 2,000 Swiss francs, ($2,203) or much less, was the Millesime Computerized Small Seconds, a 39.5-millimeter vintage-inspired gown watch with a metal case and a sector dial, with separate concentric hour and minute tracks.
Its maker? Raymond Weil, a model making a brand new play for watch lovers.
Competing in opposition to timepieces together with a dive-GMT from the trade large Seiko and a colourful chronograph from the buzzy three-year-old newcomer Studio Underd0g, the Millesime got here from a model that’s identified extra for its affordability and its mainstream enchantment than it’s for incomes the praises of connoisseurs.
Elie Bernheim, 43, is Raymond Weil’s chief government and a grandson of the corporate’s eponymous founder, and he was amongst those that didn’t essentially count on the watch to win.
“We had no expectations,” he mentioned in a video name. “It’s one thing nice, completely nice for us.”
The timing helped to spice up the profile of the model’s wider Millesime assortment, launched this previous October. “I don’t need to say that that is the primary time that now we have a lot constructive suggestions from all of the markets,” Mr. Bernheim mentioned, “but it surely’s not distant from the fact.”
He mentioned that new variants of the timepieces, “with completely different execution, completely different sizes, some for girls and moon phases,” will land in shops this 12 months, at costs starting from $1,625 to $3,625. The brand new Millesime items had been launched at Watches and Wonders Geneva in April, the primary time the model had participated within the watch truthful.
However whereas the model has been a mainstay in malls and malls — classes which were ailing as of late — the corporate is revising its technique considerably, Mr. Bernheim mentioned, within the type of “a extra selective distribution.” It additionally edited its assortment, he mentioned, to concentrate on 4 core collections, down from six.
A comparatively new maker, based in 1976 in the course of the so-called quartz disaster, Raymond Weil constructed a following by providing well-priced battery-powered quartz and mechanical watches and selling them by way of advert campaigns that linked the model with the artwork world. The Precision Actions marketing campaign within the Nineties, shot by the American photographer Lois Greenfield, captured dancers within the air whereas performing athletic choreography.
Manufacturing has reached roughly 80,000 items a 12 months, in line with Mr. Bernheim, who wouldn’t disclose gross sales figures. By comparability, Longines, a Swatch Group-owned competitor that operates in the identical normal value vary, sells about 1.6 million items, in line with the 2024 Morgan Stanley report on the watch trade.
The corporate faces no scarcity of challenges within the present market.
“As soon as upon a time, Raymond Weil had been fairly profitable in a really difficult market phase — the lower-middle vary,” Oliver Müller, founding father of the Swiss consultancy LuxeConsult, mentioned in a video name. However now, he mentioned, “you will have a powerful competitor known as Swatch Group, proudly owning fairly a couple of manufacturers with the identical value positioning of Raymond Weil.”
Upstarts additionally pose competitors for Raymond Weil, Mr. Müller mentioned, which should compete not solely with sturdy institutional manufacturers “but in addition newcomers coming from crowd-funded campaigns on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and so on.”
Nonetheless, he mentioned, “Retailers want manufacturers like Raymond Weil as a result of that creates site visitors within the outlets, and the man shopping for a Raymond Weil — or no matter — at 1,000 to three,000 Swiss at some point may purchase a Tudor after which a Rolex.”
And Mr. Bernheim, the Raymond Weil chief government, plans to stay loyal to that comparatively reasonably priced price ticket. “We care concerning the accessibility of our watches,” he mentioned, “and I believe that it will likely be a mistake for the model to go increased than the worth level, a minimum of within the quick to midterm.”
James Lamdin, vp of classic and used timepieces for the Watches of Switzerland Group, a retailer that carries Raymond Weil, together with Longines and different manufacturers like Rolex, Cartier and Omega, sees the model’s technique on track.
“They’re trying to deliver up the general high quality of development and manufacture, significantly with extra widespread use of mechanical actions,” he mentioned, citing the path of Raymond Weil’s flagship Freelancer line — which incorporates some timepieces that incorporate RW1212, the corporate’s first proprietary motion — together with the broader Millesime assortment.
Adopting a throwback design for Millesime is a intelligent solution to give a comparatively younger model an aura of heritage and seize the eye of educated collectors, Mr. Lamdin mentioned.
He famous that Raymond Weil is “paying tribute to an period of Swiss watch design that’s actually extremely popular at this time.”
“There’s lots of consideration to element, and it reveals that the folks making the design selections and the market selections for his or her product collections are very in tune with the fanatic purchaser,” he added.
One benefit that not-so-big impartial manufacturers like Raymond Weil have over the dominant company teams is the power to pivot rapidly and experiment with unconventional choices that generate pleasure.
“There are limitations to what a few of these huge teams can produce,” Mr. Lamdin mentioned.
That’s not a big concern, he famous, for a family-owned model like Raymond Weil, “that may transfer a little bit bit extra frivolously on their toes, that isn’t afraid to have a little bit bit extra enjoyable, like they did with their Basquiat piece” in its Freelancer assortment.
The Raymond Weil x Basquiat Particular Version chronograph, launched late final 12 months, was created in collaboration with the property of the American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who died in 1988.
The 43.5-millimeter titanium and black ceramic watch is emblazoned with motifs from the artist’s oeuvre: the crown, the T-Rex, and the first shade palette. With a retail value of $4,725, it offered out: Mr. Bernheim mentioned that 85 % of the run was spoken for inside “5 – 6 days.”
Tradition and music have been constant parts of the Raymond Weil DNA because the early Eighties, Mr. Bernheim mentioned, when his grandfather “determined to associate with music occasions.” The model has beforehand created watches in tribute to bands like The Beatles and The Who, and Mr. Bernheim mentioned a collaboration could be launched this 12 months “centered round a preferred comedian e book” and the artist behind it.
