De Grisogono, just fifteen years old and projects by the dozen

In the market

Quentin Simonet - Investments at de Grisogono - in a production workshop, expanding the sales network and the company’s future premises - are on a par with the brand’s success. And for its fifteenth anniversary, de Grisogono has other surprises in store.

Investments at de Grisogono - in a production workshop, expanding the sales network and the company’s future premises - are on a par with the brand’s success. And for its fifteenth anniversary, de Grisogono has other surprises in store.

Quentin Simonet

Fifteen. An age of passion and youth, of reckless energy and unbridled imagination. Not that the Genevan fine jewellery and watch company de Grisogono waited this long to put all these qualities into practice, in an explosion of colours and forms. The brand has come a long way in these fifteen years. Its founder, Fawaz Gruosi, opened his first boutique in 1993 on Rue du Rhône, Geneva’s most prestigious thoroughfare. The company was launched with an initial outlay of CHF 16,000. What Fawaz Gruosi may have lacked in commercial strategy - he had no idea exactly where he wanted this adventure to go - he more than made up for in talent and in next to no time his jewellery creations were surprising and seducing customers.

Annual production of 5,000 watches

As with any new business, the early days were sometimes chaotic, negotiating all manner of pitfalls along the way. Still, from small beginnings the company grew, and while Fawaz Gruosi, ex-Bulgari and ex-Harry Winston, split from his two partners the brand carved out a name for itself with inspired ideas. One of these was to make the black diamond, shunned by jewellers for decades, newly desirable. Another was to use shagreen which the majority of brands have since adopted. But that wasn’t enough to satisfy this native Florentine. In 2000 he launched himself into watches, readily admitting he knew nothing about this sector, and unveiled Instrumento N° Uno, his first creation, at Basel. Eight hundred pieces, at over CHF 40,000, were snapped up. Since then, the offer has grown to include some twenty more collections, including the now famous Occhio, a mechanical minute-repeater with a camera diaphragm mechanism.

The company, located in Plan-les-Ouates (canton of Geneva), now produces around 5,000 watches and 3,000 jewellery creations per year, in addition to some 500 one-off creations, and employs around 50 staff. Fawaz Gruosi says sales are increasing 30% from one year to the next. In 2006, de Grisogono generated sales worth CHF 108 million, up 30% on 2005 and the brand has every chance of posting sales of CHF 135 million in 2007. Its target for 2011 is to reach CHF 300 million.

Captain of his ship

"Not for a single second could I ever have imagined getting this far. Especially when I think back to the criticism I had to endure. At one point I was even ready to give up," confesses Fawaz Gruosi. In order to keep pace with demand, the company recently invested close to CHF 1 million in a prototyping workshop for its watches. It will be used to develop micro-series, excluding movements. Meanwhile Fawaz Gruosi continues to develop the brand internationally with a network of self-owned boutiques. Not that de Grisogono is any less selective, with a maximum of twenty boutique openings scheduled worldwide. In 2008 the brand will open a second point of sale in Hong Kong, as well as in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Born August 8th, 1952, Fawaz Gruosi doesn’t believe in doing things by half. The company has its own research and development department, which is something of an exploit for a firm this size. Furthermore, in 2007 the company turned an important corner: Fawaz Gruosi is now alone at the helm after buying the 49% stake in de Grisogono which for the past five years was held by the Scheufele family, owner of Chopard.

And that’s not all, promises Fawaz Gruosi. The brand is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary in January 2008. And over at Plan-les-Ouates, word is that the two new watches unveiled for this occasion are set to make quite an impression. The Genevan company is also preparing to undergo the biggest transformation in its young existence. "On December 31st 2008 we will no longer be a small firm," Fawaz Gruosi recently declared. De Grisogono will move into its own premises, a 7,500 square-metre building, at end 2009 and will take on a veritable management team. In the longer term, its ambition is to become a Manufacture. But shh!… it’s still a secret. ■

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