"Forcing through changes would be wrong"

Olivier Bernheim, President and CEO of Raymond Weil, supports a reinforced Swiss Made label but contests how the process has been implemented. Explanation.

How do you view the reinforcing of Swiss Made, to be debated at the next general assembly of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry in June?

Olivier Bernheim, President and CEO of Raymond Weil: I don’t agree with how the subject has been addressed, particularly as the project, as it stands, would be unacceptable to the Federal Council and the European Union. Reinforcing Swiss Made is an intelligent idea which we support, but wanting to force it through is, to my mind, not the right way to proceed.

You talk about forcing changes through yet the process, were it to go ahead, would take years ?

The process will effectively take seven to nine years: at least three years in Bern for possible amendments and a further four years in Brussels. That said, my main concern at this stage is that rather than rallying the different professionals in the branch, the question is being presented in terms of victims and oppressors. I refuse to accept this kind of dictatorship. I’d rather we reach an agreement on this essential question through openness and dialogue.

But what do you think of Swiss Made in itself?

Each brand has created its own DNA. Does anyone ask Mercedes where its dashboards or gearboxes are from? Is an Airbus German or French? More than anything else, connoisseurs of watches buy a standard of quality with which each brand’s charter must comply, in conformity with Swiss Made. As such, Swiss Made should be seen as a modus operandi. ■

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