The spirit of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in South America

Richard Courbrant - When this writer as a young man skied down the slopes of Villars, he did not know that his link with Switzerland was to be long-lasting.

Richard Courbrant

When this writer as a young man skied down the slopes of Villars, he did not know that his link with Switzerland was to be long-lasting. Sitting facing Lake Geneva on arrival from Basel to attend the Trade Exhibition in Geneva, he realised that, fundamentally, this entire landscape and all this geography belonged to him to some extent. At least, that is what he thought. At the time, it was perhaps a determination to improve his skiing and certainly his French that drew him to Switzerland. These days, it is doubtless the watchmaking industry and in particular Luxury Watchmaking. I have learnt about the various aspects of the industry as a retailer linked to an Auction House, at the head of an after sales service department for several brands and as ambassador for a House of Fleurier. But it is without doubt within the framework of communication that I have found greatest happiness, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, an operating base that covered several countries of Latin America.

During these twenty-odd years of apprenticeship, I have been able to acquire a few hard facts and above all the capacity of surprising myself in an industry that is constantly changing. Twenty years are insignificant compared to more than a century of history in our region. The history of Luxury Watchmaking in Latin America dates from the time when watchmaking began to conquer other markets and other continents. It was the time when wise artisans formed partnerships with clever salesmen. And thus was born the first great associations between watchmaking houses and South American retailers: Serpico & Laino in Venezuela, Gondolo in Brazil, Ricciardi in Argentina, Freccero in Uruguay and Cuervo & Sobrino in Cuba. The period also witnessed the birth of the first subsidiaries, such as the subsidiary of Girard Perregaux at the start of the 20th century in Buenos Aires.

We have neither the time nor the space here to go into detail. We will therefore simplify things a little and say that subsequently it was the time of arrival of houses like Tissot and Omega, followed by Rolex, not counting Longines which was already on the spot for years. We are talking about volumes that were much more important, based on distribution structures set up rapidly by the traditional watchmaking houses. We will now take a short cut to our own age, one of assimilations and takeovers, one marked by the emergence of major groups and thus the consecration of the luxury market. All of this also led to the appearance of a new type of retailer that not only acquired a new vocabulary but in particular one that had to use different instruments of work, such as business plans or media planning. So new retailers appeared which, without losing their commercial talents, especially that of client contact, entered the era of management and CEOs. All of this generated a huge expansion of Luxury Watchmaking, thanks to these retailers that called upon new management techniques and succeeded in overcoming the obstacles encountered in the various economies in the region. New collectors avid for new products appeared, to join traditional collectors whose DNA was imbued with the great names of the Luxury Watchmaking world.

In the Seventies, this writer remembers being astounded at hearing a speech by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing emphasising a raft of benefits linked to retaining and giving recognition to artisans and their know-how. In a world in which technology was beginning to put down roots, this writer felt that this view had but a single destiny: an ineluctable disappearance. It was only later that the full and ample significance of this form of oracle was appreciated. A memory that in the end is not accidental, since today it justifies a mission. The mission of this writer, who is trying to transmit around his region all the knowledge he has acquired of the vast empire of watchmaking and to hand down the ancestral gestures that are perpetuated on noble materials, ones that change while enabling us to discover new mechanisms or other much older ones that are becoming timeless. This is a high temperature for an enamel that one day will give new life to a great artist or a great work: one that is cloisonné or chequered, a tourbillon, a double tourbillon, a coaxial, a double spiral or more.

This writer will now take his leave, reflecting on the winged yellow and blue flags in the heart of the Cordillera of the Andes while a shaman called on all the gods and all the forces of nature to protect us and offer us the greatest of wisdoms. ■

© 2007 All rights reserved

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