Parmigiani aims to double production in three years

Interview

For the jazz fans who congregated on Montreux this year to listen to Pat Metheny, Al Jarreau or Chick Corea, this was also a chance to become better acquainted with another name devoted to quality and authenticity: Parmigiani, in its first year as one of the festival’s official partners and already looking forward to renewing the experience, such was the harmony between the two. Michel Parmigiani, founder of the eponymous brand, talks about what lies ahead for the firm. Interview by Christophe Roulet

How is the Parmigiani brand evolving?

Michel Parmigiani: It’s doing well and enjoying greater and greater success. The public is increasingly familiar with the brand and this is reflected in our sales. To put it simply, customers come to us spontaneously; we no longer need redouble our efforts to get their attention. We’re in the process of expanding our worldwide distribution network in response to this. By the end of the year we’ll have 250 points of sale with annual production of 5,000 watches.

Our aim will then be to increase production to 10,000 watches and have 300 points of sale by 2010. This is the minimum requirement if we’re to have a respectable level of visibility across all five continents. This implies doubling production in three years, but not just anyhow. We’ve already gone beyond the 5,000 mark, by which I mean 5,000 watches sold as we don’t want the markets to build up stocks of our products. We make a point of monitoring retailers so as to remain fully informed of sales to end customers. Once we’ve reached the 10,000 mark, we will probably be at cruising speed.

What about Vaucher Manufacture?

Vaucher is our Manufacture, an industrial facility acquired with the Sandoz Family Foundation and which plays an essential role in our supplies. Over the years we have added to it with the purchase of a dial manufacturer, a case-maker, a precision-turning company and a parts manufacturer specialising in wheels, pinions and screws. However, Vaucher Manufacture isn’t wholly dependent on Parmigiani: half its orders come from other firms. Our initial concern was to guarantee the quality of the parts that make up our watches and over time this has led to our becoming more self-sufficient. For example, we’re presently working on the escapement, balance and balance-spring to impose higher standards of quality for these parts. The Qualité Fleurier* label operates along the exact same lines.

How long did it take to build a veritable watch group?

We began in 2000, stepping up the pace as of 2005. This year Parmigiani is celebrating its 11th anniversary as a brand. On a personal level, I’ve worked independently for 31 years after two years with a watch firm as assistant to the technical director. I was involved in a great deal of restoration work before launching the Parmigiani brand. This brought me into contact with some extraordinary creations and enabled me to develop a culture around the kind of exceptional pieces that it’s almost impossible to reproduce today. These criteria of a different age were uppermost in my mind when determining what Parmigiani watches’ positioning would be.

What’s your view of the dozens of new brands that have appeared over the past two to three years, particularly in the luxury watch segment?

In itself, I’d say it’s healthy emulation. Competition encourages creativity. It remains that these new brands must be capable of proposing their own distinctive movements. Production could well dry up in the not too distant future, which could spell disaster for many of these new names. Nor do we intend bridging the gap for the simple reason that our production does not conform to the same standards of quality as those that generally prevail in subcontracting. As I said earlier, our philosophy has been to associate a given product with a given Manufacture. Our independence is therefore the consequence of our desire for quality. Several of these newcomers boast of having set up integrated industrial resources, which isn’t quite the case. They need to react fast or risk disappearing for lack of guaranteed supplies. No-one can set up as an ebauche manufacturer overnight because Swatch will soon be cutting off supplies. This is something that requires a considerable amount of experience and expertise.

Would you say that ten years has been an important milestone for the Parmigiani brand?

The brand is indeed on the road to success. However, vigilance and caution are still important. We must keep our feet on the ground, stay one step ahead and not let success go to our heads. As it’s been said in certain quarters, it would only take an economic crash for it all to collapse. Having said that, we’re living a truly marvellous experience with Parmigiani. The aim is for the brand to continue to thrive, with its own, independent expertise. In fact the Sandoz Family Foundation, which provides first-class support and financial backing, intends establishing Parmigiani as a reference among watch brands. And everything has been done to reach this goal. ■

*Created by Chopard, Bovet, Parmigiani and Vaucher Manufacture to measure the reliability of watch movements, Qualité Fleurier corresponds to a four-stage certification process. The preliminary requirement is that the movement have COSC certification (Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres). It must then pass the Chronofiable test and comply to specific standards regarding quality of finish. It is then subjected to final testing by the Fleuritest machine, specially developed to evaluate the movement’s functioning in extreme conditions. Qualité Fleurier is undoubtedly one of the most demanding labels of quality in watchmaking.

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