Baume & Mercier, “a gateway to luxury”

Alain Zimmermann, CEO Baume & Mercier: Our first step was to stand back and give ourselves time to define a roadmap that would take us into the future. We had to be certain we were leading this 180-year-old brand in the right direction. This is a fundamental heritage. Baume & Mercier has written some of the finest chapters in watchmaking’s history, hence the need to refocus the brand on its values, while considering the key elements behind a successful luxury brand.

We started by looking at distribution and concluded that we had far too many points of sale. Having numerous representatives in the same area does nothing to promote a certain exclusivity. We therefore scaled down from 3,400 points of sale to 1,600, choosing partners in keeping with the new direction we aimed to give the brand.

We then considered our markets, where we needed to strike more of a balance. The brand is extremely well-known in Europe, even the United States, but not in Asia which is one of today’s biggest growth engines. We took time to analyse these new destinations and understand the finer points of their culture, so we might adopt the right approach and provide the most appropriate services. This is a substantial task, particularly for China, and still ongoing, aimed at establishing awareness of the brand. Having Richemont behind us has meant we’ve been able to act fast and with the necessary resources. We have a team working solely on China, for example. Of the 80 points of sale in the region, we’ve closed 30 with the aim of gradually working back up to 80, but again with the right partners.

Baume & Mercier is one single brand, but like a cocktail we gauge the ingredients differently according to the market. In China, we are emphasising the brand’s seniority and its attendant reliability and tradition. We also insist on the Swiss element as a synonym of quality and savoir-faire.

Nothing comes before the product. Again, we were struck by the overabundance of models in the Baume & Mercier catalogue. Clearly we needed to refocus and clarify our product offering; to restore complementary collections while bearing in mind the advantage Baume & Mercier has built by asserting its strength in classic watches for men and women, even if the balance had swung towards men’s watches over the years. Efforts consented to the Linea line should restore an equilibrium. Throughout all this talk about products, one important factor remained at the heart of the debate, and that was price. Baume & Mercier’s vocation is to propose quality watches at an affordable price of CHF 2,000 to CHF 4,000. The brand must be seen as a gateway to luxury, offering affordable timepieces to people who, whether for themselves or for someone else, want to purchase a beautiful fine watch. I often say that your first watch is the one you keep for a lifetime. The one you’ll never part with. This is what Baume & Mercier is about.

We needed a design people would recognise as Baume & Mercier and which drew on our past. Baume & Mercier is the seventh-oldest watch company boasting uninterrupted production. Throughout its 180 years, Baume & Mercier has produced everything from tourbillons to minute repeaters. We sat down and reviewed the hundreds of watches to our credit, and identified the defining features and characteristics of the collections proposed over the decades. The image that gradually emerged was one of classic elegance with a retro feel and a deliberately feminine slant. This prompted us to end certain collections and relaunch others, such as Capeland. We were careful not to introduce too many models and to retain a two-tier structure, the first level being the emblematic model, the one closest to the historic timepiece, with a second level of variations aimed more at diversification and maintaining an entry level. Baume & Mercier’s watches for 2011 and 2012 are the perfect illustration, with particular attention to finish and comfort.

Our watches contain movements from ETA, La Joux-Perret, Dubois Dépraz and Valjoux. For our emblematic watches, we also have access, via the Richemont group, to manufacture movements by ValFleurier. This isn’t a new approach for the brand. In-house we take charge of design, technical development, and oversee assembly, quality control and after-sales service in Les Brenets. The rest is subcontracted. Which is how we can bring affordable watches to market.

This is the last element in our strategy, namely brand environment. The Baume & Mercier name must immediately conjure up a unique identity of images, values, even smells. The brand lacked this distinctive environment which we had to rebuild. Beyond the company’s horological qualities, we asked ourselves what is it that sets the brand apart, and came up with themes such as family, friendship, elegance and sharing, of being unconventional but never arrogant. We also found inspiration in a fascinating piece of the brand’s history, in the 1920s, when Frères Baume became Baume & Mercier. These were the years of women’s emancipation, the emergence of the automobile and the possibilities for travel that came with it, and a new emphasis on free time and leisure. We set out in search of a “territory” that captured these values. It wasn’t long before we singled out the American east-coast resort of The Hamptons as that special place, one which could create a world around the brand. What’s more, Baume & Mercier had launched a Hampton collection in 1994. It was then a question of raising the concept to brand level. We did this with the new Baume & Mercier lifestyle and our “seaside living” ethos, with its implications of a place you only ever take those closest to you. A message of affection that we hope is spreading…