Tatler+
Celebrating the launch of the brand’s Hong Kong boutique, Breguet’s CEO Lionel a Marca discusses its unique philosophy, Asian customers’ love of complications, and how it balances heritage with innovation
In an intimate setting with the calm sophistication of a lounge, Tatler GMT had the privilege to meet Lionel a Marca, the CEO of Breguet Watches, at his newly launched boutique in Central, Hong Kong. This boutique—the brand’s first in the city—was thoughtfully designed as a sanctuary where customers can immerse themselves in the intricate world of Breguet’s timepieces.
Lionel a Marca expounded on the challenges of creating an in-store experience that not only sells but also educates customers about the complexities and rich heritage of Breguet watches. He shared insights into the differences between Asian and western watch lovers, the brand’s unique competitive edge and its dedication to a technically oriented watchmaking process that, while demanding meticulous precision, results in timepieces of deceptive simplicity and elegance.
Delving into the brand’s legacy, which dates back to 1775, the CEO explained his role in respecting and upholding the founder’s spirit, while expanding on the diverse messages conveyed through Breguet’s six collections, and the constant effort to refresh and reinterpret these narratives for its discerning clientele.
Congratulations on the new Hong Kong boutique. What are the biggest challenges in creating an in-store experience for customers today?
Client experience is essential and must be carried on in a very calm, intimate environment. And so we think that a boutique should look like a lounge instead of just, classically, a sales room. Breguet has an extraordinary history, and our watches have a lot of complications, which need quite a lot of time to explain to customers. This is one of the reasons why we want our boutique to become a place—to welcome our customers and to explain to them what Breguet watches are. We distinguish ourselves with our philosophy: Breguet is Breguet, an avant-gardist, not only in watchmaking but also in pure design and elegance, giving incomparable importance to every detail. So we rely on our history, on the many revolutions we have brought to the industry, like Reine de Naples—one of the very first examples of a wrist watch—to name just one. Besides the aesthetic, we also need to put forward the technical information that the customer would need about a watch. And that is all we want to emphasise through our customer experience within a Breguet Boutique.
How are your Asian customers different from those in the west?
Asian customers are very keen on understanding the complications. They will try to find out why we chose to have that kind of movement in this kind of watch. Why did we choose to have those hands? They really want to delve into the details about the complications and understand the roots of our products. When we look at western customers, they mainly pay attention to the aesthetic side of the watches, even if they are also interested in their technical side. My job is to offer them an experience that transmits as much information as possible, and that’s why it’s a challenge. We train our teams to have a good knowledge of each product so that we can meet as many of our customers' expectations as possible.
How are you differentiating yourself from your competition?
Every aesthetic piece of work in haute horology goes through a process of reflection and deep thinking. Why? I can show you a lot of watches made by us, and you will notice that our dials look very simple, but they need very hard work: they’re very complicated to make but very simple to look at. Questions like how we did it and why we did it are very important for us. And then because it is interesting for us, we want to share this knowledge with customers who are also interested in this aspect of watchmaking. Breguet is unique because we not only concentrate on a watchmaking process that is technically oriented but also put an enormous emphasis on every aesthetic detail, and each piece of our movement being thoughtfully finished and decorated by hand, which is quite rare in our industry.
Even the slightest mistake in the bevelling process and the whole watch will be discarded and we have to rework it. Every person who is part of the assembling of a watch has their own responsibility. I am just the keeper of the quality of each watch that leaves our workshop.
