With over 40 years’ as a leader in the Swiss watch industry, it is inevitable that Jean-Claude Biver receives plenty of offers to buy or manage new watch brands now he is retired from the daily running of LVMH’s watchmaking division.
But in a wide-ranging question and answer session with Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons senior marketing director Milika Yazdjerdi, the 71-year-old executive said: “I hope I will never do another brand.”
“Do I have such an ego I need to do it again for myself?” he asked rhetorically during a forum at Dubai Watch Week.
“No. My job now it so to help and to give back,” he added.
Mr Biver spoke forcefully in his belief that the traditions of the Swiss watch industry would endure and thrive in a world where so much is disposable and quickly obsolete.
“The more we are surrounded by objects that we know are going to die, the more we want something eternal and that is the art of watchmaking. A watch is eternal and it is art. It connects you to god, to tradition, to love, to dreams. Goddamn, what else can do that,” he urged.
For me it’s simple. The more the mech watch industry has people in it that are passionate the easier it is to sell and keep the mech watch industry alive. Those who complain about the 3rd party repairers are gatherers and want to keep it all to themselves. Good job George Daniels wasn’t that way inclined or we would never have seen the coaxial escapement. The Swiss tried to block that as well! Allow parts to be accessible it will help innovation and ideas can be discussed, improvements made. It should not be OEM only repairs and have a closed shop. That is a very Victorian and outdated outlook.