{"id":47166,"date":"2019-05-21T11:03:59","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T10:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/?p=47166"},"modified":"2019-11-08T15:57:28","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T15:57:28","slug":"jean-claude-biver-will-be-guest-of-honour-at-this-years-watchpro-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.watchpro.com\/jean-claude-biver-will-be-guest-of-honour-at-this-years-watchpro-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Jean-Claude Biver will be guest of honour at this year’s WatchPro Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"
Jean-Claude Biver will be guest of honour at this year’s WatchPro Awards.<\/strong><\/p>\n The watchmaking legend will share advice and anecdotes with an audience of 350 industry leaders based on his 45 year career working at the top of the Swiss watch industry.<\/p>\n Mr Biver stepped back from day-to-day operational control of TAG Heuer and the LVMH watchmaking division in September last year, but remains involved in the business as non-executive chairman.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter 45 years in the watch industry, I would like to focus more specifically on advising and sharing my experience,\u201d Mr Biver says.<\/p>\n Mr Biver has certainly enjoyed a charmed and colourful career.<\/p>\n His first job in the watch industry was a sales role at Audemars Piguet in 1974, a traditional independent watchmaker that was yet to enjoy the explosive success of the Royal Oak that has put it on a trajectory to top $1 billion in sales in 2018. He worked his way up to become European sales manager within four years, and also learned the business from the workshop upwards.<\/p>\n He moved to Omega in 1979 and became the youngest deputy director the company had ever had, but he spent only two years with the brand before making the decision to strike out on his own.<\/p>\n The quartz revolution had decimated the traditional Swiss watch industry, laying waste to brands that could trace their ancestry back to the 19th century.<\/p>\n Blancpain was a prime example. It was a huge player in the Swiss industry and could trace its history back to 1735, yet Mr Biver was able to buy the business for just CHF 22,000. Selling mechanical watches was like pushing water uphill at the time, but Mr Biver counter-intuitively turned Blancpain\u2019s vulnerability into its strength. \u201cSince 1735 there has never been a quartz Blancpain watch. And there never will be,\u201d his message to the market asserted.<\/p>\n The audacity of Mr Biver\u2019s marketing concealed the precariousness of Blancpain at the time. The company was making fewer than 100 watches per year in the early 1980s. The business might have become another casualty of the quartz crisis were it not for the assistance of British watch business supremo Marcus Margulies who admired what the watchmaker was doing, and perhaps the chutzpah of Mr Biver.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n