Character. History. Beauty. Precision. To those of us bitten by the bug, it’s hard to see how anybody could resist the allure of a luxury watch.
And today, with the deflating of the post-Covid investment bubble, the watch boutique has returned to being a place of sanity and sanctuary; frequented more by the type of customer who appreciates the product for what it is, rather than its ‘flipability’.
That’s good news for two Glion alumni who today find themselves at the sharp end of the luxury watch retail experience, working for two brands with highly contrasting identities and product ranges. They are Vacheron Constantin’s Alessia Minatta and IWC Schaffhausen’s Guillaume Criquet.
“The beauty of my role is the opportunities it gives me to work with a customer to find the perfect watch to fill a gap in their collection,” says Alessia, who is Luxury Client Advisor at Vacheron Constantin’s Zurich boutique (pictured).
“It’s a very personalized conversation which often continues outside the walls of the boutique, because it’s important to get to know your customer in their own habitat, so to speak. Whether that means meeting up for a coffee, understanding what they do – all that helps you to match the watch to the person.”
Guillaume, who is Boutique Director for IWC Schaffhausen in Geneva, started his career in luxury watches back in 2018, performing a client advisor role similar to Alessia’s. Now with a team of six under his direction, he is grateful for sanity returning to the sector.
“We work with both investors and collectors,” he says. “But I especially like to spend my time with the collectors, because that’s where we see a more emotional connection, since their vision of the watch world is slightly different.
“From a market perspective, I’m happy that the bubble has burst and people are not paying these crazy premiums. They appreciate that there’s choice elsewhere, so they go elsewhere. For a brand like IWC this is a real positive, because almost everything a customer sees in our boutique is available to take away that day.”
From the outside in
Both alumni have been drawn into the world of watches after launching their post-Glion careers outside the sector. Alessia began in haute couture, working for Dolce&Gabbana and Christian Dior, whereas Guillaume went down the hospitality route, with stints at Geneva’s Hotel de la Paix as well as the city’s Mandarin Oriental.
Why the change?
“Working for Christian Dior gave me a taste for the fine craftsmanship that goes into a dress, and what drew me from there towards watches is the way that the craftsmanship, precision and eye for detail just goes up to this amazing level in watchmaking,” says Alessia.
“When I visit our manufacturing facility, and also when I’m with our on-site watchmaker, it’s just awe inspiring. I call them ‘surgeons of watchmaking’, because if they even breathe at the wrong time all those tiny screws are going to fly everywhere!”
For Guillaume, the ability to bond with hotel guests, amplified by his role within the ‘night’ team, was something he enjoyed immensely and which he knew would be even more of a feature of working in a watch boutique. But the biggest lure was an in-built love of watches, including IWC pieces, that goes back through several generations of his family.
Initially put off by the ‘closed shop’ nature of the industry, it was a change in the approach to luxury watch retailing which provided his opening. “Traditionally this was always a very hard industry to get into if you are an ‘outsider’; but around a decade ago the industry started to wake up to the idea that a hospitality profile and a more experiential approach would be the next big step to differentiate your brand from others. That was my chance and I had interviews with several brands, after which I chose IWC. And I’m very happy I did.”
The two brands share 429 years of combined history, but they could hardly be more different in nature. Vacheron Constantin prides itself on being the oldest Swiss watchmaker to have maintained continuous production, with a history dating back to 1755. It is very much part of the francophone contingent, based in the Canton of Geneva and with its main headquarters in Plan-les-Ouates, and its watches are noted for their unique technical and aesthetic signatures as well as their exquisite finishing touches.
IWC Schaffhausen was founded by an American, Florentine Ariosto Jones, hence its anglicized name (International Watch Company). It is based in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and its watches reflect a no-nonsense approach to design – focused, functional, and made to be worn. The brand’s range thus includes popular pilot’s and diving watches.
Given the regional pride and patriotism that’s a feature of Swiss life, this Germanic exceptionalism might be seen as a handicap for the Geneva boutique which is Guillaume’s responsibility. But while he notes that the brand’s Zurich flagship generates revenues that are several times those of Geneva, he and his team are working tirelessly to build a loyal clientele among the city natives. And those efforts are paying off.
“When I started working here we were around 70% tourists, 30% locals. Today we are more like 60-65% locals and 35-40% tourists, although this does fluctuate seasonally. And for me, a lot of this is down to how we take care of our clients; the events we create for them and the relationships we build with them.”
Dare to be distinctive
For Alessia, as a relatively recent recruit to the world of watches, engaging with her clients requires a balance of knowledge and personality – one that is distinctive to each client.
“Being in Switzerland, and Zurich more precisely, we have a very well-informed clientele for our boutique. At this stage in my career I’m not going to match the depth of knowledge a serious collector would have – and it would be patronizing to them if I try to. For me, it’s more about getting to know the person at a human level, then guiding them towards the watch that suits their taste and personality.
“Of course, I know our history as a company, our ranges, the materials they are made of and their features. But when it comes to collecting in my mind all the nitty-gritty details of the movements and the calibers, that’s something I work towards every day.”
Perfect partners
In terms of creating ‘wow’ moments for his clientele, Guillaume acknowledges the benefit of IWC’s longstanding partnership with the MercedesAMG PETRONAS Formula OneTM Team. This naturally creates incredible opportunities for special events – shortly after speaking with The Insider he was due to take a client to an exclusive Q&A session with championship-leading driver Kimi Antonelli. Importantly, it’s also serving to bring a younger demographic to the brand.
“One of our strengths as a brand is that we are very creative in regard to marketing and events,” says Guillaume. “We have a more modern approach than many competing maisons which tend to keep things more traditional. Part of how that plays out is that as Boutique Director I’m given a lot of freedom in how I run things – I’m my own local CEO if you like – and with half of us in the team having hospitality backgrounds, we can really go to town on these events and make them truly memorable.”
Alessia, too, sees some movement on the demographic front, even allowing for her brand’s more ‘traditional’ character.
“Our clientele is evolving and I think part of this is because the younger generations – and I’m GenZ myself – are craving more of this ‘go and touch grass’ sensation after feeling overwhelmed by social media and technology,” she says.
“When you’re online it’s hard now to determine what’s authentic and what’s not; but whenever young people see the incredible craftsmanship that goes into a high-end watch, and when they hold those watches in their hands, they see that as something totally authentic and they want to learn the history behind it.”
With her hospitality-focused Glion education, Alessia is also highly aware of the importance of service standards to driving customer engagement.
“Every brand has its service standards, but for me it’s about creating a ‘wow’ moment for every client,” she says. “Every time someone walks into our boutique they need to feel that the experience they receive has been tailored to them specifically. That means not following a play-by-play script, but having a conversation that’s genuine and tailor-made. People are not stupid and they will detect any lack of authenticity straight away.”
To an outsider, the profound level of client-advisor relationships in the luxury watch business is striking. Alessia relates a story of one particular client who was struggling to choose between two watches, with one representing the emotional choice and the other a more practical option. Faced with this dilemma, Alessia’s advice to follow his gut feeling held sway; but what feels remarkable is that this conversation continues on an almost daily basis. It’s a deep, deep, customer relationship that feels almost anachronistic in our rather superficial digital age.
Project UFO
For Vacheron Constantin very exclusive, ultra high-end watches have long been part of the portfolio. Indeed the brand’s ‘entry level’ timepiece costs around CHF 15,000.
While that represents a figure significantly above the average IWC sale of around CHF 10,000, in recent years the Schaffhausen-based firm has been making strides into what Guillaume dubs the “UFOs” – ultra high-end and sometimes even one-off watches that appeal to a very niche, very different audience compared with the brand’s more mainstream models. It’s an aspect of his business that Guillaume finds incredibly exciting.
“For these watches we are talking about pieces that sell for hundreds of thousands, even millions, featuring unique designs and complications for people who have the money to afford something different. When you are talking to a client about such a piece you really need to know your stuff and you must be patient as well. I’ve known a client take seven years to buy high-end; seven years just to make the decision, basically.
“It’s the greatest challenge and it means being fully committed to that client and never counting your hours. You’ll go to lunch with them, you’ll go to dinner, you’ll go to drinks, golf, whatever. When you go into that world you bring your world of hospitality to it, because if you want to be successful you have to become your client’s trusted concierge.”
Although her journey in watches started several years after Guillaume’s, Alessia already has absolutely no regrets about venturing into this rarified territory.
“The watch industry is so diverse and there’s just so much knowledge out there for me to absorb. That’s my immediate objective, so that in time when I’m at an event and I’m handing the microphone to the expert, I’ll be able to say ‘you know what, we can share that microphone because I have the knowledge as well’. That would be really cool.”
• To discover more about Vacheron Constantin and IWC Schaffhausen, visit their respective websites here and here.
Photo credit
IWC Geneva boutique: The Image Gate for IWC
