Georges Kern: Building Breitling & Reviving Universal Genève | Watches, Strategy & Vision (4K)

Thank you very much, Alexander, for the invitation. So it was in 2017 when I quit a nice opportunity. I was appointed co-CEO at Richemont, and when I quit, Mr. Rupert himself put out a statement saying 'Georges wanted to become an entrepreneur. We wish him farewell.'

It's a great life. I love it and I haven't regretted a second. I had a great time at Richemont. I loved the brands and my colleagues. It's a fantastic company doing extremely well. But I had that opportunity. I was always on the edge between manager and entrepreneur. I was always more independent, tried to do stuff beyond the boundaries. And thank God it worked out. Then the opportunity occurred to be part of the Breitling saga and to invest and become a core shareholder. I didn't hesitate a second. I was extremely lucky with CVC, a private equity company in Frankfurt, and now with Freddy and Partners Group. My brother, also in private equity, told me: 'Georges, when you go into private equity, choose your partners.' Both CVC and Partners Group are long-term oriented. They understand the business, they are passionate. By the way, they also endorsed the relaunch of Universal. So bottom line: zero regrets. No regrets about what I've done in the past, at Richemont, and no regrets that I left and am doing what I'm doing today.

We changed the brand 360 degrees in terms of positioning. We became a journalistic brand from a niche pilots brand. Pilots watches are still the major pillar, but we launched the Premier, the Top Time. I think we are more faithful to the history of Breitling than ever. We totally reviewed the design of the watch. We have a design code we call modern retro: rooted in the past but very modern. You see it in our boutiques. We changed communication, with loft industrial style. You could say we created a lifestyle brand. And we became 100% manufacturer. We rolled out the B01 in all chronographs, the B31 automatic, and now complications. We just launched a perpetual calendar chronograph. So both in manufacturing, product design, offering, communication, the brand evolved a lot. Now we go to the next level: iconization. We will concentrate on the Navitimer, Chronomat, and Heritage. We have our professional line and heritage pieces for storytelling. And we are playing on a bigger field with the NFL and Aston Martin. Our biggest market is the US, growing strong double digits. Aston Martin has been fantastic; their F1 performance isn't great, but I compare it to the Orbiter balloon attempts. Teddy Schneider said we will continue, and if it takes Orbiter Three, Aston Martin will be world champion in three years. Everything can happen. Aston Martin is one of three relevant F1 teams for image transfer, along with Ferrari and Mercedes. We have history with them; the first Q watch in James Bond was a Breitling. We'll have a DB5 watch soon. The brand is amazing, the storytelling authentic.