Exclusive interview with Jean-Christophe Babin, Group CEO, BVLGARI during Geneva Watch Days 2021

“Our aim is always to craft beauty watches and we know that more millennials today appreciate the fact that ours is not only a beautiful watch from the outside but equally extra ordinary and complex from the inside as well.”  Exclusive interview with Jean-Christophe Babin, Bvlgari CEO

Launched in 2020, this is the second year in a row for the state and the city of Geneva to host and support the Geneva Watch Days. How satisfied are you with the progress of the show in terms of the number of participating brands and visitors?

This year we have twenty five brands on show instead of the seventeen in the first edition, so the numbers are expanding as you can see. The first exhibition was a success, and this year triggered greater interest for more participants. With more people being vaccinated we had a better turnout of visitors. Many more decided to travel to Geneva than last year when there was no vaccine reassurance, no green pass and no PCR.

It seems that you have selected the The Bvlgari Octo edition to take us on a world tour under “Oct Roma WorldTimer”. What challenges did you have in incorporating such a complicated in-house movement into the Octo case? Why did you use steel and DLC cases and not precious material for this year’s launch?

The WorldTimer was the right choice for the Octo Roma because there are few watches with world timer complication in the market. With the end of the Covid pandemic more and more people are dreaming of travelling again, therefore it’s a dream triggering watch. We have some classical cities like New York and we are expecting more cities like Cape Verde and Maldives. Some cities like Beijing and Dubai have Bvlgari Hotels. The choice of combining the main cities of this planet is important for Bvlgari because we have hotels incorporating some cities where people are dreaming to go. The complicity is close to the movement complicity. When you set Roma at 12 on that watch and you see in Roma it’s 10 to 8 immediately you know in the next city Athens it’s 9 to 8 and in Moscow it’s 10 to 8. We make sure that it’s a very sophisticated, synchronized and precise world timer and at the same time a very easy-to-use one as well. 

As for DLC, when we use DLC we know that we attract different clients usually younger, trendier and more fashionable. Steel is more for the elderly and with DLC we are targetting the younger generation. This way, we have two references to attract a broader clientele compared to just one. We focus more on steel than DLC because the core of the luxury market is more focused on steel. As regards the precious materials version, we would like to go with more accessible price lines and with that success we might decide to have a rose gold or white gold version one day. 

Building on the Octo collection, you have also revealed the Octo Papillon Central Tourbillon, adding more complexity to the patented movement by the 24-hour jumping hour display. What do you foresee as the future of this beautiful complication in terms of development and deployment into other Bvlgari references?

Firstly, since you use the word “beautiful”, let’s remember that our aim is always to craft beauty watches. I think this Octo Papillon Central Tourbillon timepiece, because of its construction, architecture, symmetry and the material used, symbolizes the best of Italian beauty together with the finest Swiss technology. It’s really unique and fascinating. For us it’s the first step, using different materials and having a unique tourbillon built for this watch in the market. The butterfly is very unique and the price is reasonable. We have much ambition behind this tourbillon and hence we started first with a gold case which is only logical.

Bvlgari as an Italian jeweller takes pride in satisfying sophisticated women by its iconic offerings such as the Serpanti, Octo and Lvcea. Recently we noticed an increasing trend towards adding more complications to the female collection such as the Divina Mosaica Minute Repeater. What are the objectives behind this approach?

The watch market is evolving and getting more and more progressive, thanks to people like you. You contribute significantly to our gaining the admiration of the watch market with your ongoing support. Ladies watches have been evolving over time. I think this watch full of diamonds, mixing baguettes and rectangular diamonds is unique in its kind, in terms of masterly diamond cuts in the watch. At the same, time ladies are becoming more demanding when it comes to the mechanical parts inside the watch. They are not only becoming focused on mechanical watches but also need a sophisticated watch to flaunt on their wrist. This is why Bvlgari had to bring into the market a jewellery tourbillon watch. For almost four years now, the minute repeater is included in the Bvlgari’s collection because we know that more millennials today appreciate the fact that it’s not only a beautiful watch from the outside but equally extra ordinary and complex from the inside as well.

We are super happy to discover the return of the Gerald Genta Mickey Mouse that is a signature of the brand. Will you continue to preserve this tradition with different releases every year? Can you tell us more about the new website that you intend to develop towards creating Gerald Genta community of fans around the world? 

We have planned to craft 150 pieces of this watch to start with. Probably we will go beyond those quantities because the demand is going farther than what we initially planned. We don’t want Gerald Genta to be a mass watch, but to be very exclusive where supply is always below the demand. We want to create an expectation, we want people to queue up to buy Gerald Genta watches. It will be sold online and this will ease the process of preordering and even if we decide to increase the quantities we may go from 150 to 250 pieces only because we aim to keep Gerald Genta as a high valued, emotional and profitable brand.

A dedicated Gerald Genta website will also be accessible directly in case you don’t want to go to the Bvlgari website. You can google Gerald Genta and go straight to the website. Obviously, Gerald Genta has its own presence on social media with direct link to the website dedicated to the e-commerce. We have a marketing plan for this watch which is obviously different from the Bvlgari marketing plan. 

Last year, we witnessed the successful return of the iconic Bvlgari Aluminium. This year you revealed a new GMT complication movement at a very competitive price. Where do you see the future of this collection among young watch lovers and Bvlgari fans?  

First, we see a few references under this collection, obviously we don’t foresee 20 different references. Now we have only four types from this collection since we re-launched this watch last year plus the limited-edition reference. The logical compliment is just adding a functionality which is useful to people travelling, so it’s a simple complication compared to the world traveler like the “Oct Roma WorldTimer. The objectives of this simple GMT complication is to remain in a price bracket which is consistent and attracting the millennials and new generation customers and not only elder people just because they can afford it.