The appointment is on the 32nd floor of the Madrid Tower. The day is clear enough to allow vision of the variousskylinesof the city and the terrace high enough to test the different degrees of vertigo of those summoned. An impeccable staging by the MRA agency will give us the opportunity to interview one of the most influential people within the Swatch Group but who at the same time avoids any role:Yann Gamard, President of Glashütte Original.
With almost thirty years of service, you could say that Yann Gamard is a Swatch man. Member of the group's management committee since 1998, president (CEO) of Glashütte Original, responsible for Swatch Group for Germany and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway) and, as if that were not enough, he also takes care of the European Distribution Center (EDC) and provisionally the British market.
Special Watches: How can so many important positions be managed in a company as large as Swatch Group?
Yann Gamard:In reality I don't do anything (laughs) because I am lucky to work with some magnificent teams. Speaking specifically about Glashütte Original, there are 750 wonderful people doing great work, and it's a pleasure to help them. It is true that my position on the management committee gives me some advantage in that.
Special Watches: You knew Mr. Hayek Sr. How was the decision to buy this brand?
Yann Gamard:Mr. Hayek had the sense to see a manufacturing in Glashütte Original when its parent company GuB (Glashütte Uhrenbetriebe) was fresh out of the dark Soviet era. Because this is the essence of the group: production, “substance” before sales or appearances: it bought Breguet because behind it there was a manufacturing company like Lemania, or Blancpain because it was part of Piguet. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, one hundred people worked in Glashütte, whereas before the Great War there had been two thousand... Mr Hayek applied his genius (and, of course, the technical and economic resources of the Swatch Group) to a rough diamond to bring out the brilliance we see today.
Special Watches: Let's talk about Caliber 36 and its silicon hairspring.Have you provided themsome advantage andhe fact that Nivarox – one of the very few hairspring manufacturers – is part of the Swatch Group?
Yann Gamard:Silicon is an extraordinary material. I am absolutely convinced that if Breguet had known it two hundred years ago he would have adopted it without hesitation. Well, we asked Nivarox for a solution for our calibers not only for the hairspring but also for the barrel (the mainspring of the Caliber 36 offers up to 100 hours of power reserve), always with our own designs, and Nivarox offered us a specific silicon hairspring and a barrel whose mainspring is made of a new material (gimflex) that allows such autonomy in a standard-sized barrel. Indeed, it is the advantage of working hand in hand with a leading company that is in the same group as you.
Special Watches:Are you going to apply these improvements to existing Glashütte Original calibers?
Yann Gamard:Our gaze is always forward, so the previous calibers will remain as they are, but of course we will apply these improvements in the calibers that are to come. Five years ago we were commissioned to test a completely different material for the hairspring and we accepted the challenge precisely because we are a company with a future and we don't mind experimenting. It didn't work, but it's precisely these kinds of things that make you improve.
Special Watches:It is a mystery that is rarely clarified. What is the annual production of Glashütte Original watches?
Yann Gamard(smiles):Yes, it is a question that is asked very often and the answer is “never enough”. Our production capacity lags behind the demand for our watches and it is something that can cause some frustration, so, while we try to solve this by increasing our staff, we have reduced the number of our points of sale, at least until we manage to balance the scales. But, anyway, a more direct answer could be that somewhere between 18,000 and 24,000 watches per year is not a crazy idea.
Special Watches:The Alfred Helwig watchmaking school – dependent on the manufacture – trains its own watchmakers. Do all students who successfully complete their studies have a guaranteed job?
Yann Gamard:Absolutely. In reality, they are not enough because it is laborious learning. After the three years of training at school, they spend another three years of specialization in the company. And not all of them will be watchmakers: there are forty-four professions within the manufacturing, from micro-mechanics to polishers and it is difficult to have all the positions covered because you cannot go to the labor market and look for these very specific training: you have to do it.in-house. When I started at Glashütte Original we were about three hundred people, now we are more than seven hundred and the need for specialists continues to grow.
Special Watches: And are all the students originally from Glashütte? As a population, it is relatively small.
Yann Gamard:They wouldn't be enough. Fortunately, the manufacturing reputation attracts many candidates even from West Germany and beyond: last year we received a call from a Japanese man! interested in starting the course. He told us that he spoke Japanese and English… bad luck, because the classes are in German. Okay, he responded, I'll start studying German and I'll call you back in two years. We are waiting for that call (laughs).
Special Watches: Reputation, no doubt, but what about fame? Because in the end it is about making the brand known to the world. What is the strategy?
Yann Gamard:Indeed, we have a very good reputation but we are not famous because our message is based on discreet excellence, more on technique than on diamonds or precious metals (Glashütte Original is practically the only Haute Horlogerie brand that regularly produces watches in steel). We are in the substance and that is the price we pay. Being German is an advantage, and if Volkswagen doesn't make more mistakes it will continue to be so in the future (laughs). We are an alternative to Swiss Made and proud to be an alternative, because consumers of Swiss watches of a certain level know that we are there and at some point they will want to know us. Our message is manufacturing, manufacturing, manufacturing. All our important clients have been invited to the manufacturing, we publish books and films and we have a network of our own boutiques that conveys an idea of exclusivity without fanfare. And the price. Our prices are realistic and based on the product rather than marketing. Look at this marvel (he shows me his Panomatic Inverso): Fine Watchmaking for twelve thousand euros. No one from the competition can offer you anything even close to it. We do not have ambassadors, we have not gone to the moon or descended to the bottom of the ocean, but we know that when you see our manufacturing we will have won your heart.
More information in our forum:
Visit to the manufacturing, part I
Visit to the manufacturing, part II
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