In conversation with Matthias Breschan, President Longines Watch Co.

We recently sat down with Matthias Breschan in Greenwich during the new Spirit Zulu Time collection’s reveal, and we took this chance to ask three questions regarding the product, the present and, most importantly, the future of the Swiss brand.

Q – First of all, congratulations on this new product family release. My first question regards the Spirit Zulu Time and the so-called “Collector’s Corner” score that you’re growing alongside the Spirit Zulu Time. Um, I see a brand that is looking forward to connecting more and more with watch connoisseurs; this is something that we discussed this morning. May you please share some more thoughts and insights regarding the Collector’s Corner, and now it goes alongside recent projects like the Zulu Time. Thank you.

A – It’s two years since I joined Longines, and I think it’s always essential to remind that it’s never the brand to adapt to the CEO, but the other way round. Longines didn’t have any problems; it was a powerful brand, probably one of the most excellent success stories in the past 20 years. My task is to determine what made Longines so strong in the past 20 years to ensure we can evolve and improve the points that help the brand perform in the coming 20 years. And, um, I think that one of the things that surprised me the most when I joined Longines was the following: I knew, of course, the brand very well because I’ve been in the watch industry for more than 20 years, but I was still surprised about the unique, exceptional and fantastic heritage that the brand has.

Let’s take the example of the GMT movement; if we asked today Italian people who invented the GMT movement, the Flyback movement, the high-frequency movement, or the turning bezel who created it, most people would not mention Longines. We must respect that the brand is equally vital for classic watches and sports watches. Women and men equally admire the brand. So this balance made the brand very strong, and we have to respect this; of course, under the umbrella: “Elegance is an attitude”, but we have vast potential, I think, on the one hand in the classic watches, for her, but I also think we have considerable potential among watchmakers for him. For example, our sports watches are linked to history yet express a contemporary style.

When we look today at our sports segment, we have aviation and diving watches, and we have a third segment that we call performance. In all three of them, we have vintage watches and contemporary watches. We have vintage watches like the Weems or the Lindbergh in aviation, but the modern collection is the Spirit. In the diving watches, the historical pieces, like the Legend Diver, and the contemporary piece, like the HydroConquest.

And we’re one of the very few brands that offer a vintage diving watch, which is a huge advantage. In the performance segment, we have the Conquest family that historically introduced many innovations, for example, making the watches more shock-resistant to be used in different sports. We can use a lot of other sports where we are just sponsors, like the Equestrian or skiing but we can still, from our heritage, recall a lot, lot of things like what we just said earlier, all our relationship with Ferrari, Le Mans, the Rally Montecarlo or whatever, but there are many other domains also.

Our plan for the coming years is to pick the best iconic milestones of our heritage and develop exclusive movements while reissuing these historical models. The Italian fan base is very knowledgeable, and it’s younger than ever before. Via our collector’s platform, we meet people 20 to 25 years old, and they’re super expert; they know a lot about watches. And of course, this trend is fantastic for Longines because the most important thing is their authenticity. It would be best to be authentic and credible with them because of our DNA and heritage.

There are so many brands that bring something out, and then they build artificially something around the brand; these people do not accept this and destroy them. We have something in our hands that is fantastic, which is our heritage. It allows us to develop products like the Spirit Zulu Time that has a heritage because we invented the first GMT watch and because we were one of the brands with the richest history within aviation. But we also bring it in a contemporary version with the latest technology available, like the Silicon balance spring. When you look at the finishing of the case, there’s a very high end, satin finish throughout.

Regarding our vintage pieces, we chose to call our new section the “Collector’s corner”. We don’t like the term “Pre-owned”; it’s not like selling a used car but the opposite. It’s noble, rare, and has a higher value than what we are selling today. We instead have a problem; we can’t find enough products on the market to fulfil the strong demand. We have started now in Geneva but we have a project to extend this process to another point of sales soon.

We also get many questions that reference what we’re doing for sustainability, but among all consumer goods, watches are probably among the most sustainable products per se because you never buy them just for six or 12 months. You buy them for a lifetime, for a generation, for even several generations.

Q – The second question is somehow connected to something you were about to tell about another category of watches. The brand is as famous for its analòg three hands mechanical timepieces as for some of the most alluring and refined chronographs in the industry, but the brand has also paved the way for new technologies, and it’s among those brands that best value technology; the VHP is an example. Are you planning to preserve your presence in this product category, or will you gradually turn to an old mechanical watches company?

A – today, a large majority of our products have a mechanical movement. Quartz keeps being interesting for specific needs. It is still a superior technology for those unwilling to rewind the watch or looking for thin, small timepieces.

For example, if you take the gmt-flash-setting/">VHP, I think it was a fantastic product, technology-wise, but I believe that we explained too much when we launched it in stores. It would have been more than enough if we had said that this watch is the most precise in the market. Period.

Instead, we also explained how to adjust or re-adjust it, making it too hard for our salespeople to get to know the product’s features. As a result, they never took the piece out since they were too afraid of not answering their raised questions.

Yet, all the people with sound technical knowledge love it. So I think this quartz technology is something we’re not pursuing in the future; we embarked on other journeys, bringing several innovations in this area. Expect the majority of our product portfolio to include mechanical watches in the future.

Q – So the last question concerns connecting with the product owners’ base; is there anything new in the works in this area? It’s very much related to further connecting with the watch enthusiasts.

A – First, we are putting in place a massive customer relationship program, but the most important thing is that we need to do something clever. I think it’s useless if it’s just helping us send a Christmas or birthday card; we need to do something interesting for them. If we start to segment this clientele and take our collectors, we might invite them to product presentations or conferences about the brand’s history. We have a massive opportunity in front of us, and you will soon hear about our project in this domain, but yes, it’s exciting. And we have also started now in Italy; you are probably aware of the activation of the warranty card. For the time being, it’s just linked to the watch’s serial number, but of course, we could ask people to join the Longines community in the future.

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(Photo credit: Longines)

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