Franco Cologni, Jasmine Audemars & Gino Macaluso
The guru of the Richemont group’s watch division, Doctor Franco Cologni, has just made a few ripples in the sea of watchmaking, by creating the Foundation of Haute Horlogerie, along with Gino Macaluso, owner of the Sowind group (Girard-Perregaux and JeanRichard) and Jasmine Audemars, principal shareholder of Audemars Piguet.
Before the press conference announcing this new organization, Franco Cologni sent a letter about the Foundation to the Richemont group’s three mastodon competitors: the Swatch Group, Rolex and Patek Philippe, or more precisely, to Messrs. Hayek, Heininger and Stern. This is because, in this situation, it is more about “people” than it is about #x201C;brands”.
Franco Cologni is insistent upon this point: The Foundation of Haute Horlogerie is a private foundation, and it will remain autonomous in relation to the brands. As proof of this determination, one of his first actions will be to name a number of “Ambassadors of Haute Horlogerie” around the world, whose selection criteria is based on “ethics” and “moral engagement” centred around “promoting the values of Haute Horlogerie.”
So, what is the goal of this foundation?
Through its active arm, the non-profit Cultural Centre for Haute Horlogerie, the foundation’s objective is to “actively contribute, by the realization of educational and training projects, to the promotion and development of the patrimony and values of technical and prestige timekeeping around the world, based on tradition and innovation.” In the beginning, it is targeting, as Jasmine Audemars explains, “the new generations, those who have grown up during the era of ‘everything free’, but who must understand that value has a price.”
The mission, therefore, is “scientific, cultural, promotional and institutional,” and “will target the long term – 2015 to 2020,” emphasizes Gino Macaluso, adding that “it will be useful for all of us, and therefore open to all the players in the sector.”
“We launched the Foundation with three people,” explains Cologni, “because we all know and appreciate each other, and because it is easier with three than with ten. Now, that it exists, and we have started the ball rolling, it is open to others. The future will tell if we were right or not. We are not hiding the difficulties, or even mistrust, that we may encounter. There will always be those who see hidden agendas, or those who think that behind the ‘non-profit’ must be a ‘profit’ somewhere. The only ‘profit’ of the Foundation is the universal promotion of Haute Horlogerie, period!”
In this vein, how exactly will the foundation finance its many activities (creation of a reference website, publications, seminars, training programs for retailers, study centre, fighting counterfeits and cheap imitations, etc…)? The answer lies in the “profit pole” of the Foundation, which is the SIHH (Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie) in Geneva, a “pearl” that was “given” as a gift by the now defunct Organizing Committee of the SIHH. The profits realized by the SIHH and by new exhibitions and periodic shows that the foundation intends to organize will be totally distributed to the “non-profit pole”.
The challenge now is to see what kind of reaction will come from the other brands working in the Haute Horlogerie sector. Will they be tempted to join the Cultural Centre and participate in its activities? Will they remain stuck on their own vision? The success and the promotion of this new Foundation – and perhaps, beyond that, the longevity of Swiss timekeeping domination – largely depend on the response. The ball is now in the court of the large Swiss watchmakers. Will they return it? We should probably know in the next few months. If they decide to join – and that would be a good thing – then they must, once and for all, stop their short-term rivalries and begin thinking of their common good over the long term.
Source: December - January 2006 Issue
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