An interview with Thierry Nataf, President, Chief Executive Officer and artistic director of Zenith, on the anniversary of El Primero.




CHRONOMASTER OPEN GRANDE DATE MOON AND SUN PHASES


Europa Star: What effect are the current financial problems having on Zenith?
Thierry Nataf: The current financial crisis is slightly changing the face of our industry; nevertheless, quality, beauty, and exceptional timepieces are still in demand.
Concerning Zenith, the luxury watch manufacture, we see the confirmation of our success in the great classic lines like Chronomaster and Class, and in the modern lines like Defy or Port Royal. Of course, we are reinforcing both in our 2009 offer and will be launching them for the spring season, at this BaselWorld.




Thierry Nataf


ES: What sales, marketing and communication strategies will the brand follow to ensure success during these troubled times?
TN: In troubled times, you have several business steps to take to ensure your road to success. Firstly, you need to offer the best possible watch collection, the product is the hero. The exceptional quality and watches proposed by Zenith are driving us along that road.
Moreover, this year is the anniversary of the El Primero, the one and only movement that beats at 36,000 alt per hour, thus giving the maximum precision to a mechanical chronograph combined with the capacity of measuring to 1/10th of second. This mythical Calibre equips different versions of a large majority of our watches, and this year, we have created a very special offer, celebrating this anniversary, through the New Vintage 1969 collection, but also through a celebration of all our iconic watches which are equipped with the El Primero movement, and as such, Chrono-master, Class, Port Royal and Defy, Star, in Open El Primero will be specially edited for this occasion for both men and women.
Of course, the exceptional high-end timepieces like Academy or Starissisme, will offer innovative collections, with exceptional minute repeaters or Astronomic Tourbillon, with moon and sun phases.
Secondly, we will also be maintaining our strategy in terms of investment around the world, and as such, we will be pursuing the consolidation and the development of the business equation of Zenith.
Our strategy is structured around a very strong watch collection, a powerful retail network that covers all continents, a very unique and different brand, a relationship with our final clients, and a very singular way of thinking in marketing and communications.
I will retain, perhaps this year, the pursuit of the international development of Zenith in new markets like India and Australia. In addition, this year will be the year of three new boutique openings, one in Moscow at the TSUM - the best department store in Europe - one in Dubai at the Burj Dubai, where the highest tower in the world is currently under construction, and one in Hong Kong at the Mall of the Element, a brand new luxury complex built in front of the bay.
Those new boutiques will reinforce our entire existing network. They are transmitting all the value of timeless, beauty, elegance, mechanical watches that made Zenith, the ultimate luxury watch Manufacture.
We created in 1865, and still continue today, a company that gives style to time, where our watches blend tradition and modernity, all mechanical masterpieces of engineering, and still very stylish. A classic, with a twist!




The trio of new Vintage 1969: Automatic chronograph in red gold, stainless steel and titanium.


ES: In what horological direction do you see Zenith taking in the immediate and long-term future?
TN: All my work, as the President & CEO, but also, as the artistic director of Zenith, is to drive the company, business-wise and design-wise for the next 10 years.
All the territory and the identity of Zenith is around its mechanical watches and its philosophy about time.
We are renowned for our blend of tradition and modernity, design and mechanical engineering, and we use our incredible in-house skills to build mythical timekeepers. We will continue to do our best, preparing a new mechanical calibre, exploring traditional construction like the Open El Primero Minute Repeater 4037, or a more innovative one like the recent work we did with the 8800 El primero zero gravity tourbillon where its heart numbers 164 components, when up to now the most complicated tourbillon had 62 components! Moreover, the research and development of new materials and new design is the natural set up around a very innovative movement.
We will, of course, keep Zenith in the same strategic corridor as it is today and as we have always done for 144 years!
Some of these new timepieces will be, of course, revealed at BaselWorld 2009.

ES: So what is new in the product lines for Basel and the rest of 2009?
TN: As I mentioned, 2009 sees Zenith celebrate the 40th birthday of the mythic El Primero movement (a name that means ‘the first’ in Esperanto). The first automatic-winding chronograph movement with a central rotor, beating at 36,000 vibrations per hour, was - and remains – the fastest chronograph, guaranteeing time measurement to one tenth of a second.
As a tribute to this celebration, I have designed a very unique set up.
‘The Originals’: 3 very unique watches which are directly inspired by the original model equipped with the El Primero 1969. The New Vintage 1969 collection is equipped with the 469 Calibre, column wheels chrono, 3 counters, date and comprises 278 components. The philosophy of the New Vintage models is to maintain the spirit of the original models, but enhance them and gives them a twist of modernity.
The editions will be in rose gold to suggest the past, steel to represent the present, and titanium to embody the future and will be available only during this symbolic year,.
I also designed a time arrow made of all the guillochÉ from our collections to embody the acceleration of time between 1969 and 2009. A subtle mixture of colours in the tones of the seventies emphasizes an anniversary band that crosses time: bright red for vitality, violet for love of truth and truth of love, and orange, a sacred colour, as the synonym of liberation.
I decided to sell a full collection of steel and gold pieces Open El Primero in exclusive and limited models of Chronomaster, Class, Port Royal and Defy. All these models, celebrating the El Primero movement, are tagged with a special 40th Anniversary logo with dials which are striped with the colour of happiness.
Additionally, we are launching new models in Chronomaster, our iconic collection, as well as in Class that celebrates the Manufacture‘s know how and embodies the alchemy between classicism and modernity.




PORT ROYAL OPEN ANNIVERSARY


ES: What would you like to tell us that you haven’t already told forty other journalists?
TN: What I can really tell you is that through all these years of managing Zenith, I have had the chance to see the Star of Zenith shining back in the galaxy as the best watch company in the world.
I have to thank all the teams and all the people that have worked around me: of course, all our people at the Manufacture, at the Headquarters, but also in the 16 subsidiaries in Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East.
I mustn’t forget all my retailers, who sell our watches in stores around the planet and our final clients, the Zenith aficionados. Without them, success would not have been possible! And last, but not least, hats off to all the friends of Zenith around the world: ambassadors, journalists, collectors, auction houses and opinion leaders who support our work.
Zenith will continue, in the years to come, to lead and show the way… a destiny for a watch brand that has a star as a symbol!




CHRONOMASTER LADY MOONPHASE. Automatic column-wheel chronograph with triple calendar and moon phase indicator.


Source: Europa Star April-May 2009 Magazine Issue