After Decades of Masculine Marketing, Breitling Tries Talking to Women

Even inside the male-dominated world of high-end watches, Breitling has a popularity, cultivated over a long time, for being a timepiece for a sure sort of adventure-seeking man.

The Grenchen, Switzerland-based model designed watches particularly for pilots beginning within the Nineteen Fifties, almost 20 years earlier than a serious business airline would put a girl within the cockpit. Its events at Baselworld, a watch and jewelry commerce present, had been well-known for his or her topless dancers. As recently as 2015, its promoting campaigns have been decried as sexist, displaying engaging, scantily-clad ladies ready to welcome daredevil pilots carrying Breitling watches again to earth. In 2017, ladies wore pilot garb-inspired, skin-baring leotards at a Breitling and Lufthansa event.

Reduce to as we speak, and the model is lastly placing a girl within the driver’s seat—actually.

Breitling’s newest advert marketing campaign, a 60-second spot accompanying the discharge of a female-targeted model of its Navitimer watch, options Charlize Theron behind the wheel of a classic automobile, interspersed with pictures of the actress strolling in a pink carpet-worthy robe, kickboxing with a coach and sharing notes with a director on set.

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The advert was, in a way, six years within the making, because the appointment of Georges Kern as CEO again in 2017.

Virtually instantly upon becoming a member of the corporate, Kern scrapped the sexist advertising, and has sought to place the model on a distinct course. In addition to including its first group of feminine ambassadors — past Theron, there’s additionally ballerina Misty Copeland, actress Yao Chen and Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim — it additionally launched female-specific kinds of a few of its best-known timepieces, just like the Chronomat and now, the Navitimer. Its campaigns nonetheless characteristic daredevil pilots or motorcyclists, solely now, ladies are driving the autos, not simply ready on the bottom for the male pilots to land with a smile.

“It was … a model that was held in such excessive regard for such a top quality product, nevertheless it was extra skewed in direction of males,” Theron informed BoF of her resolution to come back on board as a Breitling ambassador again in 2018. “Being requested to come back and open the window on the opposite facet of the room was one thing that was actually thrilling, and their eagerness to try this in a manner that felt genuine … the problem was one thing actually attention-grabbing to me.”

Breitling is only one of a number of manufacturers that, over the previous decade, discovered itself out of step with quickly altering social norms. Victoria’s Secret, for instance, famously canceled its signature style present in 2019 after mounting criticism over the shortage of variety within the present, in addition to the slender depiction of feminine magnificence. The watch trade, specifically, has needed to flip its consideration extra enormously in direction of reaching female consumers.

However in making such a serious tonal shift, Breitling needed to cope with how one can retain the worth of its historical past and model identification whereas shifting into a brand new period. Its prior picture could have been controversial, nevertheless it was memorable. As nicely, Breitling is tasked with promoting feminine shoppers on the concept a model that had been so carefully related to conventional concepts of masculinity could be a compelling choice for girls, too.

“A model like Breitling that’s traditionally been so masculine, with watches geared in direction of piloting and in direction of aviation, it’s a tricky pivot,” mentioned Reginald Brack, the SVP and director of jewelry and watches at Hindman Auctions. “I don’t assume it hurts to attempt. However I feel they should do one thing different than simply hiring sturdy feminine model ambassadors.”

A New Breitling

For Kern, making the adjustments had been a matter of “staying related within the luxurious trade.”

“It’s very a lot a sense; it’s instinct,” mentioned Kern of the driving pressure behind the adjustments he’s ushered in on the model in the previous couple of years. “It’s very troublesome to be rational in an trade, which is something however rational. Who wants watches? No person. However humankind is irrational.”

Nonetheless, there appears to be a thread connecting Breitling’s ambassadors, specifically, a proclivity for athleticism or journey, whether or not it’s on the slopes, like Kim, or the massive display screen, like Theron.

“They’re actually intentional about emphasizing why they work with these folks,” mentioned author and advisor Brynn Wallner, the founding father of the web site Dimepiece, a publication about ladies and watches. “It’s not as a result of they’re a reasonably face, it’s as a result of they’re doing wonderful work of their respective fields, they usually need to help that. And that just about comes earlier than the watch.”

Nonetheless, Kern mentioned that the watch itself is what the model views as its distinguishing issue. Its watches, initially designed for pilots, are outsized, significantly on a girl’s wrist. Kern mentioned that the look, a extra rugged, much less formal tackle a luxurious timepiece, appeals throughout genders.

“It takes a really particular, fashionable lady to really pull it off, as a result of it’s not so clearly female,” mentioned Wallner.

Up to now, the shift has helped usher in an period for development for Breitling: When former proprietor CVC acquired the company in 2017, it was for CHF800 million (then $870 million), When non-public fairness agency Companions Group bought a majority stake in Breitling at the end of 2021, the corporate was valued at $4.5 billion.

Nonetheless, it’s a model with a decrease profile than opponents like Rolex and Cartier. However that could be to its profit. Watch fans could know of its popularity, however the common client seemingly doesn’t, mentioned Wallner. With that, Breitling’s Kern sees that because the model’s subsequent problem: Taking this new messaging to the plenty.

“We’ve got a fantastic technique, it really works,” mentioned Kern. “Now we have now to scale it, as a result of most people don’t know the brand new Breitling.”

The Watch Business Ticks On

Breitling’s shift is going on because the watch trade simultaneously undergoes a similar transition. Traditionally, the watch trade has been dominated by males, each within the govt groups main prime watch manufacturers and the client bases they cater to.

Lately, that’s begun to vary. Watch manufacturers are catering extra on to feminine prospects, and ladies maintain prime govt roles at manufacturers like Jaeger-LeCoultre, Caroline Scheufele and Audemars Piguet. There’s a rising group, too, of feminine watch followers, as encapsulated by the success of internet sites like Dimepiece, a publication focussed on ladies and watches.

Watch manufacturers like Zenith are putting off gender-specific labels, as an alternative advertising their wares as gender-neutral. Although gender-neutral is a sizzling matter within the trade, It’s price noting that almost all of the foremost Swiss manufacturers haven’t but solely eliminated gender labels. (Although on the web sites of firms like Rolex and Audemars Piguet, they’re comparatively troublesome to search out.) It’s additionally a technique to promote smaller-faced watches to males in addition to ladies.

Nonetheless, the watch trade shouldn’t merely “pink and shrink” its designs to create an choice for girls, a tactic many manufacturers nonetheless use — even Breitling’s new Navitimer lineup features a smaller model with a pink face. However as Wallner mentioned, interesting to ladies isn’t that straightforward.

“Girls are carrying their boyfriend’s denims and Nikes. Girls will admire one thing that’s sporty and cute,” she mentioned. “You can also make it with a extra historically masculine palette, but when it’s smaller, it instantly turns into extra wearable for an individual with a smaller wrist, which is often ladies.”