The Raymond Weil Brand Makes a New Play for Watch Enthusiasts

On the award ceremony for the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève final November, one winner provoked a number of double takes.

The victor amongst six finalists within the annual design competitors’s Problem class which, final yr, targeted on watches priced at 2,000 Swiss francs, ($2,203) or much less, was the Millesime Automated Small Seconds, a 39.5-millimeter vintage-inspired costume watch with a metal case and a sector dial, with separate concentric hour and minute tracks.

Its maker? Raymond Weil, a model making a brand new play for watch lovers.

Competing in opposition to timepieces together with a dive-GMT from the trade big Seiko and a colourful chronograph from the buzzy three-year-old newcomer Studio Underd0g, the Millesime got here from a model that’s recognized extra for its affordability and its mainstream enchantment than it’s for incomes the praises of connoisseurs.

Elie Bernheim, 43, is Raymond Weil’s chief government and a grandson of the company’s eponymous founder, and he was amongst those that didn’t essentially count on the watch to win.

“We had no expectations,” he stated in a video name. “It’s one thing nice, completely nice for us.”

The timing helped to spice up the profile of the model’s wider Millesime assortment, launched this previous October. “I don’t need to say that that is the primary time that we’ve a lot constructive suggestions from all of the markets,” Mr. Bernheim stated, “however it’s not far-off from the fact.”

He stated that new variants of the timepieces, “with completely different execution, completely different sizes, some for women and moon phases,” will land in shops this yr, at costs starting from $1,625 to $3,625. The brand new Millesime items had been launched at Watches and Wonders Geneva in April, the primary time the model had participated within the watch truthful.

However whereas the model has been a mainstay in malls and department stores — categories that have been ailing as of late — the corporate is revising its technique considerably, Mr. Bernheim stated, within the type of “a extra selective distribution.” It additionally edited its assortment, he stated, to concentrate on 4 core collections, down from six.

A comparatively new maker, based in 1976 through the so-called quartz disaster, Raymond Weil constructed a following by providing well-priced battery-powered quartz and mechanical watches and selling them by advert campaigns that related the model with the artwork world. The Precision Actions marketing campaign within the Nineteen Nineties, shot by the American photographer Lois Greenfield, captured dancers within the air whereas performing athletic choreography.

Manufacturing has reached roughly 80,000 items a yr, in accordance with Mr. Bernheim, who wouldn’t disclose gross sales figures. By comparability, Longines, a Swatch Group-owned competitor that operates in the identical common value vary, sells about 1.6 million items, in accordance with the 2024 Morgan Stanley report on the watch trade.

The corporate faces no scarcity of challenges within the present market.

“As soon as upon a time, Raymond Weil had been fairly profitable in a really difficult market section — the lower-middle vary,” Oliver Müller, founding father of the Swiss consultancy LuxeConsult, stated in a video name. However now, he stated, “you will have a robust competitor known as Swatch Group, proudly owning fairly a number of manufacturers with the identical value positioning of Raymond Weil.”

Upstarts additionally pose competitors for Raymond Weil, Mr. Müller stated, which should compete not solely with robust institutional manufacturers “but in addition newcomers coming from crowd-funded campaigns on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and many others.”

Nonetheless, he stated, “Retailers want manufacturers like Raymond Weil as a result of that creates site visitors within the outlets, and the man shopping for a Raymond Weil — or no matter — at 1,000 to three,000 Swiss in the future would possibly purchase a Tudor after which a Rolex.”

And Mr. Bernheim, the Raymond Weil chief government, plans to stay loyal to that comparatively inexpensive price ticket. “We care in regards to the accessibility of our watches,” he stated, “and I feel that it will likely be a mistake for the model to go larger than the value level, not less than within the brief to midterm.”

James Lamdin, vp of classic and used timepieces for the Watches of Switzerland Group, a retailer that carries Raymond Weil, together with Longines and different manufacturers like Rolex, Cartier and Omega, sees the model’s technique on the right track.

“They’re trying to convey up the general high quality of development and manufacture, notably with extra widespread use of mechanical actions,” he stated, citing the route of Raymond Weil’s flagship Freelancer line — which incorporates some timepieces that incorporate RW1212, the corporate’s first proprietary motion — together with the broader Millesime assortment.

Adopting a throwback design for Millesime is a intelligent solution to give a comparatively younger model an aura of heritage and seize the eye of educated collectors, Mr. Lamdin stated.

He famous that Raymond Weil is “paying tribute to an period of Swiss watch design that’s actually extremely popular right this moment.”

“There’s numerous consideration to element, and it exhibits that the folks making the design selections and the market selections for his or her product collections are very in tune with the fanatic purchaser,” he added.

One benefit that not-so-big impartial manufacturers like Raymond Weil have over the dominant company teams is the flexibility to pivot rapidly and experiment with unconventional choices that generate pleasure.

“There are limitations to what a few of these massive teams can produce,” Mr. Lamdin stated.

That’s not a major subject, he famous, for a family-owned model like Raymond Weil, “that may transfer a little bit bit extra calmly on their toes, that isn’t afraid to have a little bit bit extra enjoyable, like they did with their Basquiat piece” in its Freelancer assortment.

The Raymond Weil x Basquiat Particular Version chronograph, launched late final yr, was created in collaboration with the property of the American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who died in 1988.

The 43.5-millimeter titanium and black ceramic watch is emblazoned with motifs from the artist’s oeuvre: the crown, the T-Rex, and the first shade palette. With a retail value of $4,725, it offered out: Mr. Bernheim stated that 85 % of the run was spoken for inside “5 – 6 days.”

Tradition and music have been constant parts of the Raymond Weil DNA because the early Eighties, Mr. Bernheim stated, when his grandfather “determined to associate with music occasions.” The model has beforehand created watches in tribute to bands like The Beatles and The Who, and Mr. Bernheim stated a collaboration can be launched this yr “centered round a well-liked comedian ebook” and the artist behind it.