This year, Breitling has been celebrating an impressive 140 years of the brand with a series of product launches, events and activations.
While few brands reach a milestone such as this, Breitling is soaring, with a year of rebranding and repositioning under the leadership of its CEO, Georges Kern.
The year’s celebrations culminate with a travelling exhibition that will showcase the most significant watches from Breitling’s past, storytelling highlights from the brand’s illustrious 140-year history, and share stories from some of its innovations and designs over the years. Time Capsule: The Breitling Heritage Exhibition will travel to several locations globally, including Dubai, where the exhibition will run for the month of November. As the exhibition launches in Dubai, we met with Georges Kern to learn more about this historical year and what’s to come from the brand.
Congratulations on the 140-year anniversary of Breitling – we have seen some fantastic launches and moments happening over the course of the year – what have been the highlights so far?
The idea was to have 365 days of activations rather than having one gala dinner or event. So, throughout the year, we had events and launched limited edition products related to the 140-year anniversary. We also had the launch of our museum and our book with 140 anecdotes. Now, we have the Breitling Heritage Exhibition, which will travel around the world. This is how we have tried to activate the whole year to make clear to the customers that we are not only a cool brand but a brand with substance.
How have the customers been reacting to the products and activations so far?
They love it. And they are surprised about the depth and richness of our history. Everyone knows that Breitling is the inventor of the modern chronograph, but in everything we did – we were the first chronograph in space, for instance, we are THE brand for civil aviation – people are surprised and astonished by the depth and the power of our stories and also the beauty of these vintage watches – they’re beautiful. This adds to the coolness factor of what we have achieved over the last seven years.
Tell us about some of the highlights of the exhibition.
We have acquired a collection of vintage watches that we believe are relevant to the brand today. These watches are travelling around the world and visitors can come to see our original designs. We also have conferences and experts coming to talk about the origins of these watches, and put them in the context of the particular period they were designed to allow visitors to understand why this watch was launched. This is all being explained, and people like it because in a digital world and a world with many problems, talking about these old days when, in a way, everything was OK gives people some joy.
Why did you choose Dubai as one of the key cities for the exhibition and how is the market here for Breitling currently?
We chose Dubai because it is one of the world’s biggest and most sophisticated watch markets. The UAE is doing extremely well. You have the latest of everything in the malls here. It has the newest boutique designs with the latest collections, which are always incredibly up-to-date. It’s very interesting for me as I always discover things when I’m here in Dubai. Whenever you launch a new concept, you launch it in Dubai. And this is why it’s such an interesting market for us and why we need to have these events and the visibility here.
We have seen a lot of openings across the Middle East, including the recent opening in Riyadh. How important is this region to the brand, and how has the performance been this year?
In general, it has been doing very well. We just opened another boutique in Abu Dhabi. We opened two restaurants in Saudi Arabia and a new boutique in Riyadh. We are very active in the region; we love it. We have a great history in the region. The Rulers have been wearing our watches for decades. So these roots, combined with the sophistication of the market, our boutiques are quite successful and I’m very happy with the performance here.
Saudi Arabia, in particular, is an interesting market because it works for some brands, but it doesn’t work for others, and I couldn’t explain it to you. Breitling is doing very well. We have seven boutiques, and we are planning to open another two or three. We have great partners in Saudi. I think an extension of the boutique experience makes much more sense than diversifying into other categories, and that’s why we’re working on that.
Many brands today invite their customers to buy into a lifestyle and not only a watch – where does Breitling stand on that front?
Everyone sells a lifestyle. Firstly, you are buying into a brand before buying the design and technical content. Everything is transversal, and in the watch industry, you see partnerships with cars, fashion, and sports etc. – because someone who’s interested in watches is also interested in these other industries. And, of course, you become a lifestyle brand.
What trends and developments have you seen in the watch industry as a whole over this past year?
The market is tough. We see a K shape – there is no linear decrease in the market. The K shape shows that some brands are still growing and doing very well, but they are very few. And obviously, many brands are dramatically decreasing. Thankfully, Breitling is part of the first group.
We are in a global world, meaning there are global tastes. Everyone listens to the same music on Spotify or watches the same series on Netflix, and if you’re a successful and big brand, you are part of that successful club, and I would say there are 6 or 7 of them out there today. Looking forward, I think there will be more concentration in every industry on fewer brands.
Of course, there are many successful niche brands, which will continue, but you need to be very powerful as a big brand. You need money, a strong history, and a modern, contemporary image to continue growing.
This year, we have seen many launches – how do you keep the momentum and that element of surprise for your clients?
It’s not about relaunching a product series. You need to bring impulses to your audience. You can launch a limited series or several limited pieces over a year, but it’s a small number when you put that into the context of how many watches we are selling per year. What it does is give us the opportunity to talk about the launch and the stories around it on social media to have that conversation with our audience, and I believe we need to do this around 5 or 6 times a year. It doesn’t mean that you overload your stock. It’s just storytelling and a way of connecting with the consumers. The decision process to buy an expensive watch is long. It might take a year. On average, we have 5 to 6 points of contact with the client both online and offline before that client buys a watch.
Do you find that online connection is still important in educating your customers?
Yes, not in terms of e-commerce, but in terms of interaction. There are very few people buying watches online. Especially a bracelet watch that has to be adjusted etc., but 80 per cent of the decision process is made online, and this is why we are so active, not only on social media but through blogs, YouTube, documentaries, etc. This keeps us connected to the clients and keeps them updated with what we are doing. But our boutiques are still so important because customers want to try our watches, they want to talk to our staff, it’s a very physical product, and you need to see how it feels on your wrist.
What can we look forward to in 2025?
We are preparing for three major launches next year. There will be more innovation, more renovation of products, and more impulses. It’s not always a revolution but more of an evolution of what we already have in our collections.
We have followed your journey at Breitling very closely, and it has been a great success so far. What are your current objectives and vision?
In the last couple of years, we concentrated on becoming relevant in the market again. We have rebranded the design of our boutiques, and we have a much more modern image. We are one of the coolest brands in the industry. That’s one part. But it’s not sufficient because when you become fashionable, you can also become out of fashion. This is why what we’re doing now is working on consumers’ emotional perceptions of the brand. The 140-year anniversary is reassurance; this is what we need to have and build in the coming years further to set our image as an iconic and institutional brand. We want to become an institutional brand, so it’s about being relevant and building esteem. The crazy thing is that only 10 to 15 per cent of our target group knows the new Breitling – this modern, cool, beautiful brand with beautiful products – and 85 per cent of our clients still have the old image in mind. So we need to work on raising awareness of the new Breitling because when we show that to these customers, they will see how beautiful our products are. There is a long way to go and a lot to work on, but that’s what we’re focusing on.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt in the last few years?
The industry is like cycling. You can gain speed by going down the mountain, and everything will feel easy, but as a cyclist, I know that the next mountain will come. Now, we are climbing because the market is difficult, but I know when we reach the top, it will get easier again. It’s a lesson for life – things go up and down, but that’s business.
What’s a message for clients in the Middle East?
Come to visit us to learn about the new Breitling.
