When Benoit de Clerck joined Zenith as CEO in January 2024, he knew he was onto a great thing.
The brand had had a significant revival in the past few years, with a focus on its heritage, as well as innovation and a slew of exciting new novelties, there was much to be excited about. But, as with any senior role at a global brand, there are going to be challenges. At Zenith, there are many. Balancing the heritage of the brand with innovation, offering clients and collectors what they are looking for, managing global distribution, finding new brand ambassadors, the list goes on. So de Clerck has a large and important role to play in the Swiss watchmaker’s future, and with the brand celebrating 160 years of consistent manufacturing this year, there’s lots to talk about.
Ahead of the recent LVMH Watch Week event, we sat down with the brand’s CEO to reflect on his first year at the helm of the brand, as well as discuss what’s in the pipeline for 2025.
You joined Zenith at the beginning of 2024 – how has this past year been for you?
Indeed, it’s been a great year and a great adventure. It has gone exactly the way I envisioned it. It hasn’t been easy, but it’s been extremely enriching, both personally and professionally. The brand is beautiful; it has history, authenticity, and all the ingredients for a great outcome. It’s been a very interesting year – so far, so good – and the brand is in very good shape.
Are there any lessons you’ve learnt since joining?
From a personal standpoint, when I started in the role, I said to myself that for the first 100 days, I would not make any judgements. It was very difficult and a real challenge for me personally, but at the end of the 100 days, I was very pleased I did it. It forced me to have an open mind, really absorb everything and make important decisions without judgement. I learned a lot from this.
Then, in April, came Watches & Wonders. This was my 20th edition, but the first one as a CEO, so I was extremely apprehensive. But I soon saw everyone working in harmony, and I realised everything was working! And so I relaxed. That was really the second important milestone so far. Then we had summer, and in the last few months, I have been out to some of the markets, meeting the teams and the customers.
It’s been very enriching on a personal and professional level.
The brand is celebrating 160 years this year, and very few brands have reached this milestone. Even fewer celebrate it with continuous, uninterrupted production. This is definitely adding a positive twist to the experience.
With that in mind, what’s the focus for 2025?
We have great plans for 2025. We have decided to capitalise on what we know best, which is our savoir-faire, our craftsmanship, and our people. This is what we will be communicating throughout 2025 and what we will embrace the most, to remind people that we are a watchmaking manufacturer with a very strong savoir-faire, and a rich history. These are the real pillars of the brand and what I like about these pillars is that they are authentic. It’s not a marketing gimmick.
We will also be presenting some exclusive novelties to mark the anniversary. They will be daring and unusual and produced in a limited quantity. They will address what some of our customers and collectors have requested. I speak to a lot of customers and collectors, and we like to listen to them and react to what they are looking for. We try to encompass everything they tell us and a lot of what you see this year will be based on the feedback that we have had from them. Yes, they will be daring, unusual and crazy, but at Zenith, we can afford to be a bit creative in terms of design. It’s part of the brand’s DNA.
When you joined the brand, it was in a good position. How would you assess where Zenith is today, and what is the focus looking ahead?
There is a readjustment happening in the market today. We are privileged and lucky because we are most probably less affected than many others. The brand is doing well in the Middle East. We are doing well in Japan, and in The United States. Some other Asian markets are readjusting. But overall, the brand is in good shape. We would rather have slow but consistent growth than ups and downs because it is much easier to manage. We work in a very collaborative way, and the global market teams are very much involved in the brand’s decisions. Feedback from the markets is something I value a lot.
What’s the future for Zenith in the UAE?
Globally, Zenith has a very good distribution structure. We don’t want to be overexposed. We want to be able to communicate the values of the brands on a one-to-one basis. Our business is about relationships, and this is what we have perfected with our clients in the Middle East. It’s the relationship first, then the watch. We are very particular with how we distribute our watches – we don’t want to have too many points of sale in each country or region, and we feel that is enough. We have no intention to overexert or overexpose ourselves because our relationship with our customers is very important. We want to do it well and have a real exchange with the customer. We have learnt a lot from our customers, and it’s very interesting. We are very proud of the outcome and success of our business in the Middle East. We’ve had the right strategy, and we will stick to that strategy.
What can we expect to see at LVMH Watch Week this year?
LVMH is a great platform to communicate on a group level. It’s been working very well for the division. Of course, we are going to launch part of our novelties for this year, and then the 160-year-old novelties will launch in Watches & Wonders in April.
We know brand ambassadors are very important to the brand – how do you feel about this top and how do you plan to continue these partnerships with Zenith?
Partnerships are always good. But they have to make sense, and they have to be natural. It’s also good to change partnerships and evolve. It’s happening very naturally. The fundamentals of a successful partnership are that it has to come from both sides. Irrespective of financial arrangements, they have to believe in the brand. We have a lot of brand ambassadors who already wore Zenith watches, and so already knew the brand. That is 70 per cent of the job done, as you don’t need to push it. It comes naturally. Most of our partnerships actually come from the ambassador reaching out to us. It goes back to this idea of authenticity that is so important to Zenith. Partnerships are good if they are not overdone. If you have too many, you can dilute the message, and we are not into that mentality. We have limited production, we are lucky to sell what we produce, and we don’t have to go crazy and try to change things in that respect.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your position?
There are many challenges, but I strongly believe that where there are challenges, there are always solutions. The biggest challenge today is to remain true to ourselves. I receive a lot of offers and proposals that do not work for the brand and are not part of our DNA. So, a challenge is not to be tempted and not to fall into things that are irrelevant. Relevance is important and remaining true to ourselves.
What’s something you would like to do with Zenith?
I want to make sure that we protect the savoir-faire of the brand. It is what the brand is truly about, and I strongly believe that you need good people behind this. That’s why the people at Zenith are so important. I must admit, when I arrived a year ago, it was incredible for me to see the sentimental value and connection that the people at Zenith have to these watches. The human aspect is very important, and I want to make sure that this remains. That’s why our Manufacture is open to the public. We have visitors every day, and we are proud to open our doors to the public and to our customers.
What’s a message you would send to our readers about the brand?
When you know, you know. It might sound cliché, but once you know about Zenith, you never forget it. Zenith is a brand for people in the know. It’s not a mainstream brand. We have authenticity. We have a mile of archives. And this year I’ve decided to invest in this because we have so much to celebrate and organise.
