Field Trip 2: Hautlence Lecture at the Horological Society of New York
This Monday, October 6th, I went on what was essentially a 3 hour undercover trip into the watch making world. It was a talk from Guillaume Tetu, Hautlence Founder & Chairman and Cedric Joos, Global Brand Manager (Neuchâtel, Switzerland) followed by a Q&A at the Horological Society of New York (HSNY). The session was a behind-the-scenes look at building an independent brand during the renaissance of modern watchmaking.
The session itself was quite corporate, but the following 2 hours of conversation were rather interesting. A lot of folks were happy to talk to me, even the company founder, even though I was presenting like a student, which I think speaks to the focus on the craft of watches from that crowd as opposed to value considerations.
About the session (?)
“Prepare to dive deep into the full process, from designing, prototyping, and bringing to market innovative and never-before-seen complications. The HL2 with its rotating escapement, the groundbreaking Sphere, and the recently released Retrovision '85 (the famous robot watch), and Helix will be just a few highlights of the evening.”
Quantities and Marketing
In 2004, Hautlence was started in Neuchâtel with a vision to redefine how time is displayed. Hautlence makes 200 watches per year. Each year, they create a watch inspired by 70s Japanese watches, called Retrovision. For this one specifically, only 8 units were made - sold at 80,000 swiss francs. I was suprised to hear how few watches are made, The global brand manager said himself this annual edition effectively works as a marketing tool.
Their collection currently doesn’t allow a collector to have a journey, their representative said.
There’s ways to callibrate. You build a movement through 3D modelling or by prototyping. They add resistence to the springs, doing some prototypes.
Q: any complications they’ve explored?
3D printing in the watch industry
3D printing is bringing new shapes.
Canonical gears are needed and there’s not many people doing them worldwide, but now with 3D printing it’s now possible.
Q: what will be in 10 years the complication that defines your brand? Goal is to show
They’ve made 56 watches in their 2 last connections. These watches are spoken to as being for collectors.
For dials, 3D printing for “Vagabond” will work.
Customers ask “how do you read time on that piece?”.
The economics of Heutlence
Exotic movements quickly disseapear because there’s a high R&D cost.
1 watch maker used to do 2 watches per month.
They get their first feedback from their retailers. But they also want character through building something equally loved and hated. In this case, their strongsuit is complications.
Up next they’ll explore colors - a red from Qatar that aligns with trend predictions from the art and fashion industry.
Transparencies also interest them. They’ve been trying to explain each layer since 2000 for Marketing purposes, and now the watch itself can communicate that.
They did a 3D printed self strap, where the thing broke off because it was plastic.
Guillaume, the Hautlence founder, proceeded to tell me about gold 3D printing. Less material is wasted.
Guillaume is also an angel investor and pulls the top engineering students from 2 swiss universities that then do all these projects.
The watch community is a tight knit and small one. Some folks had had just come from the Geneva Watch Week.
Findings
- One can collect anything - there’s a community involved. There’s a lot of fun in having loads of variations of the same thing and being able to see the relationships between items.
- A few men said they love watches because it’s like the only jewelry they can wear in a work setting. A real estate agent, who loved watches, told me a little anecdote about telling the difference between someone who collects watches for the money and those who do it for the craft. If you go up to something and complement them on their watch model and they reply “No, it’s actually a Rolex.”, then you know their motivations. This made me think about
Grand Seiko is a brand different from Seiko.
Recommendations for watch fairs
- Wind Up Watch Fair - More accessible watches, Oct 17 to 19
- WatchTime - more expensive, Oct 17 to 19