Anybody who has ever seen Jean-Claude Biver speak, or had the honour of meeting him in person, will not quickly forget the experience. He is energetic, enthusiastic, and often called a maverick, but one thing is certain – he’s a man who knows and loves watches.
His high-energy approach and palpable passion for the art of watchmaking has made him one of the most influential figures in today’s industry, responsible for rejuvenating and even resurrecting brands and providing a sense of leadership that brought Swiss watchmaking out of the “quartz crisis” of the early 1980s. Today, as president of the watches division of LVMH, he is the man behind top brands including Hublot, TAG Heuer and Zenith.
It was Hublot that brought Biver back to the world of watches; a brand which was then little-known outside of Spain, where it held a certain popularity because it was worn by their king.
By focussing on the core concept of the brand – The Art of Fusion – and dedicating his passion and expertise to the brand, he was able to increase their sales fivefold between 2004 and 2007.
Part of this success has been, unusually, thanks to a tactic of restricting availability. It may seem to go against the grain to provide only seven watches to a retailer who wants to have ten, but exclusivity breeds desire – and meant that, when the economic downturn hit retailers, they were inclined to maintain the same low stocks of Hublot timepieces whilst slashing their collections of other brands.
This early connection to the history and tradition of watchmaking has remained with Biver to this day – it’s the reason behind his famous cheese.
After his year at Audemars Piguet, Biver worked a while at Omega as Product Manager, but he left to explore a new opportunity – one which would make his first major mark in watchmaking history. Returning to the Vallée de Joux, he and Jacques Piguet purchased the rights to the Blancpain name in 1981. The watchmaker had a long history, but had gone out of business in the 1970s; the Quartz Crisis was at its peak and Swiss watchmakers were struggling to compete.
Biver and Piguet rebuilt the brand upon a simple concept; “Since 1735 there has never been a quartz Blancpain watch. And there never will be.” This campaign, and its success, has been credited as a turning point in the crisis, leading the way for mechanical watches to make a resurgence. In 1992, just eleven years after it was purchased for CHF22,000, the brand was sold to the SMH Group (now known as the Swatch Group) for CHF60m.
At Banks Lyon, we are proud to be able to offer an extensive collection of watches which have benefitted from the Biver touch; our range of Hublot watches has now arrived in store alongside our TAG Heuer and Omega collections. For more information, contact us on 01524 381020 or visit us in our Lancaster store.