Dear Georges Kern,
I was excited to hear that you will be taking over the reigns at Jaeger-LeCoultre, AKA: "Sleeping Beauty." Your tenure and track record at IWC, with whom JLC has been linked since the 1980s (at least) under the Mannesmann's SMH, has brought IWC from a "good" brand to one that is "great" in the minds of so many watch-lovers. Your marketing campaign of "Real men don't do windows...any bigger than 43mm" captivated a number of us and turned our attention much more towards the Portuguese than we had in the past. Also, your jab at Patek's motto with the smug little boy in the bottom left corner of each add, saying, "He'll have to wait," was funny and refreshing.
So, I speak for many of us on PuristSPro (I'm sure) when I say that we are eager to see what changes in brand-management and brand-visibility you bring as you enter the new Richemont fiscal year (April 1).
For so many of us, JLC has remained one THE best, MOST complete, and MOST UNDERATED brands in all of Switzerland. JLCs factory expansion has proven its desirability, but with the recent down-turn, it has led to gray-market dumping of product, which confuses customers as to JLC's selling price and inherent value. I hope with all my heart that JLC's marketing department will FINALLY come up with an add campaign as enduring and maybe even as successful as Patek's "Generations" campaign (though that's a tall order). But I've always felt JLC already had the marketing campaign in its back pocket, if it didn't mind stepping on a few toes and breaking rank with historical "gentleman's agreements."
Jaeger-LeCoultre "The Watchmaker's Watchmaker"
"In the 19th century, when Switzerland's top watch houses, Patek-Philippe and Vacheron-Constantin wanted pocket watches with Chronograph, perpetual calendar and minute repeater movements, Jaeger-LeCoultre answered the call by producing a number of calibers of various sizes with these very complications. Thus began an enduring relationship between Jaeger-LeCoultre and Patek-Philippe, Vacheron-Constantin and others that remained for over a century. -Jaeger-LeCoultre "The Watchmaker's Watchmaker"
"In 1903, when Louis Cartier wanted to produce the world's thinnest pocket watch - so thin that a vest pocket would reveal no bulge - Jaeger-LeCoultre answered the call by producing Caliber 145. At 1.38mm thin, it remains an unbroken record in ultra-thin pocket-watch movements, to this very day. Thus began an enduring relationship between Jaeger-LeCoultre and Cartier that endured for more than a century." -Jaeger-LeCoultre "The Watchmaker's Watchmaker"
"In the 1950s, when Audemars-Piguet and Vacheron-Constantin wanted to produce the thinnest manual-wind wristwatch, Jaeger-LeCoultre answered the call, producing Caliber 1003/2003. At 2.85mm thin, it remains one of the thinnest wristwatch movements ever produced." -Jaeger-LeCoultre "The Watchmaker's Watchmaker"
"In the 1960s, when Audemars-Piguet and Vacheron-Constantin wanted to produce the thinnest full-rotor automatic wristwatch, Jaeger-LeCoultre answered the call, producing Caliber 920 (1120/2120). At 2.45mm thin, it remains the thinnest full-rotor automatic in the world." -Jaeger-LeCoultre "The Watchmaker's Watchmaker"
Need I go on?
My hope and prayer is that JLC will finally shatter the self-imposed glass ceiling that has held them back from truly being acknowledged in the world (not just the watch world) as one of the greatest brands there is, period!
(Whew!)
-Dean