Jerome Lambert Interview: Jaeger-LeCoultre CEO

AnthonyTsai presents a PuristSPro interview with Mr. Jerome Lambert, then CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre, offering a rare glimpse into the brand's philosophy and future direction. Conducted in 2012, the discussion covers JLC's commitment to environmental sustainability, product integrity, and market strategy. This interview provides valuable insights into the leadership and vision behind one of horology's respected manufactures.

Mr. Jerome Lambert attended a recent South Coast Plaza Jaeger-LeCoultre Boutique event where I sat down with him for 45 minutes and asked him questions compiled by the entire PuristSPro team.  I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it!

Cheers,
Anthony

PuristSPro interviews Mr. Jerome Lambert,

CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre

(interview conducted Nov 30, 2012)

Jaeger-LeCoultre seems to be taking a more hands-on approach with preserving the environment these days.  You now make honey from Vallée de Joux and let employees drive your company electric car.  What other ideas do you have in the works for being “green”?

I don’t know if we do it all to turn green, but we’re fortunate to work in a world where product is a result of a dream and a wish.  You don’t want your activity to leave any mark.  We are what we leave behind so we cannot allow ourselves to have any negative impact on the world around us - that’s our first commandment.

When you visit the manufacture, you can see with your eyes that Jaeger-LeCoultre is all about product integrity.  Jaeger-LeCoultre, from the case to the movement, is what you see in the manufacture.  And when you leave the manufacture, when it is time to for us to give you a small departing gift.  We can’t offer part of what we do in the manufacture, so generally we give you a small gift, not from the surroundings, and sometimes not from Switzerland.  We are a little ashamed of not being able to being fully consistent in what we want a visitor to bring home after visiting our manufacture to compliment a memorable trip and experience.  It’s very unfortunate to say this is how our honey came about.

If we take the honey, the bees are around so they will pollinate the flowers and Christmas trees that are all around so then it’s really us.  We want it to be consistent with the experience of when you visit the manufacture.  It’s a kind of moral commandment, to be consistent in what we want to leave in terms of impression.  The initiatives that we take - the brand is a partner of UNESCO for more than 5 years now.  And now we are sponsoring programs to save and to protect the ocean in particular locations.  We have the initiative with UNESCO because we feel it is part of our responsibility to belong to the protection of what is around us.  Since we have diving watches, it is very natural to say let’s share this responsibility and take the initiative to make diving in beautiful locations still possible for our future generations.

What was your vision for Jaeger-LeCoultre when you first took the helm of this brand?  And has your vision changed or evolved in any way?

After 10 years, many things have changed including myself as well.  The vision that I had for Jaeger-LeCoultre is the vision I inherited from Mr. Blümlein and from Mr. Belmont which is to have Jaeger-LeCoultre referenced to fine watchmaking.  Reference to fine watchmaking means the way we do things with our people in our manufacture by constantly wanting and setting the bar higher every year and being capable to question what is fine watchmaking for the future.  That is what Mr. Blümlein expected from us and Mr. Belmont in 1987.  When I took the responsibility of CEO 10 years ago, it was very clear to me that continuing that vision will drive us further for the future.

Are there things you regret, things you are proud of?

Regret is not part of my character.  Are there things I would have done differently if I had known all the outcomes in the end?  Yes, but in someone else’s life though.  If you know in advance the markets, the continents, or your clients’ expectations, then what?  We do things differently but then life would be very boring because if we know everything in advance, then where would the surprise be?  Where will be the pleasure to make somebody discover something and being the antithesis.  Your love, your passion of the project can be shared.

The Duometre Unique Travel time, a tool to know the time of the different markets and continents.

What I’m most proud of is within the last 10 years, Jaeger-LeCoultre has created a collection of Grande Complications like no other brand.  And every year to be capable to bring a Grande Complication, that has always been a source of discovery and surprise.  We love that each year there are people anticipating to see Jaeger-LeCoultre’s new watches.

10 years ago, the first Grande Complication in the modern era: The Gyrotourbillon One.

How did Jaeger-LeCoultre perform this year, in terms of production?

It’s been a great year for Jaeger-LeCoultre again.  We are quite fortunate that after the downturn of 2008, some of the initiatives that we took met with good success, and socially as well.  After 2008, clients are expecting more from luxury and luxury watches.  When you buy a luxury watch, a watch from fine watchmaking, you expect status.  But after 2008, status is not enough.  When you meet the necessity of status, I would say it’s just a pre-requirement.  Watches need to bring more in terms of technical content, more in terms of quality, more in terms of tradition, and more in terms of surprise and discovery.  The efforts of Jaeger-LeCoultre in that dimension are not five years old or ten years old.  They are 179 years old.  We adapt very well with the conditions of the market.  We appreciate the effort and the consistency we put in which leads to success.

The Tribute line is very popular.  How did the idea to launch this new family come about?

I think that it comes along with when we meet our watch lovers and brand lovers.  Many times when it comes to history and when we are presenting some of our antique watches, many of our clients are discovering our watches.  They are discovering that we have the richest history and patrimony in terms of fine watchmaking.  No one has more patents and movements than us.  And when it comes to the models that Jaeger-LeCoultre has created, the iconic models – the Atmos clock, the Reverso and so on, I could take you through the history of fine watchmaking and you will find the Jaeger-LeCoultre name in every two sentences or every two pages.  Somehow that’s a very natural evolution.  The Tribute line is a way when we cannot explain the history, and this watch will explain our history.  For us, this kind of watch is a testimony of the rich history of Jaeger-LeCoultre.

The Tributes: a true family.

Will there be a future for the Tribute Line? Is there any other iconic watch in the works?  If yes, Geophysic?

I cannot be too specific because any antique watch that we are reworking, the value on auction has multiplied five to ten times.  Take the Polaris between the first wind-up Polaris and the Polaris, the value on auction has gone up considerably.  You take the Deep Sea, five to ten as well in terms of value.  You take the Reverso with the colored dial, now it is common to see a Reverso with this colored dial over €30'000 and in the auction for the 170 Year Anniversary it was less than €8'000.  I remember a rare Reverso with a blue dial that was €8'000.  So I cannot be too specific but if I wanted to collect a Jaeger-LeCoultre watch, most likely I would buy a Geophysic.  But I won’t do that because it would be like insider trading and that’s illegal.  (laughing) I saw the prices of the Polaris and I knew they jump up.  And the Deep Sea, I knew they were going to increase in value, but I’ve never bought any of these watches prior to.

The Legend to be issued? The Geophysic.

Some have complained about the fact that, on some of your new models, the hands are painted blue instead of being heated blue.  Why such a solution which is seen as a downgrade?

We use any solution that copes with watch requirements which means that there has to be some tradeoffs. For hands, some treatments or color preferences cannot be accomplished by heating the hands, so it must be done another way.  Or we want to have some other hands to be luminescent, so again you have many other solutions.  For example if you take a look at the moon, most of the industry is now using a flat moon.  Jaeger-LeCoultre is one of the rare brands to still have shaped moons.  All the other brands’ moons are flat and even one brand name which I will not quote, but they are considered one of the most relevant ones in the market in terms of fine watchmaking.  At Jaeger-LeCoultre we still make the effort - I can tell you it can cost a fortune and much time to be able to do this.  It even goes through to decoration.  In the movement 899, you will see the quality of the decoration of the movement.

The natural warmth of heated blue hands.

What is your role, now in the Lange production?

My function is less operational because now Wilhelm Schmid is the CEO of the company, so I’m working in what would qualify as a Chairman position with my friends at Lange. They are doing great and developing more and more interesting things.

2013 is an important year for Jaeger-LeCoultre, as you will celebrate the 180th Anniversary of the creation of the brand.  Is there a Jubilee collection in the works?  What can you tell us?

We have created 1242 movements.  We have created 70 new movements in the last ten years and 10 new Grande Complications in ten years.  And for us an anniversary is always a great opportunity to bring the lovers of the brand, the connoisseurs of the brand to the Swiss history of Jaeger-LeCoultre and to the essence of Jaeger-LeCoultre communicated through the collection of the year.  So yes, you can definitely expect from Jaeger-LeCoultre more inventions than ever, more technical performance than ever, more records than ever, and more creativity than ever.  I have given you the four criteria and in a few weeks time, it will be capable to say yes or no or maybe not.  It is not like we haven’t been working hard every year for the collection.  I will say we are very eager to present them again.

One of the members of the Jubilee Family, unveiled at the SIHH: The MUT 39 Jubilee.

How do you see PuristSPro in your relation with the internet?  Do you read the posts in our forum?  Do you find any inspiration from what you read?

I always find what I read on PuristSPro very interesting.  The first thing in the PuristS, you see trends being sought and touched very often.  You see people having feelings for things that are important like interests for quality technical watches, interests for technical sporty watches from ten years ago, or the importance for movement decoration and these kinds of things.  You see big trends and interests that are very concentrated and very interesting and not written within the lines but something that you can read.

And the other thing which is very interesting in the PuristS is the passion and the elevation of the global passion for the brand.  I have been in Australia meeting PuristS that are posting regularly on the website, in Korea or in Saudi and Brazil.  I think that wherever I’ve been in my life for Jaeger-LeCoultre, I’ve been meeting people who are really passionate about the brand and they are very active with the PuristS.  Furthermore, my first interview that I have ever given was given to PuristS!

Are you open to making a Jaeger-LeCoultre/PuristSPro watch someday?

I would say I’m not much into special editions at Jaeger-LeCoultre because we are under pressure to bring production on time, the development and so on.  But I can say some of our watches have been very much inspired by PuristS and some of the discussions we had without having officially a PuristSPro watch.  I would say more through the quality of the discussion, the quality of the exchange that I had with you guys through the last ten years has definitely influenced some of the projects.  I could say the Deep Sea and the Polaris have been marked by the quality of the discussions that I had with some of you.  In a way they are PuristSPro watches without having been labeled as such.

The Tribute To Polaris: A Community Watch?

On the forum there has been considerable discussion both good and bad about the state of after-sales support from all the big brands.  Collectors are saying that increasingly, bad service experiences are influencing their purchasing decisions.  What steps is Jaeger-LeCoultre taking to make sure that after-sales service is a priority at the manufacture (if any)?

First we have more than 150 watchmakers working in the after-sales service at Jaeger-LeCoultre which accounts for 10% of all the people working for the brand.  We are repairing any watch that has something wrong with it.  Sometimes we don’t recognize a watch itself so it can take years and decades to repair; but we produce our own parts, we produce movements and so on.

We keep on training our watchmakers and recruiting new watchmakers for sales and service.  We keep improving our own quality, and our rate of return has never been as low as it is today.  But for sure when you are part of the statistics, part of this return rate, if I tell somebody you are one of the five people, that is not an excuse for the five people.  So what we try to do on top of what we do ourselves is to develop the capability within our point of sales of the watchmakers at our retailers.  We bring them through level 1,2,3 of training so we have the plan to develop the number of watchmakers at the trade level capable to evolve to number 2.  So we can get as quick as possible direct expert service where the problem is solved and people can take care of your watch directly.

Isn't it a major responsibility for a brand to keep the price or value of your creations in the secondary market close to what the original owners paid as much as possible?  I am not expecting them to remain at the retail price level, but I wouldn't want to see 50% down, either.  What are your thoughts about that?

Definitely that’s a responsibility of the brand.  The question is always what is the time frame?

If you consider the Polaris, I could answer easily that the watch has been around for 30 years.  The value was down during the 30 years, and certainly in last 5 years, revived by 10 fold.  Not any brands can give five models where the price fluctuates between 5 and 10 fold.

If you take a Reverso GT regular, I will use Euros and if you bought this watch ten years ago, you could have bought it for less than €2'000.  Now if you buy a GT, it’s €4'500 or €4'750.  If you buy this watch second hand, it will be 20-30% off. You could have bought this watch ten years ago and the watch is identical to this one.  Actually if you save a third of the €4'500, you are still nicely over €3'000 compared to the €2'000 you had to pay ten years ago.  Actually that’s 50% off.  The GT Reverso is the watch Jaeger-LeCoultre has produced in the largest quantity over the past ten years.  Not many brands can say on the models they’ve produced in the largest quantity that not only do you have your money back, but if you have a reasonable question of time you may have 30 or 50% off.

If you take the Grande Complication not Gyro1, Gyro2 – they have been auctioned for less than 15% of the bid price with the cost down.  You buy Gyro 1, Gyro 2 you have to pay 83 to 115 of the bid price so yes that’s our responsibility.  Yes that’s not the case for any model of the brand right on the spot, but from the entry price one and the largest quantity one to the peak of the pyramid, that’s quite a case.

Take the Master Calendar, in the last 18 months we had some auction prices of second hand watches of this category that were more than 90% of the bid price which is not bad.

Somehow picking the right one is a rather good investment when it comes to Jaeger-LeCoultre.  We have 179 years of history.  The brand is one of the most legitimate and largest players in its field, and the Jaeger-LeCoultre name will not disappear.  So a collector in ten years or fifteen years will have a chance to learn about us.  We develop the watch by lines and collections.  You can buy a Gyro 1, a Gyro 2 and maybe a Gyro 3 tomorrow and then the interest and the knowledge of this model is maintained.  And the growth of the average price of Jaeger-LeCoultre watches has been the quickest one in the industry in the last ten years.  Tough question - but in the center of what we consider for being important - so good question you asked.

The Duometre: Tomorrow's star?

Let’s move to the topic of after sales service.  Do you have a target turnaround time for repairs?

You have 846 parts in the movement of a Reverso which is a mechanical movement and you have the Grande Sonnerie movement which has 1200 parts.  For a basic watch, not the Grande Complications, depending on the country and the location, we try to maintain turnaround in under 8 weeks.

However, if a particular watch requires substantial intervention, we have to go through at least part of the 1,000 hour control because we have to retest it.  If we really intervene deeply into the heart of the machine, then before we leave the machine, we have to test it again because there’s no point testing a watch for only 3 hours.  We need to do 1,000 hours of control which will take a minimum 6 weeks of testing.

Do you see Jaeger-LeCoultre among the big 3 - AP, PP, VC? If yes, how do you see the brand?

We have been in the Vallée de Joux for 179 years which means we are the largest and the first manufacture.  I love to see the brand appreciated by the PuristS and by the connoisseurs of the brand.  Ranking doesn’t mean a lot.  I say the vision that Mr. Blümlein gave us as a kind of heritage is reference in fine watchmaking, so when you try to be a reference in fine watchmaking you don’t try to be the number one or number three.  You want to stand alone by the way you do your watches.

Also, how is Jaeger-LeCoultre supporting the future of watchmaking?  Are there formal apprenticeships in place to train young watchmakers?  Does Jaeger-LeCoultre financially support technical schools to train watchmakers?  Is there a mandate at the company to try and keep traditional arts such as enameling (grand feu, miniature painting, cloisonné, etc.) alive and in-house at the manufacture?

We have more than that.  We have more than 18 partnerships with schools and watchmaking schools around the world where we send movements, where we train the teachers there so that young watchmakers can be more and more used to the culture and technical level of Jaeger-LeCoultre.  We are supporting international training programs as well as participating in a program for schools dedicated to watchmakers in Asia and particularly in China to bring the level of watchmakers there to be capable of repairing not Grande Complications but at least technical watches with evolved movements.

The manufacture has 180 different craftsmanships.  We have been recreating from scratch 25 years ago.  We have teams in training that go along with the same engraving and all the craftsmanship that Jaeger-LeCoultre offers.  We are the manufacture when it comes to fine watchmaking and in terms of expertise and it’s only at Jaeger-LeCoultre that you find this 180 craftsmanships.  So it depends on us to bring in the people for the level of expertise that we require.

Through recent economic crises, many brands needed a change in company culture or management.  As a mature brand (180 years), Jaeger-LeCoultre has not been through any visible revolution or evolution recently.  Can you comment on the last statement as a business manager; good or bad for clients?

Companies are changing a lot constantly.  When I see what we do at Jaeger-LeCoultre, in 2002 we had 5 subsidiaries.  We now have 20 subsidiaries.  In 2005, we had 1 Boutique.  We have 50 Boutiques now.  We didn’t have an internet website in 1999, but today we are present on at least seven different social media platforms, whether in Chinese, French, English and so on.

The Paris Boutique: The new place to be?

The company has evolved a lot through what it does.  When it comes to culture, 179 years – that’s a huge fantastic patrimony and for me that’s a big part of my responsibilities in this patrimony.  It makes a difference and it makes a test of Jaeger-LeCoultre that it’s preserved for the future.  We are not in an industry where you have technological breakthroughs or breakdowns like clocks.  At least for the last 30 years nothing came of that kind.  So consistency is very important.  With that said, if you don’t evolve, you die.  Behind these consistencies that we have around the Identity of the brand, around what makes Jaeger-LeCoultre different, we constantly change.  I spend a good 30-40% of my time making clients friends and partners around the world.  I’ve done it for ten years.  With all the days and nights I spend on the plane, it amounts to around one year in ten years time.  All that time spent by myself and around my team.  When I see what Philippe Bonay and his team does in America to constantly adapt the way we communicate, constantly adapt the way we bring fine watchmaking to new clientele, new centers of interest.  I was in Sao Paolo two weeks ago where we just opened a new Boutique.  I feel it is our responsibility to bring and develop fine watchmaking culture over there.  I think that definitely, at least that’s the recipe of Jaeger-LeCoultre.  I don’t know success or failure - everything is always relative in life.  I leave to the lovers of Jaeger-LeCoultre the capability to feel that philosophy for ten years.  But definitely, we are driven by a constant force to do better.

How many Boutiques do you plan on having in 5 years?

I would love to know in five years all the evolution of the microeconomics because when you open a Boutique it depends on the cities as well where you go.  We know there are another 20-30 cities in the world where it makes sense to open Boutiques and to develop fine watchmaking culture.  In the US, we are opening Costa Mesa, Las Vegas, and Palm Beach.  This year we also have a project in Miami, and next year we have Munich opening in May.  We have Chengdou opening, etc.  So there are close to ten projects just around the corner for the brand to offer Boutique presence.

With each opening do you have a limited edition?

No, not with Jaeger-LeCoultre.  That is not our philosophy.  After ten years, that kind of business I don’t do anymore I would say.  We have 280 active references at Jaeger-LeCoultre and open ten to fifteen Boutiques a year; so if we have one limited edition per Boutique, it would drive me crazy.  It’s the first thing I stopped with Lange in 2009, so it’s not my philosophy.  A brand expression and brand DNA is something you reinforce and you can make use of it, but you always have to be very careful that the use and the decision are very close to one another.  I’m not sure that color is the best thing you can do for a watch to assess its uniqueness, rareness and presence so I’m very reluctant to use that philosophy.  It doesn’t mean that we’ll never it though.

When you ask me what I regret or what I definitely learned, it’s these kinds of things I’ve learned throughout time.  When you do something special it has to remain special.  If you do something special five times, is it really special?  And we are a manufacture so Jaeger-LeCoultre cannot play with dice.  I can’t just make a new strap and a new dial.  That’s not Jaeger.  If we do something special, then it’s nice to create a movement which is €5 to €10 million investment.  It would be impossible just for one thing.  It doesn’t mean that we don’t do something special at the occasion of but it must be much more like the first edition of something that is dedicated to one location.  The rest will follow because by the quantities we produce.  But unfortunately, Costa Mesa, Palm Beach and Vegas will not have any special editions.

What are your goals for selling directly on an ecommerce site?

For a Grande Sonnerie, you have to wait between 5 and 8 years now, so I’m sure in 5 to 8 years you can have the opportunity to visit a Boutique or a Jaeger-LeCoultre authorized dealer to see the watch.  If you want to contact the brand through the internet or through our e-concierge, I’m very happy to have the first contact with you at that point.  We are in the Vallée de Joux.  That’s where we do our watches, so when it comes to meeting our clients of course we have to be as open as possible.  As much as we concentrate on what we do, we have to be on the opposite, capable to be open and to develop relationships of the brand as much as possible.

With the internet now, everyone can do his research online.  But for the people who don’t have an authorized dealer near them or a Boutique, buying directly from you is important.  Do you have plans promote buying directly on your website?

We are present in 70 to 80 different countries, so we are already quite busy to get the brand known in these 80 countries without promoting a way to sell our watches.  We don’t do promotion of our watch boutiques to bring in another one.  You don’t see advertising that says come and visit the new boutique in Costa Mesa or come and visit the new boutique in Vegas.  I would say you find the address and we are there but basically at Jaeger-LeCoultre when we put money to promote, that’s for the product, for the brand history or the institution.

Having said that, the brand is part of the territory where people are very interested in fine watchmaking.  There is not a place in the world where I go that I don’t meet one Purist so they can be everywhere.  Jaeger-LeCoultre shops are not everywhere, so to get the contacts to find a watch, an accessory, or a particular leather strap, I am not at all against that dimension for purchasing on our website.  That’s a good extension as much as digital, communications etc.  E-distribution will not kill the traditional distribution.  That’s a nice addition.

How do you feel about having a special edition exclusive piece available only through the Jaeger-LeCoultre website - a first of a kind, a web only Jaeger-LeCoultre special edition watch?

For the time being we consider the web, when it comes to selling as an opportunity when you cannot find a boutique, a service.  For us, we consider it like sales so again we don’t see the point of promoting a service.  Service is to serve you, not to bring something particular to promote that way of selling our watches.

My dream would be that any client could come to the manufacture and pick up the watch there.  I would love it.  We cannot do that, so sometimes we have to bring the watches to other countries.  Then we have the chance to add some Boutiques and develop a network where you can experience the brand even more.  The essence of the brand is direct contact and the existence of the brand is the physical existence; reality.  So I prefer that you can touch reality.  I would prefer not to create this type of watch, especially a watch which undermines the way we want to communicate as a brand.  That’s a necessity and not a wish.