Laurent Ferrier Interview: Brand Philosophy

KIH · 2012-09-29T07:26:16Z

Read an exclusive interview with Laurent Ferrier and Olivier Muller. Discover the brand's origins, watchmaking philosophy, and technical innovations.

KIH

WPS member · Independents forum

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KIH's interview with Laurent Ferrier and Olivier Muller provides a rare glimpse into the philosophy and origins of the independent watch brand. This conversation illuminates Mr. Ferrier's journey from Patek Philippe to establishing his own manufacture, offering invaluable context for understanding the brand's commitment to horological purity and innovation.

Interview with Mr. Laurent Ferrier.

Messrs. Laurent Ferrier and Olivier Muller came to Japan to hold events for the owners and those who are interested in the brand. I had a lucky opportunity to meet with Mr. Laurent Ferrier himself for the first time and fairly long time to discuss (via Mr. Muller's translation) his brand and himself. Please note that the responses also include Mr. Muller's comments.

Mr. Laurent Ferrier on the left, with Mr. Olivier Muller (CEO).

PPro: Thank you very much for making time to meet with me at this time. Welcome to Japan. Is this your first time here?

Mr. Ferrier ("LF"): No, I came here in 1984 for the 1000km Mount Fuji Grand Championship at Fuji Speedway. There are many nice GT races in Japan. So, this is the second trip to Japan in my life. As with 30 years ago, very clean streets, polite, kind, rational and sensible people, on-time and safe public transportation, wonderful foods - no wonder many people love and admire this country and it's culture. I would love to come here more often.

PPro: I will come back to your race career later, but let me ask you first about your career at Patek. What was your responsibilities at Patek?

LF: I worked for Patek for 37 years, having finished watchmaking school in Geneva in 1968 (22 years old). For the first four (4) years, I worked for the Movement Department - within which in the Prototyping Group, and then moved on to other Group to be trained for the different parts of the movement. Then I was involved in a special project - to develop very precise QUARTZ watch for Boeing airplanes. In 70s, Patek worked a lot on Quartz technology but the Quartz watch development came to an end and Patek came back to entirely mechanical watches. Then I moved on to the Technical Department which dealt with "everything BUT the movement". Then I took a leave for a short while for racing and when I came back, I worked for Product Development Department. Back then, we did not have watch designers. We did have some people working on the movement and some people drawing the sketches,etc, but there was not a general concept of "Product Development" to oversee the new product development process. But as the collection of Patek grows, Mr. Stern realized that it is necessary to better coordinate when launching new products. So, I was assigned to set up such new department, and in that project I worked closely with Mr. Stern (the father). I have very fond memories working with Mr. Stern. And I left Patek in 2008, at the age of 62.

PPro: Why did you leave Patek? Did you already have a plan for your own brand when you decided to leave?

LF: The reason for leaving is that basically any watchmaker has a dream of one day making his own watch from A to Z. Some actually do it, some just keep dreaming. Most watchmakers do the job for the watches designed/ created by someone else everyday, and at night s/he dreams that s/he can do better here and there. In my case, I was happy at Patek. But, in 1979 when I finished Le Mans 24 hours at 3rd place, I gave Nautilus to my co-driver (Mr. Francois Servanin), who happened to be the owner of the team (3rd place is the best result among the privately held team) and an entrepreneur and knew nothing about watches or luxury industry has kept insisting I start my own brand with such knowledge, etc.... Long story short, it took me 30 years to listen to him and decide to do what he had kept saying. And, yes, he and his family are now the main investor/ owner of Laurent Ferrier. Also, if I may add, like I said, from Day 1 until Mr. Muller here joined, we were all bunch of watchmakers and hands-off investor - we started as a "pure" group of watch making without any marketing or business plan. The new watch of our own brand came first, above all. So, when the first watch was finished, we got all excited and celebrated but when we got back to ourselves, we all look others' face and said "well, does anyone know how to sell watches?". We didn't think of anything else other than making what we wanted to make, including the name of the brand (!). Honestly, I didn't even want my name on the dial first.

Of course, Mr. Philippe Stern reacted very positively and wished me good luck. We keep a good relationship with the brand but don't have any closer contact.

PPro: What is the goal of Laurent Ferrier? What do you want to accomplish? What do you envision?

LF: That is the most difficult question simply. My vision as a watchmaker is to make simple and clean design watches, but with innovations not relying too much on what has been done in the past. In other words, we will try to take good things of the past and adapt with the modern technology, not trying to mimic everything. Establish Laurent Ferrier as a really legitimate player in high-end Swiss made watch making, with hand finishing of the movement, chronometric precision, and real nice mix of products. Gallet Tourbillon which won the Grand Prix is what I had been dreaming - clean and simple enamel dial in YG case, just like the good old pocket watch, AND behind it is the modern technology. Tourbillon is not new innovation at all. It is just one tool to make the pocket watch more accurate, thus just a part of the movement. That is why our tourbillon is on the back or movement side. Now tourbillon is more common and some think it like "fashion" and there are many tourbillon watches with it on the dial side. It is simply not our idea or our watch is not for such people. But of course, we added innovation - the first double hair spring tourbillon to try to average the torque as much as possible. The brand identity is found on the dial - Micro-Rotor's dial is definitely Laurent Ferrier, people easily recognize.

From the perspective of business side, we already have the plan of how to establish ourselves as the legitimate watch brand. There are reasons why we introduced from Gallet Classic Tourbillon and then after a few years Gallet Micro-Rotor. People who are skeptical about us can enter from Micro-Rotor and then go up to Tourbillon. We also have plan to introduce something in between soon, and then higher complication than Gallet Tourbillon and further above in the future. We do not rush. We are already making break even this year only after two years of operation since the launch of the first model. We cannot be a brand who can make 2000 per year and we should not be. We are still on the curve of growing, but we know how big is optimal and the cost control based on the assumption that this entity last for a long time to come. Our business model also prioritize "continuity" - that is the best customer service. We are not structured to too much rely on the "Name" person - in our case, me (LF). We are structured and have plan to continue even after I have passed away. One-man show or shop is not really for the customers who buy our products in the long run. Patek, Lange, Franck Muller - they all survived after the person or the heir whose name is the brand name left the company. But, for now, I'm still overseeing the product development and I still have lots of new ideas

PPro: In doing watchmaking, what is the "principle" that you always do or you never do?

LF: We never compromise on the quality. One very important principle that we never drop is that the watches, movements remain functional all the time - I know it sounds very stupid thing to say, but the point is that we do not take the risk to reach the technical audacity sacrificing the reliability or durability. We would rather choose less complicated design to make the more reliable and durable watches. Our watches are for daily use.

PPro: Does your "principle" above has anything to do with the delay of delivery of Micro-Rotor?

LF: Yes, actually very much. First of all, we realized that we were in rush - we realized that we should take a bit more time between the Chapter 1 - Gallet Clasic Tourbillon, and Chapter 2 - Micro-Rotor. Micro-Rotor may seem less complicated and even easier to make, but it is still hand finishing and the resource required to make it is not as different as Gallet Classic Tourbillon. So, with that price of Micro-Rotor, we had to sell much more to make the product break even - in retrospect, that made us rush a bit. And we also realized that we had underestimated the technical audacity risk we took by applying the Natural Escapement which not so many people implemented successfully. Maybe we were too confident. We would not want to 1% risk that something wouldn't work. So one day we decided that we prefer to call customers/ retailers to apologize and explain the delay. We are very aware that we are or will ever be never at perfection. We never consider the product, even after the launch, perfect or finished. Watchmakers and Technical Department, headed by Christian, my son, always have close communication whether there is any tiny problem in the movement or any idea to improve it.

PPro: Thank you very much, Mr. Ferrier and Mr. Muller for your time. I believe all the stories I heard today will excite PPro readers as well. Again, welcome to Japan, Mr. Ferrier, and hope you have a great time here.

They are of course wearing the Micro-Rotor.

Through this interview, I felt strong "differentiation" from "others" in terms of their "quality comes first" philosophy and implementation as well as emphasis on the continuity of the brand. Also, I was surprised to hear that they are already making break even financially this year. Very much looking forward to their "Chapter 3" at the next Basel.

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Presentation by Mr. Muller:

This is the key technology of Micro-Rotor. Similar to Detent Escapement. Created long time ago, but even the creator (Mr. Breguet) gave up after making only four (4), due to lack of precision machinery to make precise parts, thus could not execute as efficient operation as it was expected to be.

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Special thanks to:
Mr. Laurent Ferrier - Founder, Laurent Ferrier
Mr. Olivier Muller - CEO, Laurent Ferrier
Mr. Momoi - President, The Hour Glass Ginza
Mr. Hirota - Watch jounalist, who explained the technical aspects in plain Japanese

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Addendum - I just learned that Laurent Ferrier now has the second Point Of Sales in Japan - Kamine (pronounced ka-mi-nei) in Kobe, the major city in the western part of Japan. This must show the enthusiasm and potential they feel in this (smallish, in today's standard) market.

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Thank you!

Ken

This message has been edited by KIH on 2012-09-29 10:35:30 This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2012-09-30 19:20:58 This message has been edited by MTF on 2012-10-03 20:44:34

Key Points from the Discussion

Laurent Ferrier worked at Patek Philippe for 37 years, starting in the Movement Department and later establishing the Product Development Department, working closely with Mr. Stern (the father).
The brand's inception was driven by Laurent Ferrier's lifelong dream of creating his own watch from start to finish, a dream encouraged by his Le Mans 24 Hours co-driver and entrepreneur, François Servanin.
Laurent Ferrier's approach to watchmaking is characterized by 'pureness,' focusing on the creation of the watch itself without initial marketing or business plans, leading to a product-first philosophy.
The brand's technological innovations, particularly in escapement design, prioritize reliability and durability, utilizing special alloys and silicon for precise, light, and efficient parts.
The winding feel of Laurent Ferrier watches is highly regarded; the Tourbillon offers a light, comfortable clicking feel, while the Micro-Rotor provides a very smooth experience with a slight click, distinct from other automatics.
The combination of Laurent Ferrier's pure design vision and Olivier Muller's business acumen is seen as a winning formula for the brand's success in the independent watchmaking sector.

The Discussion

amanico

Sep 29, 2012

Thank you so much for making us discover Laurent ferrier's Universe and watches! Best, Nicolas

walidk

Sep 29, 2012

The more I read and learn about LF the more convinced I am that it is definitely a contender for the long run in terms of finish and design, especially having seen some of their pieces (yours of course is something to behold). I certainly look forward to hearing more about what they hold for us over the coming years! Many thanks for posting this write-up! All the best my friend, Walid

MTF

Sep 29, 2012

Mr Laurent Ferrier said this about Japan: ".....very clean streets, polite, kind, rational and sensible people, on-time and safe public transportation, wonderful foods..." That culture and attitude is similar to my vision of PuristS seeking perfection in an imperfect world. "To swim with the fishes, one must have the mind of the ocean". Thus, a Laurent Ferrier watch may be close to the PuristS ideals of horology.... Thanks Ken for the report. Regards, MTF

KIH

Sep 29, 2012

... thank you for nice words. They are truly "watchnuts" combined with healthy operational management. I am even more impressed by that. I don't know how many independent are making money today, but they are certainly one of a few, I believe. Yes, I can't wait to see and handle their Chapter 3 at the next Basel (not that I am going, though)! Ken

KIH

Sep 29, 2012

... we started as a " pure " group of watch making without any marketing or business plan. The new watch of our own brand came first, above all. So, when the first watch was finished, we got all excited and celebrated but when we got back to ourselves, we all look others' face and said " well, does anyone know how to sell watches? ". We didn't think of anything else other than making what we wanted to make, including the name of the brand (!). This "Pureness" is something totally opposite from w

DonCorson

Sep 29, 2012

Thanks Ken, learned alot. Don

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