Hublot

KIH
[Purist]
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Part II - Interview

6:20 PM

I was told that I would have 30 minutes with him during the reception between 6:00 and 6:30, but the previous interview got delayed and he showed up at the reception a bit late, and he loves to chat with clients and has to take care of TV crew..... so I had just a few minutes at the reception.  So, this is just the first of literally several sessions of the day.

(Note:  I had been in the guest room of The Hour Glass to simply avoid TV camera - it is a no-no for my day job and my apologies for not providing you with the photos of the reception.  I had to spend fairly long time in the room alone without wine or foods, hearing the sound of fun party :-( )


KIH: First off, thank you so much for joining PurisSPro and I appreciate it very much, and I am so happy to meet you finally in person.

JCB: Pleasure is all mine.  Thank you for having us on board.  Sorry for having kept you waiting.


KIH: I wear this one today just for you.  Do you remember this?

KIH: I have spent many years in NY and just came back to Tokyo last year.  And I was amazed that so many celebrities here - TV personalities, pro sports players, even sumo wrestlers - wear Hublot and I see them on TV.  What do you think is the attraction of Hublot to those people?

JCB: Gee, I didn't know that so many celebrities wear my watch here.  I don't know why.  Maybe because they don't look like watches?  It is "Next watch".  Seriously, these celebrity people tend to precede the trend - they are the first to buy/ wear "what is next", and Hublot always aims to be the "Next" watch and that may be one of the reasons why those people are attracted to Hublot.


KIH: Other than those celebrity people, Hublot also sells well to the "general public" as well, I heard from the staff of The Hour Glass.  Why do you think is that?

JCB: Some people likes Mercedes but he also likes Lamborghini, perhaps.  For such car lovers, these brands don't compete but are complimentary in their garage.  I have many vintage and modern Patek and other hi-end brands, and have many Hublot.  Hublot does not compete with other brands in the people's collection.  Like I said before, Hublot is the "Next" watch and they are complimentary to each other.  That is why Hublot is accepted by so many people.


KIH: I understand and everybody knows that "Fusion" is the main concept of Hublot.  Although you may have spoken about it many times, would you care to elaborate here again so that your new audience at PuristSPro understand better.

JCB: Sure.  First in life, you need tradition.  No tradition, no future.  But once you are connected to tradition, then you have strength to look at the future.  With the strong tradition, you can have the strong future.  Hublot watch has the "trace" of the past, but at the same time, the "trace" of the future.  Hublot watch has both.  This Blancpain 7002 is a beautiful and perfect watch with vibration of 99% of the past tradition, which is good.  This Blancpain is my baby, and at Hublot I cannot forget this baby, but cannot copy/repeat this baby.  What we do at Hublot is to connect yesterday and tomorrow, with new idea, new concept, new material, etc. 
A very good example is the combination of Les Paul - the great guitarist - and Gibson - the guitar brand - to create the electric guitar.  Les Paul was using the Spanish guitar - no change for the past 200 years - and suggested Gibson, "why don't you connect my guitar to the loud speakers?".  Gibson said, "what?"  Les Paul insisted, "Come on, let's try".  And the electric guitar and the new sound was created, and thus new music was created.  That is Fusion and what we do....


(Hublot staff knocks on the door and he was asked to come back to the customers)

KIH: You seem to be enjoying these events despite you must be so tired.

JCB: There are two fantastic moments - one is when we create new watches.  It is exciting.  Another is when I meet Hublot owners.  So rewarding because the result of your effort is visible on the clients' wrists.  I wish I could do these events everyday

7:10 PM

We rushed to the cab while the TV camera followed him.  I went into the cab first, but the camera was tenaciously taping us in the cab and I was so uncomfortable :-(  I know that they must be wondering "who the hell is this guy in the cab with Mr. Biver", but it is not my fault!  I had no other choice fro me to conclude this interview.  I asked later the Hublot PR team to make sure that my face won't be aired   Fingers crossed.


(Mr. Biver started checking and replying to his emails.)

KIH: Umn, may I?

JCB: Of course!  Please continue.


KIH: Where were we...  How often do you or have you come to Japan?

JCB: about 5 to 6 times a year since about more than 20 or 30 years ago... so easily more than 100 times.  But never more than 2 day.  I have been to Kyoto only once and that is about it for my experience of Japan outside Tokyo.  It's disaster.  I would love to stay longer.

(I guided the sights of Tokyo central area a little - although I have less knowledge of Tokyo than average Japanese )


KIH: I want to ask you about Ayrton Senna.  I had been watching F-1 since 70s and Ayrton Senna was one of the greatest drivers in the history.  How did you get to know him?  Did you know him well personally?

JCB: No, I didn't know him personally.  I met his sister Viviane Senna, the president of "Institute Ayrton Senna".  We donate a lot to the charity every year - about 2% of the revenue.  Our priority for donation is those Children foundations - education, against the violence to the children, etc.  At one meeting of such donors, I met Viviane Senna, who I had never heard of.  She told me that she was sister of Ayrton Senna, took over his foundation to help children, and that the foundation had so far paid 8 million children for 10 years scholarship.  That is huge!  And I said, "This is fantastic.  Can we do something for you?".  And she said, "yeah, if you are interested, I have all the rights of him and if you make watch, you make watch of Ayrton Senna, and give part of the money from the sales.  I said immediately, "Done".  I had known the great Ayrton Senna, but never knew about his foundation.
 

11:15 PM

We left the restaurant with full stomach and went into the cab again.  The final session of the interview starts.


KIH: Well, thank you so much for the dinner.  Cheese and wine were wonderful (see photos in the next part).

JCB: You are welcome.  I love spending time with people.  I never eat non-Japanese food in Japan, but today was an exception and it was good.


KIH: Let me continue the interview.  I have just a few more questions.  I understand that your store in Tokyo will be open soon.  How many stores are you planning to open this year and how many will it make in total?

JCB: Let's see.  We now have 39 and the new Tokyo Ginza store will be our 40th.  We have 15 more stores being planned after Ginza this year, so at the end of this year, we will have 55 stores worldwide.  But, out of 55, only 8 will be owned by us, another 47 will be franchise.  Ginza, Paris, Madison Avenue,  Shanghai, Beijing, and two others belong to us.  The proportion of Hublot-owned and franchise is actually good.  Retailers, who own those franchise Hublot store is specialized in selling while we are specialized in production.  It is good to have specialist to sell Hublot.  Going forward the proportion of Hublot-owned stores will remain 15 to 20% of all the stores.