Change is in the air at Longines. After 32 years with former CEO Walter von Känel at the helm, the Swatch Group-owned brand closes one chapter as it opens the next, one that is to be written by Matthias Breschan, who may be new to Longines but not at all to the Swatch Group.
Breschan has spent nine years as CEO of sister brand Rado, and just before that seven years at Hamilton, bringing a wealth of experience into the top job at Longines. But it’s not so much experience as rejuvenation that the brand now needs.
The company he inherited from von Känel, the indefatigable Swiss army colonel-turned-luxury watch CEO, is the world’s fourth-largest by revenue after Cartier, Omega and Rolex. According to LuxeConsult’s 2018 Morgan Stanley industry report, Longines generated CHF1.65 million (SGD2.45 million) that year, with the same results in 2019.
This year, obviously Longines as much as all other firms within the luxury industry have taken a hit in retail sales as cities worldwide went under lockdown between March and June, along with continued political instability in Hong Kong. But things began to turn around for Longines as quickly as in July.
“In the past two months we have already seen strong signs of recovery. In China, for example, we are in 2020 already above 2019,” Breschan tells Esquire Singapore via email in September.
His appointment in the midst of a pandemic, however, wasn’t a corollary of the crisis wreaked by COVID-19. On the contrary, it was long in the tooth, and if the pandemic did indeed play a role at all, it was only to accelerate plans that were already in place.
This story is from the November 2020 edition of Esquire Singapore.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 2020 edition of Esquire Singapore.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
THE MILD HANGOVER
Hangovers get a bad rap. We know. If you’ve gotten this far in the magazine, you’ve surely divined that we’re mildly hungover most of the time.
AN ELECTRIC FUTURE
Polestar, the minimalist electric Swedish car brand, turns the voltage up on its competition.
LET'S GET REAL (ESTATE): LUXURIOUS LONDON
Royalty, shopping, the best tea and scones the world has to offer, and a lifestyle worthy of what you're working for. Here's why London is ripe for your next investment
NEXT UP....ZARAN VACHHA
As Co-founder of the events and talent agency Collective Minds and Managing Director of the Mandala Masters, Zaran Vachha is definitely not new to the culture scene, but he's certainly shaping what comes next.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED...
I DON’T WEAR SOCKS except in January.
The Body Is a Language
A bad handshake is such a turnoff; we feel irked when someone rolls their eyes at us; we can't stop pacing when we're nervous-ever wondered how certain body language has the power to change how we feel instantly? We explore why.
EYE OF THE TIGER
Hailing from Singapore, Japan and Brazil respectively, Evolve Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) athletes Darren Goh, Hiroki Akimoto and Alex Silva are proof that the ring demands as much from mind as it does from matter.
THE ADONIS COMPLEX
With the rise of superhero culture making a return and bringing with it the celebration of the classically ‘masculine’ body type, can men really overcome the pressure to conform when culture keeps getting in the way?
FUNNY BUT TRUE
A comedian, an iconic Singaporean, and now a man much evolved. After overcoming two years of pandemic limbo, unlocking career milestones one after another and undergoing a life-defining physical transformation, Rishi Budhrani is ready to emerge into the world renewed-and anew.
LIKE NO OTHER
With its horological triumphs, Hermès has truly come into its own as a watchmaking maison. In this exclusive interview with Esquire Singapore, CEO of Hermès Horloger, Laurent Dordet sheds some light on his timepieces' rising stardom and the importance of being different.
