CONQUEST OF ELEGANCE

Longines CEO Matthias Breschan appears positively prescient about future challenges

- WORDS ASHOK SOMAN

In January this year, consulting group McKinsey and fashion trade specialist platform Business of Fashion released a report that claimed that “the luxury industry is at a critical juncture.”

Although somewhat overshadowed due to recent events (see below), the report focused on the problem of value creation, or the perceived lack thereof, in the luxury industry, including watchmaking.

The report concluded that visionary leadership and a commitment to long-term results (which by definition requires vision) were crucial to the overall health of any given luxury brand. If you know anything about Longines CEO Matthias Breschan, you might have had his approach in mind, if you read this report. Yes, even considering the chaos that has enveloped the global economy recently.

Presenting his plan for Longines on stage in Seoul South Korea in early March to a group of select regional and local press, Breschan is the very picture of confidence. For several years now, he has leveraged his air of almost easy-going assurance to remind partners and the press that Longines is charting quite a different course to many Swiss counterparts, including those within the Swatch Group, which owns the brand.

Breschan is well known in the trade, having taken the helm of Longines in 2020 as the industry was facing uncertain times. Unfortunately, Breschan will need to draw on his reserves of calm positivity to face down yet another challenge.