Issue 163 of L'OROLOGIO currently on newsstands features an exclusive interview with the patron of the Swatch Group.
We repropose here some interesting passages...
At 78 years of age, Nicolas. G. Hayek displays the same decisive flair and determination that led him to build Switzerland's most important watchmaking group.
Nicolas G. Hayek, born in 1928, is co-founder, Chairman and Delegate of the Board of Directors of the Swatch Group, a watchmaking giant that brings together 21 brands and 26 companies. His story in the world of two hands began in the 1980s. He was the man chosen by the Swiss banks to turn around the fortunes of the watch industry. His task began with the reorganisation and implementation of the watchmaking companies Asuag and SSIH, which later became SMH and were led, from 1986, by Hayek himself. The main success story was, of course, the Swatch, which in the late 1980s was able to drive the entire industry towards a renaissance that has something of the prodigious. In the following years, mention must be made of both the strong development of the Omega brand and the acquisition and relaunch of Breguet.
Q: You have been called the saviour of Swiss watchmaking. Do you agree?
A: It was the Swiss population that recognised this merit in me. I was even awarded with this motivation.
Q: It all started with the Swatch...
A: No, I don't agree. Actually it all started with Omega, Longines, Tissot. Then the Japanese arrived, and production suffered a sharp setback. In the midst of the crisis, the banks sought a solution that could save this sector, but they demanded the written commitment of a professional and credible Swiss specialist, otherwise they threatened to close everything down.
Q: From 2010, the Swatch Group will no longer supply movements in kit form, but only finished calibres. Do you know that this has put the whole of Switzerland in an uproar?
A: Oh no, on the contrary: I woke up watchmaking Switzerland! I have shaken it up, because today everyone comes to us to buy movements, not watches. This is certainly not conducive to progress. So I said to myself: it's time for others to develop movements on their own. By the way, there are many people who have copied our ETA calibres and in fact there are as many as 42 people indicted by the Swiss Attorney General for forgery. This trial is still ongoing. In the automotive field, there are no companies that can put together the parts of others and create their own car. Nobody goes and asks Alfa Romeo, or Ferrari, for some parts to create a product of their own. In the watch industry, on the other hand, far too many people decide to create watches following this system. And so I said: dear friends, it is time for you to start making your own watches, for the good of all and to make progress dynamic.
Q: What do your 'colleagues' think?
A:Today all the people who work in watchmaking in Switzerland say to me: 'Bravo Nicolas Hayek, you have reawakened the watchmaking industry'. In fact, slowly many companies have started to develop their own movements, while others are looking for alternative ways. Ultimately, we no longer want to be the sole supplier of the entire Swiss watch industry. Why, for example, talk so much about manufacturers who only do the design, then buy all the parts from someone else and assemble them? There is a big difference between a company that builds its own movements, a true watchmaking company, and one that makes watches by taking the parts around and assembling them. This is the reason why we decided to intervene, telling everyone to start making their own parts.
PHOTO: Nicolas G. Hayek (Chairman and CEO of the Board of Directors of Swatch Group), pictured with AG Josef Ackermann (CEO of Deutsche Bank) and Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg of Solar Impulse, pictured next to the scale model of the futuristic solar-powered aircraft. The photo was taken at a press conference on 5 November in Zurich, which reaffirmed Omega's participation in the Solar Impulse project.
Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann (Switzerland). Picture Supplied by Action Images
