Speaker 1: My next guest is the highest ranked woman in Swiss watches,
Speaker 1: I would say watches in general. Ilaria Aresta became the
Speaker 1: new chief executive Domas Pig earlier this year, following two
Speaker 1: decades of consumer goods Giant, Procter and Gamble. Now a
Speaker 1: less say. Her mission is to stabilize a brand and
Speaker 1: catalyze on its transformation from a watchmaker to a luxury house.
Speaker 1: I'm delighted that Laria Aresta joins me now, thanks so much.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Bloomberg and welcome to Lounder, London. Ilaria Aresta,
Speaker 1: when you look at some of the challenges ahead, how's
Speaker 1: it going, and you've been in charge for a year,
Speaker 1: there are things that you wanted to do. Are they
Speaker 1: at speed?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: They are at speed of course, as when I say
Speaker 3: joined the market new reality heat which is which is
Speaker 3: in a way of blessing in disguise, because it gave
Speaker 3: me the chance only honestly to focus on the strategies
Speaker 3: and rethink about the growth opportunities moving forward and stabilize
Speaker 3: this business before continuing their growth.
Speaker 1: Laria, when you look at your main markets, I know
Speaker 1: China was a big one with a lot of question marks,
Speaker 1: today we have stimulus the US. The biggest of course
Speaker 1: market for watch is how are those going.
Speaker 3: We are very well balanced in terms of presence by market,
Speaker 3: so we are not affected by the downward trend. In China,
Speaker 3: we're actually very well spread by country, by regions, so
Speaker 3: we continue solid growth. We're very happy about what we
Speaker 3: put in place for the future, so so far we
Speaker 3: are not affected by the macroeconomic instability.
Speaker 1: The waiting list, of course for a watch is huge.
Speaker 1: Does it mean that as a customer now I have
Speaker 1: a shorter list to get to watch I want.
Speaker 3: We continue having a high demand and we continue luckily
Speaker 3: so continue proceeding with our production strategy, which is highly manual,
Speaker 3: highly elevated in terms of orological signature, so we try
Speaker 3: to push more complications because of that. Of course, it's
Speaker 3: a long process of production and it takes months, if
Speaker 3: not years, to develop a new watch.
Speaker 1: You almost came as an outsider to the watch industry.
Speaker 1: What have you learned over the last twelve months.
Speaker 2: Well, definitely an outsider.
Speaker 3: I've never worked in this industry and it has been
Speaker 3: a wonderful discovery. Definitely is a different dynamic from the
Speaker 3: FMCG world, where I come from from a public literary
Speaker 3: a company and now work in a family company with
Speaker 3: a different governance.
Speaker 2: But definitely the common points are the.
Speaker 3: Leadership needs, the value creation.
Speaker 2: Work that I have to do.
Speaker 3: Of course, it's a completely different time horizon producing a watch.
Speaker 3: It's a very very long investment in time. Sometimes it
Speaker 3: takes even ten years to develop a watch. Quite the
Speaker 3: opposite of FMACG dynamics.
Speaker 1: How many watches you make? Around fifty fifty one.
Speaker 2: That's pretty much where we are, well pretty.
Speaker 1: Much, I mean, are you trying to increase that or actually,
Speaker 1: is demand so important or is the scarcity of it
Speaker 1: so important that you'll stay around these figures.
Speaker 2: It's not about the scarcity.
Speaker 3: It's about our strategy of production and manufacturing, which is
Speaker 3: a focused on on elevating the complications and the innovation
Speaker 3: and watchmaking. That's why we focus much more on research,
Speaker 3: and these activities require time. We want to continue doing
Speaker 3: what we used to do in the past one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty years ago, which is developing and advancing roological
Speaker 3: invention and high end The high complications are important in
Speaker 3: the mix of products, so we are complicating more our portfolio.
Speaker 1: And so what's the magic in that once you have
Speaker 1: the product, is it how you sounds influencers? Is it
Speaker 1: you know you have? The brand is very well known
Speaker 1: also inside rap music, which has given it an extra
Speaker 1: appards when.
Speaker 2: It starts from the watchmaker.
Speaker 3: When you go to the bench of a watchmaker, you
Speaker 3: feel the passion and the emotion of the watchmaker passing
Speaker 3: this passion and emotion in an object, in a time piece,
Speaker 3: and it's incredible how these emotions can travel all the
Speaker 3: way to the final client. And that's why we're very
Speaker 3: happy to have a diary distribution, because this allows us
Speaker 3: really to tell stories and to explain what it takes
Speaker 3: for that specific watch.
Speaker 2: To end on the risk of our client.
Speaker 1: How much do you want to diversify I know, for example,
Speaker 1: you know there are still plans to do sales of
Speaker 1: the Code eleven fifty nine, but you have the Royal
Speaker 1: equally dominating the sales.
Speaker 3: We want to diversify firs of all from a client's
Speaker 3: stand point. We are underdeveloped in among women, which is
Speaker 3: an industry phenomenon, and now we see women actually being
Speaker 3: more and more interested in mechanical watchmaking and high hand
Speaker 3: mechanical watchmaking. We are breaking the bias that women are
Speaker 3: much more interested in.
Speaker 2: Jewelry watches or quarts watches.
Speaker 3: In reality, they are extremely interested in mechanical watches. They
Speaker 3: are becoming collectors and by twenty thirty we estimate forty
Speaker 3: five percent of buyers will be women and they will
Speaker 3: buy themselves and build themselves their collection. So no longer
Speaker 3: the stereotype of the men buying watches for women. So
Speaker 3: we are trying to cater to women, cater to new
Speaker 3: generations of clients, and hence our portfolio will be adjusted
Speaker 3: to these these clients.
Speaker 1: It does a female buyer shop differently, for example in
Speaker 1: Switzerland or France compared to the US for China.
Speaker 3: That's what we're indeed analyzing and studying. There is a
Speaker 3: different retail environment and ceremony that women are looking for.
Speaker 2: They love actually education, so.
Speaker 3: That's why we're organizing master class for women to go
Speaker 3: behind the scene of the developing a watch. We put
Speaker 3: actually watches in their hands, we dismantle with them just
Speaker 3: to show what the mechanical movement is and it's incredible
Speaker 3: much they are very interested into the mechanical elements of watchmaking.
Speaker 3: So we're moving much more into storytelling than selling real
Speaker 3: workshop hands on activities with women, but also with new generations.
Speaker 1: Laria, I mean, there was this report from de Lloyde
Speaker 1: showing actually the watch industry was failing to make and
Speaker 1: market watches that women wanted to buy. Do you have
Speaker 1: a procestage of sales target that you have towards women?
Speaker 1: How much do you sell to women now and how
Speaker 1: much you want to sell in five years?
Speaker 3: We are in the range of twenty percent, pretty much
Speaker 3: like the market. We aim at a mirror in the
Speaker 3: market reality. We don't want to be behind the market.
Speaker 3: We want to offer women the watches they want. The
Speaker 3: certain point has been not listening to women from the
Speaker 3: entire industry. I think there were so many stereotypes that
Speaker 3: we are trying to break. And also it's important that
Speaker 3: we stop separating the market between women watches and men watches,
Speaker 3: because this is not the way women think about the
Speaker 3: category nor men.
Speaker 1: By the way, Rolex and as making begin roads certified
Speaker 1: pre owned programs will all the mars go the same way.
Speaker 3: We are working on it as a service for clients.
Speaker 3: It's been a while we've been working now on this
Speaker 3: program and now we will be ready in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: I mean there's also a lot of you know, speculation
Speaker 1: at least talk about volsh of our movement and the
Speaker 1: fact that there could be a consortium. These are this
Speaker 1: is a Swiss company that makes some of your movement parts.
Speaker 1: Would you like to be involved that they make more
Speaker 1: sense for you know, watchmaker to have in charge of
Speaker 1: all the supply chain.
Speaker 3: What matters to us is that to ensure that the
Speaker 3: industry is well served by our suppliers and we create
Speaker 3: an ecosystem where we can be codependent. We have always
Speaker 3: worked in Switzerland with this system.
Speaker 2: Of a tabli sage. That's how we or the Martigue
Speaker 2: was born.
Speaker 3: We were at the center as a project manager of
Speaker 3: watches and working with different companies, families sometimes expert in
Speaker 3: specific movements. We want to continue to have a healthy
Speaker 3: balance of partnership with external at the same time we
Speaker 3: need to start the owning and mastering. Also the production
Speaker 3: of some elements like ceramics, for example, is an important
Speaker 3: material for us that we start producing ourselves. But we
Speaker 3: believe in the balance of external internal capabilities.
Speaker 1: Like when you look at I mean every day we
Speaker 1: talk about geopolitics and you know, the Trump teriffs impacts
Speaker 1: a company like odo Mars.
Speaker 3: We don't see this impact after the direction in the US.
Speaker 3: At this stage, US continues being the biggest market and
Speaker 3: the one actually that even in twenty twenty three is
Speaker 3: posted the strongest strongest growth. We have high demand. Also
Speaker 3: given our relatives most sizes, we are not so affected
Speaker 3: by geopolitic fluctuate fluctuations.
Speaker 1: So what's your biggest problem solving? I mean over the
Speaker 1: next twelve months, if you'll get your three priorities.
Speaker 3: My priority is first of one, ensuring that we set
Speaker 3: the foundation.
Speaker 2: I set the foundation for.
Speaker 3: This company to thrive and live for the next one
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty years as an independent company. Because we
Speaker 3: want to remain independent and to do so, innovation and
Speaker 3: research is critical. We need to continue being ahead of
Speaker 3: the game. There is another pillar of the strategy which
Speaker 3: is clients centricity.
Speaker 2: You have seen it women on one side, the new generations.
Speaker 3: They all come with a completely different approach to retail,
Speaker 3: to purchasing, but also to type of watch they want.
Speaker 3: I mentioned complications, so we need to be listening. And
Speaker 3: then sustainability is becoming more and more a topic also
Speaker 3: in watchmaking, and we need to be ahead there.
Speaker 1: When you look at the independence of the brand. Again,
Speaker 1: the rumors about all your major other big companies taking
Speaker 1: interest in other march you think the family would ever sell.
Speaker 3: No, we are really committed to remain an independent company.
Speaker 2: As part of the DNA of the company.
Speaker 3: Is thanks to these independence that we are able to
Speaker 3: do the wonderful time pieces we do and being a
Speaker 3: focus in Leval deju which is our cradle where we started.
Speaker 3: We want to guarantee also a certain continuity or way
Speaker 3: of doing business and time pieces.
Speaker 2: So we're committed to that.
Speaker 1: You've been in charge for a years and that means,
Speaker 1: of course changes as you brought in new people. Are
Speaker 1: you halfway there? In ninety percent there? Of the team
Speaker 1: that you want to have.
Speaker 3: Built, ninety percent there? The team is almost complete and
Speaker 3: ready to start. But I'm also very very glad to
Speaker 3: have and a wonderful a chip of watchmakers in manufacturers
Speaker 3: and in other departments that are very solid.
Speaker 2: They have and a wonderful team that supports me.
Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite watch? I don't feel like
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's like asking if you have
Speaker 1: a favorite child.
Speaker 4: I have a favorite and you shouldn't ask this true,
Speaker 4: It's like it's like children. Today, I'm wearing a code
Speaker 4: which is actually I watch that a model that I
Speaker 4: really really love. But my favorite complication by far is
Speaker 4: the perpetual calendar.
Speaker 1: Okay, perfect, thank you so much for doing Ushilarry arresta.
Speaker 1: There are, with all the incredible movements that Odmars Pigue
Speaker 1: has to do to make some of these watches achieve executives.
Speaker 1: There of ap watches