A conversation with Julien Tornare, CEO at Zenith watches

ROX Magazine spoke with Zenith’s CEO, Julien Tornare to find out more about what makes the new Zenith Chronomaster Sport tick and the future of the brand.

As the dust settles on a year like no other and we venture into 2021, there’s a real longing for change.  Adjusting to the ‘new normal’ has been a challenge but just as it’s important to take lessons from the past, it’s important to continually look to the future.

That’s something Zenith has long understood and the new Chronomaster Sport launches a new era for the iconic chronograph. 

Unveiled at LVMH Watch Week 2021, the launch of the new watch is a milestone moment for the brand.

Speaking of the new collection, Julien shares his delight at the success of its debut and hinted at the revolution to come.

Transcript

Julien Tornare: It’s been a great week – I’m very excited and happy. I wish I could be with you and our friends from the industry in the same room, but thanks to this technology we can communicate, and we’ve had great launches. I’m happy, very happy.

Have you seen the novelties?

Kyron Keogh: I have, I seen the preview last week which was fantastic. I’m absolutely delighted with the new collection. The new Chronomaster Sport is sensational. I was disappointed it didn’t come last year, because I’d heard a few rumours, but it was the perfect timing for this year and a good start to the year.

Urban Jungle too looks fantastic and of course the Revival pieces too. Congratulations, you must be very pleased.

Julien Tornare: Yes, I’m super happy because we started to work on the repositioning of the chornomaster in 2018. We started in 2019 with the Revival and the celebration of the El Primero, you remember all that of course. Then 2020 should have been the year we got into the new league. One good call we made last year was not to launch this particular Chronomaster Sport as well as the next chronomaster we’re going to present in two months and an evolution of the Defy. That is coming soon, and they are very, very good products. 

Kyron Keogh: Things are still feeling positive and healthy in the world of Swiss watch making despite the pandemic. How has your life changed as CEO?

Julien Tornare: It’s very different. You know me I’m a market person and I used to travel a lot, but my last trip was actually mid-March 2020 when I went to the US to launch the Defender watch we had. Then I stopped by London for the weekend, by Monday I was back in Switzerland and by Tuesday I shut down the company, so it’s been very different. 

We had to adapt and what I’m very happy about is that the team has been so active in all fields whether marketing, sales – a lot of things. When you think about 2020, we postponed three major launches but still we launched the Shadow -that has been a great watch. We also launched the manufacture edition, the Ultra-violet, the Defy Midnight in September supported by the Dreamhers Programme and we finished the year with the Zenith Icons programme as well as the Felipe Pantone announcement. So, we keep very active. We’ve been gaining market share, in my opinion, over the last year despite the situation, and now we really all the right parts of the puzzle to finally get together and start 2021 in a good way.

Kyron Keogh: I guess this time last year if you said to anyone your shops are going to be closed for six months of the year, your manufacture is going to be closed for three months nobody would quite believe it. I guess we’ve all had to be resilient, we’ve all had to adapt and pivot and change. It’s been incredible how everyone has managed to do that.

The future is clearly as key to Zenith as the past, but ever since unearthing El Primero’s drawings and tools in that dusty attic back in the 80s, it seems things were already future proofed then when it launched. So how is the future being brought to bear? 

Julien Tornare: We have a long history so it’s great and we need to capitalise on it, but of course we have to look ahead and that’s what I’m telling people. I keep telling people you know chrnomaster is our past and our heritage, all the way to today, but also our present. And with Defy it is the perfect mix because we start from today and build the future with a lot of crazy things, you know innovation limited edition, colours, ceramic and other things. It’s a very good balance and we have a bright future. 

The Chronomaster Sport,  I expected a good launch but not to that extent. It’s been crazy since we released it on Thursday night, a week ago at midnight Swiss time. In the morning I woke up at 6am and had tons of messages from Asia and the US because they hadn’t been to sleep yet in the west coast. Then it was Europe, the Middle East etcetera, so we couldn’t have expected a better start to the year. The future looks great, I’m very happy.

Kyron Keogh: I’m really not surprised Julien, it’s a fantastic looking watch and I must congratulate on it. We’re really excited to have it in our shop. Our first product dropped two days ago, and it didn’t last very long- it went straight out to a customer. It’s amazing.

Julien Tornare: Someone told me there are 800 or 900 pieces, which for us is a huge quantity, that were presold in the US in our network - just in the US. We’ve never had that, and we have to adjust.

My objective, of course, is to respond to the demand because we need to do the business, you need to do business, you’ve been supporting us for all those years and for some retailers decades, and of course we need to do it now, but we will manage it. 

From a production point of view as well it’s going to be challenging. Then of course we need to keep the desirability and do it in a smart way because we won’t have a second chance to capitalise on such a launch and reinforce the brand as a whole. So that will be the important aspect of how we manage this now.

Kyron Keogh: The word sport is quite often a word that’s tacked onto all manner of new editions, from watches to cars to bikes. Given the Chronomaster Sport updates, an already a sporty chrono, what particular aspects of sport and sportiness have informed the new design? 

Julien Tornare: It’s clearly a watch we have been thinking about a name for a lot. We changed our mind a few times. First, I said let’s have a look because in 2018 we knew Defy was helping us do great business and it gave me the opportunity to have time to rethink about what chronomaster should be. 

So we basically looked in our history and we realised there had been very classic watches, interesting shapes like the A384 and A385 of course, but there had also been this more contemporary, slightly thicker kind of sport bezel look and casual watch of those years. I thought OK, let’s find those watches, put them on a tray and then we meet again. Our product guy and our historian and archivist worked with us – they brought the watches back and we met again. 

We pulled out these pieces here that I really love. This one is amazing, it’s the A277, that was created in 1965 so four years before the El Primero. It didn’t even have the El Primero; it has a movement called Martell that was a company we acquired later. It already has the identity if you look at the shape of the case, the bracelet which is the Gay Fréres ladder bracelet, and the black bezel, so it already had this kind of spirit.

A few years after we launched this famous De Luca which became an iconic, sought after watch in the auction right now. We really got inspiration for the buckle as well as the bracelet - if you look at the two watches it’s quite obvious. 

Then we brought a third one which is the rainbow watch. The bracelet is a bit different in this case but it had also the thicker, sporty look with the bezel. So, we looked at those watches and picked up different elements we wanted to use and incorporated into the new Chronomaster Sport. 

And of course, it came quite naturally that we would call it Chronomaster Sport. It’s not really a sport watch as an instrument but it’s a casual sport chic look as we say in French look and definitely it’s part of the generation of the 70s, 80s when those watches became popular. 

So, in chronomaster now we’re going to have three categories. Revival like the A384, A385, we’re going to have a classic aspect, very thin and super elegant - you’ll find out about that in a couple of months in April when we launch this part of the chronomaster - and of course the Chronomaster Sport we are presenting today. 

Finally, now we have the Defy, strong and well established there is also a big novelty coming within the Defy in April and then you have the chronomaster. These two like I say really are the strategic pillars of the brand. Then you have pilot and elite which are coming in a more tactical way.

It took us a while to put it on the table in a clear manner but now it’s there and I’m super excited about it.

Kyron Keogh: One of my favourite aspects of the watch is the ceramic bezel. Of course, ceramic is becoming more and more popular in watchmaking nowadays but it’s easy to forget the technical challenges it presents - especially on a minute scale, it’s not an easy material to work with. What were the hurdles you faced developing the sports bezel?

Julien Tornare: Yes, it’s been quite a headache on these watches and here you see a good example of it on the Chronomaster Sport. Of course, we looked to the past and said OK, we’re going to make a black bezel but let’s make it in ceramic. It’s been a challenge, but it was also the best way for us to indicate what the watch is all about. 

That’s why we wrote on the top right 1/10th of a second so it can be more obvious. In a way this chronograph also has a great advantage. They’re easy to manipulate and it’s very easy to understand how it works because you have the indications that are easy on the subdials between the minute second and the running second at nine, and you have the central hand giving you the tenth of a second. 

For me it as very important because I even got lost sometimes with too many indications, the tachymeter and all these things. For people who are not from the industry it could be complicated. This is quite simple to use. I believe the ceramic bezel doesn’t only give the look, but it gives something very clear in terms of indication. 

And you know why tenth of a second? That’s a good question some people ask me. I say if you think about chronometry, and you know we really are the brand into chronometry, if you have a 28,800 vph, which is 4Hz, you’re actually going to count to 1/8th of a second. If you have a 21,600, which is 3Hz, you’re going to show 1/6th of a second. It’s only by having 36,000 vph and 5Hz, that you can really count the 1/10th of a second. When you count a runner or a car we use tenth of a second, we don’t use any other measurement so I thought for us it was very spart to come back with this watch measuring the 1/10th of a second because that’s what chronometry is all about.

Kyron Keogh: Aaron Rodgers, living legend of NFL and sport in general and an amazing signing for Zenith. How did the conversation and relationship come about?

Julien Tornare: Quite naturally. Even though I lived five years in the US I’m not a big American football guy. I’m much more into what they call soccer and we call football and other sports. I have to say we were looking for a personality, we were looking for that kind of character.

I met agents from movie stars and singers and other athletes, and when I got to meet him (Aaron Rodgers) I knew him by name but that was it. It’s about the personality and he has a great personality. He really wants to be part of it and he told me from the beginning, he said Julien: “I don’t just want to be a red carpet guy coming and saying this is a great brand I love it and leave.” He wants to be part of it in a way that he pays testament to how he started, from his childhood dream to become who he became and how he did it. How he had ups and downs and doubts - like we all have. 

He came with a very human approach and the more he talked about it the more I said OK, I know how much he became a legend for American citizens and beyond, he’s talking so well about this deal that I said he’s the guy.

It came very naturally. After a couple of meetings, I said that’s the guy we need to have. 

Kyron Keogh: We look forward to seeing how that relationship develops. 

Julien Tornare: Do you like American football?

Kyron Keogh: Well, I’m more into soccer and rugby myself but I follow all sports. On a final note, I don’t want to take up too much of your time Julien it’s a Friday afternoon, it’s time for you to put your feet up after a very successful week. 

I’d say 2020’s lockdown has affected everyone’s sense and experience of time and right down to the relationship we have with the things we use to measure it – the watches we wear. At the very least I find myself glancing at mine definitely more than ever, I just wonder if you’ve found the same. Has your daily choice of wrist wear altered?

Julien Tornare: It’s been a tough time. From the beginning I asked everyone to stay every active and very dynamic. I have the feeling we worked much harder to get less at the end. 

I especially remember the summertime which is usually a break in the watch industry, as you know, and we usually take two to three weeks off. I took three weeks’ vacation with my family but it’s the first time in 20-something years that I’ve worked in this industry and came back and was not rested. I came back and was still feeling the weight of this year. I kind of relaxed on the Christmas break but before was very tough. 

It’s been tough and it’s true sometimes you don’t want to wear any watch because you just want to forget what’s happening now. But now in 2021 and of course the problems aren’t yet solved we still have a lot of issues in our respective countries, I still believe the worst is behind us. 

A year ago you, me and the whole population of the world were not prepared for what was about to happen and now we know a bit, how to use Zoom, wear a mask and wash your hands 20 times a day, we can manage more in this situation – step by step. 

Plus, the vaccination. I’m hoping the new variant won’t cause too many problems for the vaccination. I know we’re still going to have a few tough months, but I really believe I’m someone who is pretty optimistic, that we’ll get out of this situation. 

Kyron Keogh: I share your view too. I hope the worst is behind us, we look forward to 2021 with hope and anticipation – of course the second half of this year more than the first half.

We’ve seen it already, I’m a retailer, and we’re seeing shoppers now adapting to this new way of working despite all the shops being closed so you know fingers crossed we can move on and move forward.

It’s been lovely to talk to you today Julienne. I must congratulate you on what looks like a very successful LVMH Watch Week for you and I wish you all the best for 2021.

Julien Tornare: Thank you, Kyron, and I hope we can meet soon. As soon as I can jump on a plane to come see you I will. We can sit together and have a glass of whisky together and talk much more about what more can do for this brand and your work. Thank you for your support and take care.