A TimeZone Interview with
Jean-Frédéric Dufour, CEO of Zenith International SA
by Michael Sandler
Interview conducted 2011
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MS: Michael
Sandler - TimeZone.com
JFD: Jean-Frédéric
Dufour - Zenith
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MS: Thank you for taking the time to speak
with me today. Would you please tell us a little about yourself and
your background prior to taking the position with Zenith?
Jean-Frédéric
Dufour
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JFD: I am a man from
the watch industry. I was actually with a Swiss bank in Hong Kong for
six months at the very beginning of my career, but since then I have
been in the watch industry. I started in sales at $3,500 per month, and
then moved to the production side, and was in charge of developing
production plans, then moved back to sales, then to marketing, and to
product development. My whole life has been dedicated to trying to
produce beautiful watches. When people ask me what I do, I always say
that I'm trying to make the people happy.
MS: Based on what I've been
hearing, people are extremely happy with what Zenith has been doing
since you joined the company.
JFD: Thank you. It is important
for me that when you spend money on a watch, the feeling that you get
from the watch is a very pleasant feeling. Pure emotion and true
pleasure.
MS: Since you took on the role at Zenith
two years ago,
what are some of the most significant changes you've made at the
company?
JFD: Our first focus was on
small things. Number one
was the product. We looked at the number of references, the quality,
and the supply chain. We decreased the number of references from 850
down to 120. Now after two years, the collection has experienced a 100%
renewal for Zenith. For a brand like Zenith, with its history, product
was really key.
And then was marketing. Without the right marketing,
you cannot spread the right message. So we really concentrated on the
marketing. We wanted to have consistency, focusing on the right people
and giving the right message. And the key message was that Zenith, with
the El Primero, was the inventor of the high frequency self winding
chronograph. This means everything. It means knowledge. It means
creativity. It means manufacture. If means collections with a future.
Georges
Favre-Jacot
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When I ask myself what made Zenith successful for a century and a half,
it all began with Georges Favre-Jacot when he was 22 years old. He was
very young, starting this company in the Swiss mountains. And he told
himself that they were at the start of an industrial revolution, and he
told himself that the world needs reliability, accessibility and
precision. And with these few key things, he managed to develop the
collection for people who were entrepreneurs, politicians, scientists,
etc. All these people were responsible for building the world that we
are in now, and they needed precision. Before the industrial
revolution, precision was not an issue. During the time of the kings,
you needed to queue up for the chance to meet important people, but
timing was not kept like this.
Favre-Jacot managed to be a key player
in that revolution, producing instruments that the people needed. So in
the ads showing the product, we explain these stories of the history of
Zenith. So far, this has been very successful.
MS: It's interesting that you
say this. The first very
good watch I bought for myself was a Zenith chronograph...an El Primero
Class 4 with a black dial. It was this history and the pursuit of
precision that first drew me to that watch. At the time I bought it,
Zenith was not even selling watches in the United States, so I had to
get the watch from a retailer in Europe.
JFD: What I
did when I joined the company was to make sure we were connecting the
product to the roots and to the DNA of the company. I wanted to make
sure we were producing the collections in line with who we are and
where we come from.
I should also say that we have really been in the
United States forever. We started in 1919, but then we stopped after
World War II because Zenith Appliance has the name, and so there was no
chance for us to be there. But we had a very long history in the United
States. So there was a gap in time, but Zenith is definitely not new in
America.
So to finish, without giving too many details, we have also
focused on things like efficiency, direct reporting, risk management.
This recipe is working pretty well. And the last but not least, there
is finance. We belong to the first luxury group in the world, and being
part of that group means we need to be performing.
But now I know that Zenith is back on track, and the direction is the
right direction. When
you give so much into the company, getting that feedback is very
important. We know that we're moving in the right direction, and we
know where we want to go. I want Zenith to be the best offer between
$5,000 and $10,000 US dollars.
If you look at Rolls Royce and Bentley....for a time, they were being
made in the same place. You had Rolls Royce that everybody knew. But
the insiders, the car people, they were not buying the Rolls Royce,
they were buying Bentley. And today, Bentley is bigger than Rolls
Royce. For me, this is like Zenith and Rolex. We have David against
Goliath. They are a big company and we are a small company. We cannot
fight with the same tools. For me, it's not good business to try to
compete with them in marketing, but I can compete in product and I can
compete in the history and the story and I can compete with my history
and his energy (gestures towards Alain Huy, Zenith Brand Director for
North America). I really want to push Zenith in the direction where we
become a company for a buyer who knows. Who knows watches.
Michael Sandler: I can
tell you for certain that on TimeZone, the
feedback on the company over the past year and a half has been
extremely positive. People strongly support the changes that are taking
place at Zenith.
JFD: At the end of the day, even with all
our energy,
our management....it's about the product. When you look at our success
worldwide, number one, it's because of the product.
Michael Sandler: Can you
tell us a bit more about the current
collections and where the company may be headed?
Zenith
El Primero Tourbillon
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JFD: We are now developing novelties at
quite a high
pace. We have a very real collection now (130 references in two years).
We have the El Primero collection, which features watches from
chronograph to tourbillons…but always with the same hands, indices,
etc. Now we also have a very strong collection called Captain. These
are timeless watches which express a century and a half of knowledge at
Zenith. It is very respectful of the history, and therefore of you go
for Captain, you can't really make any mistakes. We have several
models, from the simple, to the moonphase, to the annual calendar.
Zenith
Elite Ultrathin
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And
now we have another new collection which we call the Pilot collection.
Within this collection we are offering only one reference so far, but
it will be a very good test for us. If you look back, Zenith is one of
the companies with the strongest legacy in pilot's watches. We were
there with these watches during the First World War, and the Second
World War. Again this is our legacy. Next year we will be coming with
two additional models in this collection. Then we have another
collection called Zenith Heritage. In this collection is the Vintage
1965, the square watch like the one which was worn by JFK. We also have
the Ultrathin, which is a very classic watch with only hours and
minutes and seconds. It is 40 millimeters, but still quite thin at 7.6
millimeters. It is a very nice, elegant watch which looks like a
vintage piece, but it is very modern.
Another interesting piece of the
history of the company is regarding Charles Vermot, who saved the
company by hiding all the original tooling in the attic. In 1972, when
Zenith was bought by Zenith Corporation (the American company). The
Americans decided that they no longer wanted to produce mechanical
watches, and they wanted to focus only on quartz. So they requested
that the large building where movements were made was emptied, so it
could be used to produce quartz watches and electronic appliances.
There was a man there named Charles Vermot, and he told the company
that they should not do this because that tooling was all a key part of
the company's history and culture. So what he did was that at night,
without notifying anyone, Charles and some others were able to move
some of the original equipment from the large building into the attic
here [points to a building on a photo of the manufacture]. And now,
after 40 years, we are overhauling that building and we will be
starting production there next summer. It will now be brand new and
state of the art.
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So by doing this, he effectively saved the company. In 1981, when Rolex
came and they were looking for movements, they wanted to find the
movement which was inside the first El Primero, the 3019. They were
looking for this movement for use in their Daytona. So Mr. Castella,
the new owner, came to the manufacture to see if they could produce
that movement. And it was because all the original tooling had been
saved that the company was able to do this.
Zenith
El Primero Caliber 4052B
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And of course I must mention we have the Academy pieces, the very high
end pieces like the Christophe Colomb. These pieces are, of course,
very exclusive. In the El Primero collection you have an exclusive
chronograph,
in the Captain you have the exclusive annual calendar, in the Heritage,
you have the exclusive Ultra-Thin.
Michael Sandler: Since you were with Chopard prior to joining
Zenith,
can you comment a bit on the contrast between the fact that Chopard did
not have a very long history of manufacture movements versus Zenith and
its deeper history in this area?
JFD: I'm not sure how to begin to answer
that
question, but it is obviously to very different situations. Chopard is
much more about the marketing, the emotion. Zenith is much more about
the knowledge, the history, the legacy. Because Chopard had quite a
small history in developing manufacture watches, it was very difficult.
In the end, it is very important to be who you are, knowing where you
come from, and where you want to go. At Chopard, when we were
developing the watches, we had to find a history, sometimes from
pictures.
Michael Sandler: I think
you've already touched upon the
answer to my next question during the course of our discussion. What
are the attributes that you feel really differentiate Zenith as a
company?
JFD: Firstly, there is the century and a
half of their
history, in the same location. They have won over 2,330 different
prizes during their history. There are 297 patents received under the
name of Zenith, which makes them perhaps one of the highest receiving
brands ever. There are over 500 different calibers developed over its
history. And there is of course to loyalty and the love of the owners
of the watches. You don't have many brands like this in the world.
Zenith
El Primero Caliber 4052B
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Michael Sandler: As part of LVMH, Zenith is now within a
family of
other watch companies. Is there a lot of collaboration between Zenith
and the other LVMH watch companies, or do you remain very independent?
JFD: We are not independent because we
have the same
shareholder, but we are 100 percent autonomous. We decide where we want
to go. We have to write the business plans, provide the reports, etc.
But we can go in any direction as long as we are able to explain were
we are going. Basically, we must say what we will do, and we must do
what we say we will. But each company within the group has freedom and
can behave as an entrepreneur, and this definitely makes a difference.
Michael Sandler: As you've alluded to previously, Zenith
invests a
significant amount in research and development. Are you sharing this
research and the outcomes with other companies within the group?
JFD: Everything is really separate, but
of course I am
speaking with the other companies (for example Jean-Claude Biver). But
on an individual level, we don't share.
Michael Sandler: Do you
release
information on how many watches Zenith produces on an annual basis? It
would be interesting to understand the numbers just to get a gauge of
the size of the company.
JFD: We don't really release
these numbers publicly. But we are in the range of maybe fifty to
seventy thousand pieces per year.
Michael Sandler: Which
are your
largest markets today?
JFD: My number one export
market is Hong Kong. And then it's Europe. We have to count Europe as a
single market and we don't really see it country by country. Number
three is China. Number four is Japan and number five is North America.
Then number six is Taiwan and number seven is South America. As you can
see, we are quite global. I think we are quite well balanced. Of course
the Asian market is pulling the whole industry forward. Not only for
Zenith. And I think America is progressing at a very good pace, so we
cannot complain.
Michael Sandler: Aside
from what you have already
mentioned, are there any specific novelties from Basel this year that
you would like to highlight for the collectors on TimeZone?
JFD: Well we have the Stratos,
which has a connection
to the flyback which we were producing for the French army. It is 45
millimeters, and has a ceramic bezel. It is made from alchron, which is
a very light metal that is aluminum with titanium. It has been used
before in automobile racing engines. It is very strong, with hardness
like steel, but it's lightweight like aluminum.
 
Zenith
Stratos Flyback
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Michael Sandler:
Obviously, because this interview is for TimeZone, I'd like to ask you
for your views on the Internet, and how it is affecting the watch
industry today.
JFD: It is key, and it is
increasing month after
month. Why? Because you can connect directly with the people that you
want to touch. It is also key because it gives the consumer direct
access to the information. If you go back twenty years, most of the
information you have was through advertising, or maybe from the
retailer. Then the magazines arrived, but the magazines were limited as
well.
Now I can prepare information, and give it to anyone who wants
it. If I wanted to buy a watch, I would first go to the internet to
research, to see the quality, the history, etc. And we see that. Every
time we come to the internet with information, we have better response.
It is the media of the future.
Michael Sandler: On
TimeZone, we have a
traditional closing question for our interviews. What watch are you
wearing today?
JFD: It's not one watch, but two. The
first is the
Striking 10th. It was the first watch I really worked on when I joined
the company. This was a very important piece for me, because obviously
I did not want to make any mistakes. So this piece is obviously very
emotional for me.
On my other wrist I have the Christophe Colomb.
Originally, this movement was inside a very heavy and bulky case, but
when I arrived at the company, I saw the base movement, and how
fascinating it was. So I thought to myself that I have to give the end
consumer this same feeling. So we had to make the watch with a minimum
of material and a maximum of movement. So you can really see the
movement of the balance. It's like a marine chronometer, but inside a
wristwatch. I've been wearing this piece to test it since the
beginning, and so far it has been perfect. So in a way, these are my
two lucky watches.
 
Zenith
Striking 10th and Zenith Christophe Colomb
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Michael Sandler: Thank
you so much for your time,
and for sharing your thoughts with us.
Copyright 2011, Michael Sandler
All Rights Reserved
