The Transfer Window Has Opened...

At Corum -

Courtesy of Corum

News made its way to the North Shore offices of "the blog formerly known as Tempus Fugit" this AM that a swanky building up the hill from downtown La Chaux-de-Fonds is under new ownership. 

Corum will change hands once again under a management buyout, and Citychamp is down to Eterna and Rotary in terms of Swiss brands in its stable.

How this will ultimately play out remains to be seen, but in fairness to everyone concerned, Corum is a brand with a great history and a lot of potential. The buyout involves several (as yet) unnamed Swiss investors and the person taking the helm is Haso Mehmedovic . Mr. Mehmedovic trained as a watch maker in Le Locle, and if my information is correct has spent his entire career at Corum, moving from the technical side to sales.

So we wish Mr. Mehmedovic and his colleagues the very best of success moving forward, and we shall see what develops.

Time to Sack Up - Eterna Can Be Saved

In the city of Grenchen, on the train line from Biel/Bienne to Basel, there is a once mighty watch manufacturer that now lies (mostly) dormant.  A beautiful factory and administration building that evokes memories of Willy Wonka's factory.  An owner with enough money to (if they wanted to) not just save the company, but truly resurrect it.  But just like that fictitious confectioner, the building is a shell of its former self.  It would seem that nobody goes in, and nobody comes out.

And for some of us hard-core Eterna fans?  This is frustrating.  In fairness, a very solid sales network has been created by some very talented people who are out there, every day, preaching the gospel of Eterna and the KonTiki.  So a lot of the pieces are already in place.


So a few simple suggestions -

1.  Eliminate everything on the menu except the KonTiki.  Focus on three different versions with the same "guts".  In essence, a single version with three different "flavors".  As any parent will tell you, you never ask a kid what flavor of ice cream they want.  You will be there all day.  Simply ask them - "Do you want ice cream?  Great, we have chocolate, vanilla or strawberry."

Do this for one to two years.  Simply put?  You are guaranteed to sell a lot of this model, and take that time to revamp and slowly introduce new collections.

2.  Find a real turn-around specialist.  Look beyond the hucksters and the confidence men that you have been turning to.  Sorry, I have to call this one like I see it.  The people making the hiring decisions when it comes to the top spot at Eterna keep making some flawed choices.  And once again, I refer to Moneyball:

 “Managers tend to pick a strategy that is the least likely to fail, rather then to pick a strategy that is most efficient," Said Palmer." The pain of looking bad is worse than the gain of making the best move.”
― Michael Lewis, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

How many CEOs and "interim" leaders do you need to go through before you maybe look in a different direction?  Stop worrying about making a potentially embarrassing decision, because guess what?  That ship has sailed!  You've made enough bad hiring decisions to last the next ten years.

But there is one guy out there, one person out there uniquely qualified to fix Eterna.  Note that I DID NOT say fix Corum and Eterna.  Let's focus on one problem at a time ; )

There is one person out there who could objectively identify the troubles at Eterna, offer honest analysis without being fearful of keeping everyone happy, and would leave his ego out of the equation.  He is perhaps the most influential person in the Swiss watch industry that you've never heard of, and he and a few of his long-term teammates could not only get their hands around this situation, but chart a course to the sea of success.

Citichamp, if you're reading this and you're ready to sack up and try to right the good-ship Eterna?  Drop me a line!  I won't even charge you a finder's fee ; ) 

3.  COMMUNICATE!  Silence, in this particular situation?  Not golden.  Stop waiting for the press and fans to come to you - go to them.

The Transfer Window Opens

At Corum and Eterna.

Davide Traxler has been relieved of his duties at both Eterna and Corum.  For many of us, the news was delivered by Karl Heinz Nuber through is well-regarded TICK-Talk site:

http://www.tick-talk.ch/city-champ-jewelery-watch-group-faehrt-eterna-an-die-wand-und-sucht-nach-neuem-corum-ceo/

I was able to confirm this news through a contact at Corum, Switzerland.  For those of you (like me) who do not speak or read German, Google Translate can give you a fairly decent version.  I want to thank Karl Heinz for tackling what many other writers would avoid, and I commend him for showing some willingness to take on a touchy subject.

Now, I have a slightly different perspective having worked on the "other side" of the BaselWorld counter, and I agree with a lot of what Mr. Nuber points out.  But I would add some layers that are based on what I have seen and heard not as a journalist, but from some brand management experience.

One thing that we can all agree on is that losing your job sucks. There are generally no good feelings engendered when you are informed that your services are now surplus to requirements.  But the problems at Corum and Eterna did not sprout up overnight and they were never going to be solved in any short-term fashion.  I know that there are a lot of folks out there who feel that the dysfunction is solely down to the incompetence or lack of cultural awareness of the Chinese ownership - Citychamp.  I would have to say that, with respect, I disagree.

The problems at Eterna have been going on for YEARS.  Long before I entered the industry, long before I started covering watches back in 2010.  And the one thing that has always rung true is that there has been a near perpetual lack of self-awareness at Eterna.  And let's be really, really honest, it is a Top - Down problem.  It's interesting to note that through several "regime changes", several key people who were, well, supposed to be responsible for little things like sales, etc. were kept on.  In other words, the head coach kept changing, but some of the key players stayed on.  The other piece at Eterna that continues to hamstring it is a fundamental misunderstanding of what kind of watch company they really are, and what exactly they should do, as opposed to what they could do.  In terms of products, pricing, and how they are perceived in the market place, this is something that has shifted and changed on a fairly constant basis over the last 10 years, leaving the brand identity to drift on an ice floe.

And as we are being honest with each other, let's be clear that Eterna has two solid cornerstones to build (or in this case, rebuild) their brand upon: the KonTiki and movements.  Everything else will only be noise and distraction.  Sounds sort of harsh, doesn't it?  Well, ask yourself - how many collections have been launched by Eterna and, well, sunk in the past few years?  How many marketing campaigns have been pushed away from the shore, only to be lost at sea?  What has hindered Eterna FOR YEARS is a fundamental inability to work on a project, and see it ALL THE WAY THROUGH to the end.  This was true when Calce oversaw both Corum and Eterna, it was painfully true under the tenure of Mr. Dreyfuss, and has been abundantly clear in this latest chapter.  And yes, that is a cultural dysfunction - but that is, regrettably, the Eterna culture.  It  has been there for YEARS.

While I am not the MOST informed person out there, I can tell you that I meet A LOT of former Eterna employees now working at other brands or in other areas outside of Eterna who are now FLOURISHING.  Doing amazing things!  But they all tell a similar tale, and that tale is really more about a culture that is not so good.  And the culture is not Swiss, and it is not Chinese.  The culture is the company culture.

Now consider the role of Citychamp in all of this.  They have come in, they have pumped, literally, MILLIONS of Swiss Francs into Eterna and Corum.  They have trusted the individuals recommended to them - insiders from the Swiss watch industry.  Keep in mind, these were not Citychamp or Chinese CEOs.   It is also worth noting that the key staff that was kept on despite their sometimes indifferent performance were not from Citychamp either.  The amount of debt racked up by the previous and recent administrations points to poor management and oversight.  Put another way, if it were not for Citychamp, there likely would not have been an Eterna for the past several years. 

I think what I find most fascinating in all of this is that what really underscores a somewhat xenophobic attitude of the Swiss watch industry.  I visited Eterna back in 2013.  I stopped at a bakery for directions to the factory and was asked if I spoke Chinese.  Meant as a joke, but to me really underscored a certain unwillingness to accept that a Chinese owner could ever hope to successfuly manage a Swiss company.  Now in fairness, it does seem that Citychamp is having some difficulties in getting these two houses in order.  But I am less and less convinced that this is a question of who owns the brands. 

My point is that sometimes brands just can't get their shit together.  And sometimes it is a question of changing the culture.  Not Swiss, not Chinese, but company culture.

So let's hope that Citychamp will find a team leader who will not only be focused on developing a brand, but developing a team.  A team with a strong identity and a positive, collaborative, and solid culture.

Golden Bridge Rectangle

From Corum -

Courtesy of Corum

This is a BaselWorld preview.

And here are the pertinents -

MOVEMENT

Movement number: 

CO 113

Winding system:
Manual

Functions:
Hours & Minutes

Power reserve:
40 hours

Frequency:

4 Hz, 28'800 vph

Dimensions:

14 3/4''' x 5'''

Rubies: 

19

Movement finishes: 
Bridges and plate in 18k gold

CASE

Shape:
Rectangular

Dimensions:
29.50 x 42.20

Thickness:
9.30 mm

Case material:

5N 18kt rose gold

Crown material:

5N 18kt rose gold

Crystal:
Sapphire crystal with anti-reflctive treatment

Back type:
Screwed in open back cover in 5N 18kt rose gold with glare proof sapphire crystal

Water resistance:
30 meters / 3 ATM

HANDS

Hour and minute:
Baton, Rhodium-coated, Faceted

BRACELET  
Material:
Alligator leather

Color:
Brown

Lug width:
22 mm

Buckle tpe:
Triple folding clasp

Buckle material:
5N 18kt rose gold   

As the Transfer Window Opens - the Time for Renewal Approaches!

So it would seem that the first major move to follow the watch maker's holiday is firmly in the books, and it was not a "substitution", but rather what represents in many ways a junior player being called up to the senior side.

So enter Davide Traxler to the fray -

Today Corum announced Mr. Traxler as their new COO. With over 15 years of experience under his belt, let us hope that he has a bit more luck than the previous incumbents. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and it goes without saying that previous "head men" at Corum tend to have executive tenures shorter than that Pope who got poisoned.

I for one am getting tired of writing about premature departures. So let's hope that Mr. Traxler has the "secret sauce" that eluded his predecessors.