Montblanc - Five-Year Watch Strategy
WORLDTEMPUS - 16 November 2010
During the first of just a few stops around the globe, Montblanc International's Jean-Marc Pontroue, Vice President of Strategic Product Development, shared top-secret sneak previews of the newest product coming out of the brand's two Swiss factories for 2011 and discussed the brand's corporate strategies for timepieces for the next half-decade. Though there is a strict release embargo on the new collection, Pontroue nevertheless showed the new watches with considerable pride, saying that it was just the tip of the iceberg of what was to come.
"The focus for Montblanc for the coming five years is definitively on our watches. We already own the majority of the market share in the writing instrument business, 70 percent, and that business is small in the premium segment," says Pontroue. "We are not forsaking that in any way, but we see the growth potential in watches, especially since we now have two factories, the original in Le Locle and the most recent in Villeret."
One-hundred percent of the brand's higher-end watches are created the Villeret factory—previously the Minerva facility—producing complicated pieces that retail for $60,000 to $70,000 and up as well as personalized models. Here, all movement components (except some screws) are created in-house, including the balance springs. The rest of Montblanc's timepieces are created in the Le Locle facility, which utilizes outsourced materials and movements. "It is our goal in watches to make our own movements, too, and to position ourselves as leaders in technology and design. We already have a b legitimacy in automatics and we aim to keep that," says Pontroue.
Naturally, Pontroue feels the value and credibility of Montblanc's writing instruments can transfer to the timepieces, especially given the high-quality craftsmanship and long-standing heritage of the brand. Montblanc's purchase of Minerva and its unveiling of the much-acclaimed Rieussec line of chronographs are already winning Montblanc watchmaking acclaim just a few short years later.
"In terms of product, our goal is to establish ourselves as the brand that, when one closes his or her eyes and thinks of Montblanc, a chronograph is envisioned," says Pontroue. As such, the brand has deliberately established its collections for next year to include special mechanical chronograph introductions with particular attention paid to added specialty functions and high-tech materials. Suffice it to say 2011 will be a particularly bold product year for Montblanc.
Further underscoring its commitment to watches and jewelry, the brand is opening dedicated watch and jewelry boutiques in certain markets around the world, with the first boutique opening in just a few weeks in Paris. We would love to tell you more, but unfortunately we will have to wait for the SIHH to do so…
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