Christophe Claret - The brand is born
WORLDTEMPUS— 3 June 2010
To celebrate twenty years of his company last year, Christophe Claret decided to present a very special watch outside of his normal range of activities: the DualTow was the first watch to officially carry his own name. Today, the watchmaking entrepreneur announced that he will make one watch under his own name every year and that it will be sold through his own distribution network. From here on out, the DualTow will be regarded as the watch that kicked off Claret's own brand, freeing it from the constrictive role of "anniversary watch."
Limited to just a couple dozen pieces per year, Claret's watches will certainly be the apple of any collector's eye. The 490,000 Swiss franc price tag for the DualTow and that of 540,000 for the Night Eagle—the evolution unveiled this past spring—have established the positioning of this mini-brand. Prices such as these have been fairly well axed throughout the industry since the economic crisis began in late 2008. Claret finds them totally legitimate for his own products, however, since his work forms the base for dozens of calibers just as innovative and complex for well-known names such as Ulysse Nardin, Jean Dunand, and Guy Ellia. The tourbillon that is present in all of his movements is, for example, the base of the least complicated movement that his company manufactures.
"Of the five movements presently in development here, three are dedicated to my own brand," Claret announced. "And like all the calibers invented within these walls, they will contain functions that have never been seen before in horology." To ensure sales, he has retained the services of Phil Ogle, an expert experienced in the distribution of haute horlogerie whose goal is to open markets such as France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Greece, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. Despite debuting the Dual Tow and its evolutions in the midst of the global economic crisis, they have meanwhile found their audiences. Claret described having sold two per month on average.
To achieve his unusual production needs, Claret has invented tools that he never ceases to improve. In fact, a few machines in the watch industry did not exist at all until he enlisted the aid of certain suppliers to make what he had in mind. His Flashcut Laser, which can cut sapphire, allows him to completely master all of the operations needed to design and manufacture modern complicated calibers. He recently purchased a CNC machine with 16 axes—an absolute record—to take its place of honor within his four walls. At a price exceeding one million Swiss francs, it was two years before this colossal piece of technology could be put into production in his Le Locle-based factory.
Like the majority of movement suppliers in the watch industry, Claret has had to deal with a decline in orders. He has not hidden the fact that his factory is also on short shifts; he has spent this time refining his catalogue of new calibers and optimizing his production processes so as to be ready for the day when business returns to normal. "Some determined watchmakers have had the task of creating a THF - Test, homologation, fiabilite - workshops with protocols of tests for the approval of the new movements and current production," he says. "Some apparatus have been specially developed for testing buttons and pushers, evaluating shock resistance, gravity, and water resistance. These have been used to analyze all the different tests known to watchmaking like the C.O.S.C., Qualite Fleurier, and Chronofiable and to take the most pertinent elements from them."
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