HODINKEE Podcasts

This week on The Business of Watches, a boutique brand and its CEO from a country that has much of the watch industry abuzz. Nirupesh Joshi is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bangalore Watch Company, based in Bengaluru (previously known as Bangalore), India.

The company was founded in 2018 and has slowly established itself as a purveyor of premium watchmaking with models that don't rely on classic tropes about the country to tell their story. Former tech industry executives Joshi and his wife, Mercy Amalraj, are building a brand that aims to express the modern spirit of India, as the country becomes an increasingly significant economic and cultural player on the world stage.

There's a rich history of watchmaking in India, marked by brands including HMT and Titan, that have produced watches at large volumes to serve India's fast-growing population of over 1 billion people. But BWC is seeking a different client, one that's more seasoned in watches, and is seeking a brand that innovates and competes with other marques from around the world to tell its own unique stories. 

BWC has grown to about 15 staff members, including watchmakers repatriated from other brands, opened a boutique in its home city, and produces around 2,000 watches per year, assembled in India, using components made both in-country and from suppliers around the world. The company recently raised capital from investors, and Joshi tells us how BWC plans to bring its watches to a wider, global audience. Customers outside of India already account for about 60% of sales, and the plan is to grow that segment further with modern, high-quality watches that express the dynamism of India and its young population.

Show Notes:
1:05 Bangalore Watch Company (website) 

7:45 The Role of Hong Kong In The Global Watch Market (Hong Kong's Finest Watches) 

18:18 Delhi AQI (Instagram) 

30:31 Furlan Marri 

Formex holds a unique place in the Swiss watch industry. The brand was born in the early 2000s with a proprietary case suspension system and designs that expressed the origins of its name 'forme extrême' (extreme shapes in French). But the recession spurred by the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 dealt a near fatal blow to the brand and it entered a period of relative dormancy.

Then in 2016, Formex was taken over by a group backed by one of its suppliers, Dexel, a Swiss component maker specializing in bracelets, clasps and cases as well as dials at its subsidiary Cadranor. 

Raphael Granito, now in his mid-thirties, is part of the family business behind Dexel and led the take over and revival of the Formex marque. He has steered the brand's development ever since and a decade later, Formex is leveraging its manufacturing savoir-faire and research and development skills from Dexel to produce innovative and approachable-priced Swiss Made watches.  The brand evolution culminated recently with the Aria, a high-end integrated bracelet titanium sport watch with an, ultra-thin, micro-rotor manufacture movement designed by Horage, priced below CHF 6,000. That's a significant step up compared to the CHF 1,800 average price point for its watches. 

Granito outlines how the brand has grown and connected with more customers, operating mainly outside the traditional retail structure. Still a family business, he hired his best friend from university to lead marketing and sales efforts. Formex has distinguished itself offering upscale finishing and components, including cases, bracelets innovative clasps and stone dials that include meteorite options. It's approach to design and engineering innovation, that Granito calls 'designeering,'  has certainly struck a chord with a watch enthusiasts, particularly in the U.S., now the Swiss brand's largest market. 

Show Notes

1:05 Raphael Granito (Instagram) 

5:16 Formex Essence

Interview with Markus Wälchli, marketing director of Formex (The Watch Society YouTube)

12:17 Hands-OnFurlan Marri Disco Diamonds Onyx – A New Affordable Entry Into Subtle Gemsetting (Hodinkee) 

This week on The Business of Watches, we sit down with the business leader who has headed the reborn Czapek & Cie. brand for more than a decade now. Xavier de Roquemaurel didn't come from the watch industry when he co-founded Czapek with fellow entrepreneur Harry Guhl with help from watchmaker Sébastien Follonier in 2015. 

He's had to learn the industry on the job and while Czapek burst on the scene by winning the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) Public Prize in its debut year in 2016, the company and de Roquemaurel have faced plenty of challenges along the way. From the  novel financing and shareholder model they created to fund the startup, to reckoning with a massive surge of back orders for their popular Antarctique integrated bracelet sports watch model during the boom times of the post-pandemic era, as well as serious health and medical ordeals. Reconsidering all the tests he and the company have faced, de Roquemaurel says he now believes that "adversity gets the best out of you." 
 

Today, Czapek has just opened a new boutique on the historic Quai des Bergues in Geneva on the same banks of the Rhone river where François Czapek himself had his first atelier in the 1800s. In a wide ranging interview, the Czapek CEO traces both the path of the reborn brand and how it has found inspiration in the legacy of the watchmaker that opened what is believed to be the first watch boutique on Place de Vendome in Paris while producing timepieces for Napoleon III and the French Imperial court.  Stay tuned to the end for a preview of what complication the brand might take on next. 

Show Notes:

1:05 Czapek Quai des Bergues Collection 

This week on The Business of Watches, a veteran watch industry CEO who is taking on one of the biggest and most demanding challenges of his storied career. Julien Tornare is the head of Hublot, the irreverent and ground-breaking brand controlled by LVMH that's trying to reclaim some of its former glory and role as a trend-setter in industry innovation. 

An affable and talented business leader, Tornare has spent almost three decades in the watch world, with Vacheron Constantin and Richemont, and then as the chief executive of Zenith, where he oversaw a dramatic revival and upswing for the El Primero maker. He then had a brief tenure as the CEO of TAG Heuer, before joining Hublot as the big boss in 2024. 

Tornare talks about Hublot's turbulent journey over the past four decades, and the spirit that's reflected in the brand's unconventional and outspoken ambassadors. He also takes on the marque's critics, making the case for why the YouTuber shots are largely unjustified. 

As for where Hublot is going, that's partly where it has been, as Tornare discusses the influence of Hublot's Italian founder Carlo Crocco as the company reconsiders its legacy ahead of its 50th anniversary in 2030. There's also news of a major new partnership with legendary American artist Jeff Koons, who is bringing his artistic vision to the watch brand for the first time with a series of bold collaborations. We also discuss the role that Jean Arnault, long considered the true watch enthusiast in the Arnault clan, now has with the brand. 

Show Notes:

0:30 Julien Tornare (Instagram) 
1:06 Hublot (website) 
1:43 The Quirky Backstory Of The Hublot MDM (FHH) 
1:59 Jean-Claude Biver & The Relaunch of Hublot (IMD Business School Case Study) 
4:22 Hublot And Football A Perfect Match (The Hour Glass) 
6:25 The Truth About Hublot And How Their Watches Stack Up (Luxury Bazaar) 
7:51 Julien Tornare, CEO of Hublot: "Hublot Will Rebalance Its Investments" (Luxury Tribune) 
9:20 Nyon (Swiss Tourism) 
9:59 Hublot Classic Fusion Original Goes Back To Where It All Began (Hodinkee) 
10:14 Hublot Expands The Big Bang Across Every Level (Hodinkee) 
11:39 Carlo Crocco (Watch Wiki) 
14:04 The Art of Fusion In Depth (Time & Tide) 
14:24 Andy Warhol's Hublot (Italian Watch Spotter Instagram) 
17:20 Hublot Ambassadors 
19:50 Why Hate Hublot? Featuring Nico Leonard (YouTube) 
21:58 LVMH Watch Boss Sees Jean Arnault as Best Candidate for His Role (SwissInfo)  
24:00 Hublot Spirit of Big Bang 
31:40 Inside Hublot's Mission to Turn Its Watches Into Museum-Worthy Art (GQ) 
32:01 Beyond The Canvas: Jeff Koons Reimagines Time With Hublot 
36:10 Hublot Big Bang Original Soft Touch (Gear Patrol)  
39:02 Hublot Unveils Decade-Long Warranty As New Industry Benchmark (Johnson & Co.) 

This week on The Business of Watches, a fresh take on the new releases we saw at Geneva Watch Days and what they might mean for the market. Ahead of a special request summer fondue dinner, Tim, TanTan and Andy discuss what they saw, what they liked and didn't from the slew of novelties presented during the event. 

We go deep into the debut of Gallet, discussing how the entry-level offering from Breitling's House of Brands will stack up against the competition and how it will re-enter the company into the cut-throat $3,000 to $6,000 price category at a time when the Swiss industry is struggling to halt the slide in volumes. 

We also talk Bulgari, Oris, Frederique Constant, Girard-Perregaux, MB&F and the latest MADEditions, and why, when it comes to Doxa, you can't have just one. Plus, what the return of a new Northflag (now one word) heralds for Tudor. 

Show Notes:
0:30 Tim Jeffreys

0:32 TanTan Wang 

30:45 Introducing: The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Tadao Ando Limited Edition Ref. 103534 (Hodinkee) 

41:19 Introducing: Oris' Big Crown Pointer Date Goes Small With A New 29mm Version (Hodinkee) 

https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/the-doxa-sub-300-ti5

This week on The Business of Watches, a visit with the folks running Armin Strom, a true original in the small but increasingly crowded field of independent watch brands. It takes its name and original inspiration from the eponymous Swiss watchmaker who was best known for his innovative and record-setting skeletonizing techniques on watches and dials. 

Childhood friends Serge Michel and Claude Greisler took over the brand in 2006. Michel, who controls the company, came from a family business background (in another field of business), while Greisler was a watchmaker and engineer. Twenty years on, Armin Strom is a true original in Swiss watchmaking, producing unique timepieces pushing the boundaries of contemporary horology from an atelier in Biel / Bienne, where most of the components are produced, decorated and finished for the brand's proprietary, in-house designed movements. 

This week on The Business of Watches, we're getting a preview and history lesson of Geneva Watch Days. Born in the dark days of the pandemic in 2020, it was a new kind of watch industry gathering, that prioritized access and community over exclusivity.

Jean-Christophe Babin, the former Chief Executive Officer of Bulgari, has been there from the beginning. He tells us why Geneva Watch Days started and why it's still needed. We discuss what to expect at this year's event and what the future of watch industry events might bring. 

With some 71 brands exhibiting, GWD has more marques than that other big watch show in Geneva that happens each spring, but it's very different in tone and feel. Using a 'decentralized' concept, brands pay fees based on their size and revenue and the show allows for plenty of smaller, boutique brands to show off their wares. 

Open to the general public, it certainly isn't as glitzy nor as pricey an event as some others. Babin says the entire budget of GWD is likely less than the cost of staging and running a major booth at Watches and Wonders. 

A veteran who has served as the head of LVMH's watch unit as well the CEO of TAG Heuer, Babin has seen the industry through a myriad of cycles, giving him a unique perspective on where the watch sector has been and where it's going.  

Show Notes

0:59 Geneva Watch Days website 

2:00 Geneva Watch Days 2020 / 2021 (FHS) 

5:06 Geneva Tourism - Geneva Watch Days 

9:12 Breitling was a founding member of GWD 

10:31 Watches and Wonders 

12:45 How Watches and Wonders Remains Worthwhile For Brands Big And Small (Hodinkee) 

17:16 Geneva Watch Days Agenda / Panels / Symposiums 

19:10 Phillips Geneva Watch Days Auction  For Geneva Watchmaking School 

22:15 Geneva.com 

24:03 Fondation du Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève 

31:18 Ferdinand Berthoud 

32:00 FHS Statistics 

33:40 The criteria for strengthening Swiss made (FHS) 

35:20 Swatch 37:50 Casio mechanical watches 

40:30 Swatch X Audemars Piguet 'Royal Pop' (Hodinkee)

This week on The Business of Watches, Collective Horology co-founder and Chief Executive Asher Rapkin joins us. He brought his lawyer.

While Collective is a Ventura, California-based retailer of independent watch brands, including Armin Strom, Czapek, Fears, Ming and J.N. Shapiro, Sara Albrecht is the chairman and CEO of The Liberty Justice Center. That's the non-profit litigation firm that led the legal fight successfully challenging President Trump's initial round of tariffs all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. They won, in a surprise decision that ruled the President didn't have the authority to impose the levies that boosted the cost of importing goods to the U.S., including Swiss made watches.  The government is now in the process of refunding the approximately $166 billion businesses paid out.

Rapkin tells us why his business decided to challenge the tariff laws and take on the President and his government while Albrecht lays out the legal argument driving their case. It's a matter of significant economic importance for U.S. business and the global watch industry. 

1:13 Swiss Watch CEOs Plot Next Move As US Tariffs Threaten Industry Sales (Hodinkee) 

2:24 Collective Horology website 

3:42 Watch Industry Cheers Supreme Court Tariff Ruling But Faces More Uncertainty As Trump Vows Workaround (Hodinkee) 

4:57 Liberty Justice Center 

7:28 Forced Labour Section 301 (U.S. Trade Representative statement) 

10:50 U.S. dollar x Swiss franc (Xe Currency) 

11:37 J.N. Shapiro Watches website 

11:50 The Watch Switzerland Can't Make - Karel Bachand (Barrelhand) - Openwork podcast 

14:53 Rolex And Richemont Executives Among Swiss Business Leaders Meeting With Trump (Hodinkee) 

18:31 Swiss-U.S. Trade Relations (SECO) 

20:05 U.S. Court of International Trade 

21:11 Jamieson Greer (Hodinkee)

This week on The Business of Watches, we take stock at the halfway point of the year for watch auctions. Remi Guillemin, Christie's head of watches for the Americas, Europe and Middle East, gives us his take on what's driving the interest of the top watch collectors these days. It's a pivotal time, with the watch auction market setting record sales results at most of the top auction houses despite global economic challenges and geopolitical tensions and conflicts. 

 The last time the market was this hot was in the post-COVID era of 2021 and 2022. Guillemin believes this time is different, and he tells us why references from F.P. Journe and Cartier, and (surprise!) pocket watches, are driving the market these days and how that's a fundamental shift from the hype watch driven boom post-pandemic. He also shows us some of the watches in his personal collection and reveals the grail he's still chasing. 

Show Notes

0:36 Remi Guillemin (Christie's website - scroll for bio) 
1:00 Auctions: The Five Results That Actually Mattered, From The Spring 2026 Auction Season (Hodinkee) 
3:08 Luxury Watch Sales at Auctions Drop 13% After Post-Covid Surge (SwissInfo/Bloomberg) 
5:17 Revealed: A unique Audemars Piguet monopusher chronograph wristwatch unseen since its manufacture in the 1930s (Christie's) 
5:49 Recent Daniel Roth Auction Results at Christie's 
10:48 F.P. Journe Tourbillon Souverain Reference T 
14:37 Private Sales (Christie's) 
17:23 Tiffany Blue Patek 5711 
18:37 Cartier London Crash  
20:42 Zuckerberg Wears $900,000 Watch To Announce End Of Meta Fact Checks (Bloomberg) 
23:40 The A. Lange & Söhne Little Lange 1 Moon Phase With Gold Flux Dial (Hodinkee) 
29:36 Krayon Anywhere (Hodinkee) 
30:34 Patek Philippe Reference 130 in steel (Hairspring) 
35:15 French Soccer Legend Zinédine Zidane Talks Watches And Why He's Offering His First Cartier To A Special Charity Sale

This week on The Business of Watches, a breaking news story, of sorts. Our friends at Worn & Wound have acquired Lorier Watches. It's a story of success for the New York-based boutique brand that started way back in 2017 with a mission to make vintage-inspired watches, designed to be worn every day, at an approachable price. In a way, it's a tale of too much success. 

Lorier co-founders, the husband and wife team Lauren Ortega and Lorenzo Ortega, struggled with the rapid growth of the small company, and the inability to meet demand for their products took a toll on the two-person operation. They considered winding up the brand, as it were, but a talk with Blake Malin, the co-founder of the well-established content, retail, and watch event company Worn & Wound, also based in New York, set them on a different path. 

The acquisition of Lorier is the first time Worn & Wound has acquired a watch brand. Malin and Lorenzo Ortega join us to talk about how the deal came about and what's next for both Lorier and Worn & Wound. Though Ortega spent his formative years in Geneva until he was about 18, it's a decidedly American business story in the watch industry. 

Show Notes: 

1:11 A New Chapter for Lorier 
1:48  Handsome Mechanical Watches For Less Than $500? Look No Further Than Lorier (Gear Patrol) 
3:00 Worn & Wound 
3:39 Windup Watch Fair 
6:10 Grand Central Watch collaboration 
8:02 The Lorier Hydra SIII (Hodinkee) 
11:05 Windup Watch Shop 
23:30 Art Deco vs. Art Nouveau (Rise Art)