 This
month's BaselWorld 2006 will see the brand's big launch of the year: a men's automatic No. 3 featuring
a second time zone.
A complication
rearing its head at Bédat & Co.?
“Yes,”
answers the energetic Swiss, “but I will never sell it as such! This timepiece has it, but the
complication is not the point of the watch. The point is that it's beautiful and a Number 3.
And, yes, it has a second time zone, but I'm not selling the GMT, I'm selling the product.
That's all.
“I think
at Bédat & Co. we have been avant-garde for a long time. We used colored and satin straps long
before anyone else. We set diamonds in steel long before anyone else. We were probably the pioneers
in setting diamonds in steel. In 1997 we produced so many, we were the pioneers!
That's what people knew us for. Today, everybody's doing it. I always try to conceptually
bring something more to the watch.”
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Elegance is the Word
“Extravagant
taste sells easily,” explains Bédat. “But good taste – what I consider
good taste – is much harder to sell. Somebody who buys a watch by Bédat & Co.
will not buy it to show off. When people buy a watch, it's always for themselves as
well as for the rest of the world.
“We
are not a fashion brand. But we are fashionable. There is nothing wrong with being fashionable.
Rolex has been fashionable for fifty years! You can be traditional, a watchmaker brand, but still
be fashionable. Being fashionable has also worked for Patek Philippe. Is that a brand about fashion?
No. So, we have to attract men.
“What
do you need to sell to men? Elegance. What do men wear? Either sports watches or complicated
watches at $50,000 and up. What do they understand about elegance? My dream would be that if a man
is looking for an elegant watch, that one of the three brands he would consider
is Bédat & Co. That he would associate the name Bédat & Co. with elegance for men's watches,
with character. If you want to be elegant with character, maybe ultra-chic, then Bédat & Co.
is a choice. This is what I want people to understand – the quality, the finishing,
the color choices, the dial, the sophistication, the curves, everything.
“When
men think about elegance, they think about classicism. And I think elegance is more than
classicism. The tourbillons, the minute repeaters, the blued screws, the watchmakers, the manufactures,
the fact that this watch beats at 28,800 bph. Who cares? Who even knows what that means? Nobody!
And this is a chronometer, officially certified. Great. Measure it again in a year and
a half! And who cares? Mechanical watches are not precise! Even the best. Five seconds a day is normal.
Elegance.
Who understands elegance?”
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