I knew that Jaeger-LeCoultre was a serious brand, regarded for quality and professionalism. It was known for being a respected member of the watchmaking world.

When I joined, I was 27. I was fascinated by the passion I could feel in every person working with the brand. For me it was completely special. Jaeger-LeCoultre was not just any employer or any company. Even when people leave us, the link in their hearts with the brand remains something special. It resonates with me.

So, before considering what I could bring to the company, I was very interested and in favour of participating in a common future. What I’ve tried to do since those days is to make the largest number of people in the company share in the passion.

The capacity of daring, of taking risks, because when you are passionate about something, you want to demonstrate that the object of your passion is worth being the subject of passion. I consider my mission for Jaeger-LeCoultre to be very much a messenger - taking people from not knowing the brand to knowing it, from knowing it to appreciating it, and from appreciating it, to loving it.

Two things: I believe in management by example, so I would never ask something of somebody that I would not ask of myself. I would never ask anybody more than I would ask of myself. And when there is a risk, I will always put myself in the front line. The second thing is for staff to feel themselves involved with the company. That goes for me as well. I do not consider the company as my company, but myself as a servant of the company and the brand. I consider working for the brand an engagement. Staff should feel themselves engaged by the company. If they don’t share the interest or feel the passion for the company, for the brand, then they should find something else.

The toughest is to find new aspects of the brand when it has already developed 1,000 movements, and is rich in both products and good ideas. The good thing is that when the company is 175 years old, everyday you have a lesson in humility, because you find many good examples, many demonstrations of what was done right by past directors of the brand. So, even when you have a bright idea, you can put it into perspective. On one hand, you have to find things that have not been seen in the last 175 years. On the other hand, you will always have a strong and legitimate link to what the brand has been doing.

The biggest challenge for Jaeger-LeCoultre is to keep its capacity for development - to keep its love for invention, its capacity to think out of the box - and encapsulate under the same roof, the traditional links to quality and absolute perfection. Bringing these two together is always a challenge. You have to develop the two together and to balance them.

Jaeger-LeCoultre in Singapore has always been a well-recognised, well-known brand. We have developed a shop because the relationship with our clients has become increasingly important. Ten years ago we used to only work with agents. Clients were hidden. We did not know them, nor have contact. But through the internet, magazines and the different events we have organised throughout the world, we have come increasingly in contact with our clients. In fact, it is so much so that we say, “We need to create a specific address for the brand, so that at any time, if clients need any information, service or have questions, they can push the door open and have access to quality of service and information that is constant and sustainable around the world. This is how we came to retail.

(As for Asia) we are continuing, I would say, a new era for the development of the brand, where the link to the end consumer, the client, the connoisseur of the brand, will be even more sustainable. This will build the reputation of the brand even more.

As a way of (educating) people about the brand, we have worked very hard to make the products demonstrate all capacities - all the richness and the wealth of Jaeger-LeCoultre’s know-how and tradition. That is what stands behind the opening of the Heritage Gallery in 2007– the museum of the brand, which (showcases) the passion of the brand in the Vallée de Joux.

It makes it easier to consider, but what we have seen as well is a lot of interest for the patrimony of the genre within this field. This means we have a lot of interest from collectors and connoisseurs for our watches of the ‘50s and ‘60s, when a lot of our watches were sports watches. A third point is to demonstrate that Jaeger-LeCoultre is a most innovative brand in fine watchmaking. Sport is very interesting because you need to go quite far in the capacity of the watch as an instrument, and be quite inventive in the technical aspects, to come up with the requirements of professional instruments. It is for these three reasons that we are developing our line in sports these days.

I would say diving is completely in and completely on because we are just introducing the watches right now. It is very much something that we have in mind following the development of our jewellery lines, which are very important for the brand. Also, there is the development the brand has done in high and fine watchmaking - from the JLC Reverso Grande Complication Triptyque to the Master Compressor Extreme LAB, to the Duometre Chronograph this year. So these three areas are very much completely in our daily activities. 4

For sure, it is one way to measure the success of an investment in such launches. But before that, there has been a long-time partnership as well. Re-launching a diving line takes some time. Re-creating the name between the diving world and Jaeger-LeCoultre will take some time. We cannot evaluate this thing just by the number of pages and returns in a very short time. But we know we have to do it as well as we can - it is the best way. We just try to focus and do the best, and we do believe that at the end of the day, it should pay. I would say it is more a philosophy of life at Jaeger-LeCoultre to do things step-by-step, and to do it well. That, we also implement in the way we work with the press.

What we learnt from that is - as with what we learnt from celebrities like Leonardo diCaprio and Clive Owen - that these guys are choosing brands they respect, without any contract. People support brands when their common values were aligned. What I learnt from Patrick is that these guys perceive very well the value and language of the brand. That is something that is always rewarding.