Interviewed by Irina Malkova IN OUR DAYS, IT IS RARE TO MEET A MAN SO STRONGLY ADVISED OF ITS PRINCIPLES. BUT THIS IS MAKING THE HEAD OF THE BOVET PASCAL RAFFI HOUR COMPANY NOT ONLY AN INTERESTING INTERIOR, BUT AND THE DUMA LORD, AT LEAST FOR COLLECTORS OF ITS WATCHES. REVIVING THE COMPANY IN 2001, IT DOES NOT JUST INVENTS INCREDIBLY COMPLEX MECHANISMS, BUT ALSO CREATED THE WHOLE HOUR PHILOSOPHY. AND HIS VIEW IS EXTREME ORIGINAL. Mr. Raffy, this year Bovet did not take part in the SIHH main watch exhibition in Geneva. Why?
Pascal Raffy: Because you can’t smoke there!
Do you smoke?
Pascal Raffy: Of the two evils - alcohol or cigarettes - I chose the second. I don’t drink alcohol at all, but yes, I smoke. And you know, a cigar on long journeys becomes a real friend. She doesn’t bother you, she doesn’t get any talk, but she is always with you. What is not a friend?
Where do you live now?
Pascal Raffy: In truth, I live on airplanes. I spend a third of my time in Miami, a third in Switzerland, in Geneva, where we have headquarters, and a third in travel.
I look at you now the very famous Bovet watch that you presented in January this year?
Pascal Raffy: This is not even a watch. This is art, emotions - Recital 18 Shooting Star. In them I expressed everything that I believe in, my beliefs, aspirations, watch tradition of almost more than two hundred years of history.
But you came to the watch industry not so long ago, in 2001, when you acquired Bovet, the oldest Swiss watch brand. What did you do before?
Pascal Raffy: Before that, I was an amateur and collector - I have been collecting watches since 24 years. I worked in the pharmaceutical industry, but the love of watches always haunted me. When I retired, I was 39 years old.
Then my banker, my friend, came to me and said: “Why don’t you go in for hours if you love them so much?” But no watch company then resonated with my inner spirit. Of course, I knew about Bovet - from books, from history, heard about it at auctions, I even had a few pocket watches of this brand. But when I got to know their new products closer, I realized - this is it! It took me just one week to make a decision.
In this case, you decided to radically change the philosophy of Bovet.
Pascal Raffy: The fact is that in the luxury goods industry there is one main rule that an item must meet - it must be immediately recognizable, that is, unique in its kind. And believe me, far from all the brands that brew in this industry produce truly unique things. 90 percent is just marketing. But the consumer, who, as a rule, is led, and not leading, can not always recognize this right away, thinking that manual labor and traditions are enough to make a thing unique. Marketing today has spoiled consumer intelligence very much, and with the growth of globalization, this has begun to happen everywhere.
People have become imitators. My neighbor has such a car, and I want the same, with only three more options, why am I worse? But when a consumer buys our watches, he does not acquire a social recognition code, but an educational one. Indeed, knowledge, education is what defines your life: what values you protect, what you want to achieve, what you strive for.
It is this that ultimately either leads you to success or not. And you know, what thing is impossible to buy for any money? Your sincere smile. Therefore, producing our watches, we invest in them first of all our sincerity. Our masters and artists do not come to work in the morning - they come to their second home. Only in this way can this be achieved.
You produce incredibly complex watches with a huge amount of complications. At the same time, you develop the design of each model yourself. How do you come up with this without a specialized education?
Pascal Raffy: Ask this question to my CEO. She always says that the success of our watches is the result of the fact that I am not a watchmaker, and therefore is completely unlimited by any framework. And I don’t really need a watchmaker next to me who would simply realize my selfish ideas about what a watch should be. He must be a creator.
What is more important for you in your watch universe - watch complications or the design and emotional side of the model?
Pascal Raffy: Both. What is the most difficult thing in the world? Person. I love complex people for their versatility. But, on the other hand, the aesthetic side of the issue is also important. So complexity and elegance must go together. After all, to clap your hands, you need both hands.
Applied Question. Why do collectors collect watches? For example, Bovet watches.
Pascal Raffy: A person can collect watches solely for their beauty, without understanding them at all - provided, of course, there are funds for such expensive purchases. In this case, the watch is acquired to have a subject of conversation in the community of collectors. But so do collectors who are imitators. I believe that those who buy Bovet watches no longer need to prove anything and confirm their status among collectors. This stage is passed for them. They collect not for recognition, but because they believe in such watches. Not only complications are important to them, but also a striking artistic expression. Such is the circle of Bovet collectors. And he has nothing to do with marketing.
Then how can the consumer not get caught in the marketing network?
Pascal Raffy: First of all, trust yourself and your principles. Trust your eye, which burns when looking at a particular object. Trust your intuition, your feelings. We all have casual clothes, but when you go to the tailor who sews your costume to order, you will go to him to try on at least 15 times. Because this thing will be individual, only yours. This is called perfection. So with the clock.
You produce quite complicated watches for women. Do not you think that recently women have become better versed in watches?
Pascal Raffy: Absolutely. Because they themselves have become more complex. Most recently, your joint exhibition with the jeweler Ilgiz Fazulzyanov was held in the Museum of the Moscow Kremlin. Tell us about your impressions.
Pascal Raffy: First of all, the Kremlin Museum hosts only three exhibitions a year. Therefore, when Elena Gagarina, the director of museums of the Moscow Kremlin, turns to you and asks to put her models on display, this is something to say. Imagine the honor they have shown me! We exhibited along with Ilgiz Fazulzyanov - a true artist, a true genius, one of the most talented and original jewelers of his generation. He is subject to all the techniques of enamel painting, and especially the revived technique of "hot" enamel. The exhibition presented, in particular, Bovet men's and women's watches with picturesque miniatures on the dial, which were performed by Ilgiz and which show a direct connection with the historical pocket watches of the Beauvais brothers. Believe me, during the exhibition time slowed down. It was a very beautiful story in my life. And it still continues, since from the end of July this year the exhibition went on a journey across Russia.
