THE RAINMAKER

Parmigiani enjoys undeniable respect for its craft, but it has never enjoyed the bona-fide commercial success that other watchmakers of its standard have. Guido Terreni, the new Chief Executive, is here to shake things up

- JONATHAN HO

PREVIOUSLY HEAD OF WATCHES at Bvlgari, Guido Terreni is largely recognised as the man who presided over the brand’s golden age of watchmaking. Barely two years into the role, Terreni has already introduced a new collection, the Tonda PF, with a horological world premiere: the GMT Rattrapante. It’s quite obvious what the Sandoz Family Foundation, generous patrons of legendary watch restorer and founder Michel Parmigiani, hopes that Terreni will accomplish with the House. What Augustman is curious about, is how exactly Terreni will do it.

You were at Bvlgari for two decades and you presided over the launch of the Octo. What would you say was the biggest challenge at the time compared to what you face at Parmigiani? The market said we had a problem because the brand was understood as a jewellery brand and so the work that was done in 20 years at Bulgari was a repositioning and the will to acquire watchmaking legitimacy. This is a monumental journey. It takes decades so when I took over the division in 2009, I really had the mandate from the family to make the best of what was possible. So we acquired Gérald Genta and Daniel Roth and so it took a lot of time and investment; it’s very difficult to build prestige, provenance and the watchmaking environment because watchmaking is about specialists. It’s about competence. It’s about craft as well. Perception and image is difficult to shift. The work in Parmigiani is completely different, because the prestige is already up there. When the brand was first launched, it was able to grasp the interest of the highest collectors of who placed the brand at the top of the Olympus of watchmakers.