The CEO Of Breitling Talks Responsibility, Sustainability And How He Is Evolving The Luxury Heritage Watch Brand.
Breitling CEO Georges Kern is a man with grand plans. But when it comes to what inspires the visionary leader of the heritage luxury watch brand, he simply describes himself as an observer. “I always tell my team, ‘Walk with open eyes through life’. See what is happening in the car industry, in architecture, in fashion… Just open your eyes and you will have inspiration and you will understand what is going on in the world.
“Know what movies are being watched, what music is listened to, what is going on with innovative companies… get interested in humankind and what is going on in the planet. Do all this, and you should get enough inspiration to do the right thing.”
With a desire to be “more entrepreneurial, to invest”, Georges joined Breitling as CEO and shareholder in September 2017.
Breitling’s origins are in Saint-Imier, Switzerland, where it was founded by Léon Breitling in 1884, before being acquired by watchmaker and pilot Ernest Schneider in 1979. The ensuing decades saw the company stay in the Schneider family and produce the masculine pilot chronograph watches now synonymous with the brand. In 2017, it was bought by UK private equity group CVC Capital Partners, and Georges was appointed to the helm.
The 54-year-old has 25 years of watch industry experience, most recently at Richemont and IWC, where he was the firm’s youngest-ever appointed CEO. Now his reign as CEO of Breitling is heralding a new direction for the brand, marked first by a simplification of its product structure.
“The product portfolio was much too complicated,” Georges said at a press conference in New York last year.
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