Breitling Plays For Time

The maker of aviator watches and its private equity owners are modernizing the brand.

- Corinne Gretler, Benedikt Kammel, & Jan Dahinten

Georges Kern looked poised for the top job at luxury conglomerate Cie. Financiere Richemont SA, where a 17-year run took him from youngest chief executive officer of one of Richemont’s major brands to the head of all watchmaking, including oversight of storied names such as Cartier, Piaget, and Vacheron Constantin. Then four months after his promotion in early 2017, he quit.

Kern took the top job at Breitling SA, a switch that sent shock waves through the tight-knit Swiss watch community. In family hands for more than a century, Breitling had recently been sold to CVC Capital Partners for more than €800 million ($914 million). It was the first time a private equity firm had taken over a major watchmaker. The industry is dominated by publicly traded multibrand luxury groups and a small crop of private companies, including Patek Philippe SA and Rolex SA.

Breitling has thrived on chunky, functional timepieces that come with busy dials and are favored by older men. While the company was profitable, sales weren’t advancing, and there were issues looming when Kern joined: The brand had no presence in China, the sales network was patchy, and Breitling’s product lineup was starting to look as outdated as its marketing, which featured macho men in their aircraft and blond women in revealing outfits breathlessly awaiting their landing.