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Set up some 10 years ago as a stable mate to Girard-Perregaux,
the company has been upsetting accepted nostrums and turning over
expectations in a remarkably determined manner. As with so many
other such names, the brand had existed in one form or another right
up until the contraction that the Swiss watch industry went through
in the late 1970s. Luigi Macaluso’s Sowind Group then bought the
name in the late ’80s. From the outside it seems that a relatively
free hand has been allowed, subject only to the proviso that there
is to be no stepping on the toes of Girard-Perregaux. The expanded
tonneau of the TV Screen won, unsurprisingly, several awards for the
sheer freshness of its design – tellingly, the case seems quite
normal today – and set the standard for the company’s approach to
watch design.
It is not, however, the watches themselves that offer the biggest
surprise. Anyone with a passing familiarity with the Swiss industry
would automatically expect the rebirth of a name with such
historical resonance as Daniel JeanRichard to mean solidly
traditional designs with lots of engine-turned dials, Breguet hands
and onion crowns. Instead, the powers that be at JeanRichard seem to
have made the effort to imagine themselves into the mindset that
drove the original Daniel to innovate and push forward. A second
surprising element was the decision to take the risk that the market
would understand this approach to such a revered historical
character; the company still makes a great play of the significance
of the name.
The semantics of the brand apart, the watches on offer are certainly
likeable and that little bit outside the ordinary – an approach that
Sowind clearly understood would take time to be accepted. Almost
uniquely, Daniel JeanRichard released sales figures for the TV
Screen family of watches that showed a decline in numbers (albeit
only temporary) after its launch. The general path followed seems to
be to combine lightly contemporary design with complications at the
less grand end of the spectrum: in other words, no gold or platinum
minute-repeaters – though there is a tourbillon. Instead, lesser –
but still attractive – elements such as fly-back dates are order of
the day. Most of these are based on bought-in calibres that are
reworked and finished in-house, as opposed to relying on Girard-Perregaux
calibres. In this way, JeanRichard maintain both an identity and,
importantly, a price level separate from G-P.
Interestingly, the developments within the industry over the last
few years mean that this approach is being rethought. Just as the
established movement suppliers are becoming more concerned with
supplying the brands they are linked with and restricting supplies
elsewhere, so new technologies make it more affordable to produce
individual calibres. JeanRichard are already testing a calibre for
introduction in the next year (which will be covered in more depth
in a later article). About the only disappointment with JeanRichard
is that it is their most conventional watch – the Bressel – that
seems to be their best-seller. |
