Guess Launched Its First Ever Smart Watch—The Guess Connect
While listing his plans for the brand, Aldo Magada, CEO of Zenith, talks about respecting the consumer by offering products that have meaning and values
What are your plans for Zenith?
The mission is to make the image clearer, so we’ve re-organised the assortment. With Zenith, there is no need to change everything, we just have to adapt. Basically, now we have the three lines—El Primero, Elite and Pilot’s watches. Then there are some totally new products. For the first time for Zenith, we are offering a case in ceramic because ceramic is a very important material for certain kinds of products. We’ve also shown a new movement—the new movement is only on haute horlogerie. For us, it’s important to show that we are constantly studying in order to offer the market new versions. Last year, I’m sure you remember that we had the Academy Georges Favre-Jacot with fusée and chain mechanism, so for this year, we’ve done the fusée-chain with tourbillon. So the two systems have been done to really improve the accuracy of the watch, and the combination is quite unique.
Who is the Zenith consumer?
Everyone! For us, demographic is not so important because Zenith is a timeless brand. It’s a brand that’s grouping the generations. For instance, let’s consider The Rolling Stones, whose first fan might be 75 years old. Then there are his son and grandson, maybe even greatgrandson. Last year, when I was in San Diego for their concert, you could see a group comprising three to four generations. So it’s not a matter of age or money, it’s about value. If you are sensitive to aesthetics, Historical or mechanical aspects, then in terms of definition, I have a potential Zenith customer. Of course, I have to ensure that the proposal is a good one. So to be precise, the decision to buy is guided by value.
In that case, how are you reaching out to this potential customer?
I can speak to people who have no interest in watches; even though they might have the aforementioned values, they would still not be interested. So what is important is that the universe is well-defined. Now, we are working through social media and events. Why? Events enable you to meet people giving you the opportunity to discuss and explain the watches. Sometimes, it simply allows us to explain who we are by introducing the brand to them. It’s like you do in a social setting, where you walk up to someone, introduce yourself, start a conversation, and maybe, you become friends. So an event could be a cocktail, a racing event of classic cars or vintage bikes, and so on. We are becoming the official watch for the 50th anniversary of Cohiba cigars, so we could host an event for people who appreciate cigars. Here, one can draw parallels between cigars and watches because ultimately, everything that is interesting has been transformed by people.
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