The 2015 Basel International Watch and Jewellery Show was the first watch to consider Jean-Claude Biver, the helm of TAG Heuer, as the “temporary” CEO. One of his most important new products this year is the TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre Heuer 01 watch . I think the origin, purpose of this watch and how it affects the TAG Heuer brand are all things worth discussing, because if there is no discussion, I think this is not a product that most people like will understand.
Let’s go back to the early 2000s, when Jean-Claude Biver was very keen to sell Blancpain to the Swatch Group and was eager to do something new. He bought the failed Hublot brand, which was originally established in the early 1980s. Thanks to Big Bang Watch and Biver turning Hublot into a hype machine, it became a powerful watch company, which he later sold to the large luxury goods group LVMH (Louis Vuitton uit Yue Hennessy). Jean-Claude Biver not only sold Hublot to a large group of people and left, but he continued to serve as CEO to continue to operate and develop the brand.
In the end, Jean-Claude Biver wanted to slow down and became chairman of Hublot, and appointed long-term second-placed Ricardo Gaudalupe (Ricardo Gaudalupe). ) Is the CEO. Just when it was thought that Jean-Claude Biver was going to retire and enjoy his success and cheese making, he decided to oversee the entire watchmaking business of LVMH, including Hublot, Zenith and TAG Heuer. Strangely, this does not include Louis Vuitton Watch Company or Bulgari.
Mr. Biver is the head of strategy for the watch department of LVMH. His work is very interesting. There is no official position or title, which actually means that he still spends a lot of time doing Hublot things. Part of his mission was to help TAG Heuer, which was originally purchased due to its heritage and relationship with young consumers. However, due to a series of reasons, fake TAG Heuer has begun to give up its strong position as an entry-level Swiss luxury brand and continue to climb prices. In the long run, facts have proved that this is very unfavorable for the company, so it is decided that TAG Heuer needs to “return to its roots.”
At the end of 2014, TAG Heuer announced that it would reduce the number of personnel and concentrate on in-house movement production and the use of movements from third-party suppliers, such as Swiss ETA (which has been doing this for a long time). TAG Heuer’s then CEO Stephane Linder was let go (he is now in all Gucci locations) and did not have strong leadership skills, Jean-Claude Biver (Jean-Claude Biver) announced that he will join. Relatively short (maybe a few years). His position at TAG Heuer is always temporary. I think once he puts the brand in a good position, his intention is to hand over the control to those brands that will continue to promote towards him now. Direction development. .
Therefore, the real question is: what exactly did Jean-Claude Biver do to TAG Heuer, how will brand loyalists see it, and what can we expect him to be in Hublot The experience and success of TAG will be replicated in TAG (one way or another). TAG Heuer?
The TAG Heuer Carrera movement Heuer 01 can satisfy at least part of it-my feeling is that it answers a question that Mr. Biver has been asked for a long time: “Can you make a cheaper Big Bang?” No matter you Like it or not, this is part of TAG Heuer’s recent development direction. So what exactly is Jean-Claude Biver doing so successfully on Hublot? I think there are two things. The first is to make news to make many people around the world (whether interested or not interested in watches) understand the brand, and the second is to make visually appealing male watches that make people excited about the design of contemporary luxury watches. Once again, not all of these have won the praise of Mr. Beaver in the traditional watch industry, but his success is self-evident.
I think the bad news is that at least part of the future of TAG Heuer will be the release of watches, which traditional fans of the brand will not accept. In fact, many TAG Heuer fans are TAG Heuer fans, they are keen to buy watches, which reminds them that the brand not only has a rich product history, but also participates in activities such as racing. The problem is that the young millennial population that TAG Heuer seeks to attract doesn’t know (and don’t care) who Steve McQueen is or what TAG Heuer was doing in the 1960s.
TAG Heuer may not completely abandon their mature fan base, but if they are to become a brand that attracts young watch buyers again, they must adopt a completely different strategy. This means that TAG Heuer needs to be very “now”, focusing on social media generation, fashion, music and modern sports events. I have to agree that this strategy is much better in business than they used to do, which at the time was not big enough for people who wanted to buy replica watches priced around $1,000.
One of the things that will happen to TAG Heuer is to deploy a strategy I call “Hublot-Lite”. This means that the focus is on extensive marketing plans and products that are bold and accessible to young (or young idea) watch lovers. In a sense, this is actually accepting the support of Hublot Big Bang watches and all iterative versions, and providing more accessible versions in TAG Heuer-dear friends, this is TAG Heuer (TAG Heuer) Carrera Calibre Heuer 01 full content, opinions.
Let us discuss the TAG Heuer Calibre Heuer 01 movement. What you need to understand is that, structurally speaking, it is more or less an existing internally produced TAG Heuer TAG Heuer 1887 automatic chronograph movement. However, it has undergone skeletalization and given some new colors (such as eye-catching red cylindrical gears), and has become Heuer01. It will not replace 1887, but only in the 2015 TAG Heuer (TAG Heuer) Calibre Heuer 01 watch.
I have to admit that I hope that Heuer 01 will maintain a closer connection with the still-made TAG Heuer CH 80 movement-but we will have to wait for the future. Renaming a movement from a new garment in 1887 in essence does feel a bit like “marketing.” I get it, but it doesn’t feel satisfactory. However, the result is an impressive and highly wear-resistant concept that offers many things that people like the Hublot Big Bang skeleton version at a very small price. Therefore, I think TAG Heuer (TAG Heuer) Carrera Calibre Heuer 01 will sell well.
Let’s not forget that TAG Heuer is also coming soon, such as smart watches equipped with Android and the (only) 14,900 Swiss franc tourbillon in the Carrera series, using the same case as the Carrera Calibre Heuer 01. Mr. Biver has a lot of exciting things in the plan to provide reasonably priced and interesting watch works, which will definitely arouse his attention to the brand. A large part of it is marketing, but it is marketed in a Biver way. Even if you don’t like this result, it is interesting to see its development.
The picture of the TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre Heuer 01 watch (black, stainless steel and red case) does not look as good as the wrist. The eye-catching Big Bang style hollowed out dial and hands are cool in appearance, and the overall design is full of fun and excitement, just like TAG Heuer (TAG Heuer) has been around for a while. Around 2015, the magic of mechanical watches was in mechanical movements, and savvy companies knew how to show such movements to enthusiasts.
I will admit that if the price of this watch is 10,000 US dollars, I will not spend a long time talking about it, nor will the TAG Heuer Carrera movement Heuer 01 watch be included in our Baselworld 2015 (Baselworld 2015) ten In the big watch. The relatively low price, coupled with what Mr. Biver did at TAG Heuer, makes me feel that this is so important. Mr. Biver will not ignore the upcoming world of mainstream smart watches, nor will he go all out. Mr. Biver learned that the youngest luxury watch buyers want all this.
They want to use modern technology, but this is still a lifestyle indicator. They want to buy cheap traditional watches at affordable prices. They want brands to participate in things related to them, but they don’t want brands to tell them how to obtain them but to provide opportunities for choice. It is entirely possible for me to learn more about Jean-Claude Biver’s work on TAG Heuer, but after meeting with him, I saw the new products of TAG Heuer 2015 and explored their upcoming partners and event plans. It all seemed to be quite Be clear to me.