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HODINKEE Podcasts
The Business of Watches [023] Raymond Weil CEO Elie Bernheim (Plus: Ben Clymer On The New RRCHF)
00:43:36
Raymond Weil turns 50 this year, and the head of the Geneva-based, independent family-owned brand tells us how it started and how it's going. But first, Ben drops in to talk chronographs and the new Rexhep Rexhepi RRCHF.
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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to the business of watches, the Hodiki podcast where horology meets high finance. We go behind the scenes to talk to the business leaders making things tick. This week we stay in Geneva to visit the headquarters of family owned independent brand Raymond weill. It's the 50th anniversary of the company this year and Raymond Weil is launching new models powered by historic calibers, showing off some gems from its past and opening a new boutique in the old town in Geneva to celebrate. Chief Executive officer Ellie Bernheim tells us how the company has stayed relevant with accessible priced Swiss made watches since 1976. But first, a very special guest. I'm joined by Ben Clymer, the founder and executive chairman of Hodinkee. We are going to talk about a very special watch that launched this week that's likely to shift the market for high end Swiss made chronographs. Ben, welcome. How are you today, sir?
- [01:11]
B
I'm doing very well, Andy. It's a real treat to be here as always.
- [01:14]
A
Excellent. So obviously what we're talking about is the watch that landed with a big splash on the weekend, the Rechepi chronograph flyback, the rrchf. I got a chance to see it and talk to the watchmaker about it and you wrote a fantastic in depth piece about Rechep at Krivia and the new watch. What does this piece signal, do you think, and what does it mean for independent watchmaking? Ben?
- [01:41]
B
Yeah, first of all, you know, thank you for having me and thank you for the question. I think if I may say that the most kind of salient point or the most kind of important point that I made in those 6,000 words of kind of blabber about this watch is that this sends an incredibly strong signal to everyone else in the market. By everyone else, I don't mean necessarily Patek Philippe and Lange and Baffron or whatever, but I'm talking about the Simon Brett's, the Caravouti line ins, the Du Fours, the Roger Smiths, the group of foursies, the debitunes, the who you know, insert any hot brand here, right. And I think what, what Red Chip has been able to do is, is build, as I said in the story, a in house integrated chronograph that, that happens to be quite beautiful. There's technically very little innovation from, you know, from the functionality standpoint right there. There's no patents on this watch as far as I know. But that doesn't matter. He constructed and executed and I believe the first of this completely in house made chronograph in a matter of effectively three years. And that is just remarkable when you look back at how long the likes of Vacheron and AP and Patek even were using these Ebash chronographs. And granted, there was no precedent for going in house back then, so it's a little bit of apples to oranges. But I think the message that Recep is sending to everyone else is like, this is really laying down the flag. Or that was some sort of mixed analogy there. This is really drawing a line in the sand, I should say forever. Everyone else to say, hey, I'm going to do this stuff and you guys got to keep up. And on top of that, you know, look, you know, I think the, the pricing question, which I somewhat unfairly said, hey, it's a lot of money in USD that has nothing to do with redshift, right? Like, that's USD conversion. That's our friend Donald Trump adding 15% on everything. That comes in 150,000 bucks. And not too long ago, CHF was basically one to one to USD 150,000 bucks for this watch with the amount of handwork that goes in is just incredible. So, you know, really an incredibly strong showing from obviously, you know, one of, one of my favorites, one of the favorites of the collective, you know, collector world out there.
- [03:47]
A
I mean, indeed. And Recharp told us that, you know, he wants to make the best watch for the best possible price. And obviously we've seen some of his pieces, you know, go for over a million francs at auction. And indeed, I think, you know, price was part of the equation here. Finally, in the, in the, in the piece that you did, which was so well received and had such excellent comments on the site. I mean, you put the RRCHF up against the Lange 1815 and the Patek Philippe 5172G. You know, talk about why you did that and how you think it ends up comparing.
- [04:30]
B
Yeah, look, I think everything I do in Hodinkee, to be honest with you, is selfish. Right. Like, I think about the world from my point of view, and even in the early days of Hodinkee, I started for me, not for everyone else, contrary to what people probably believe. But the two chronographs that define high end chronography, if that's a word, chronography, are Patek and Lange. Right? There are other wonderful chronographs out there. There's a Debuffune that's very nice. There's a group of Forza Cary made that masterpiece many Years ago there are some spectacular kind of hand wound chronographs out there. But for me, probably the long I've owned the longest was an 1815 flyback. And now I have a 5170P. Those are the defining classical chronographs. And I think what Retchev did here is he didn't make any weird variant. This is a split. This is not a central minute. This is not a, you know, kind of crazy thing that a devitude or a Gruboforzi did. This is a classical chronograph. And I think it only makes sense for it to be compared against the other two classical chronographs, which by that I mean hand wound without a date. Right. That's why we didn't do the data graph and you know, kind of lateral clutch and kind of the traditional sense chronograph. And to me, you know, it's 1463, it's 4178 from Bachelor back in the day, you know, it only made sense to compare him to those two. And I think it's a credit to both Patek and Lange and Repchev that they would be in the same group. And you know, some, some years ago I was recording a video before the SIHH or Watches and Wonders, rather with, with Wilhelm Schmidt who's you know, quite, quite an astute watch collector himself and was wearing the Wreck chap. He said, you know, that's a watch I'd like to have, you know, and I think that that shows so much respect for an independent watchmaker. And to be clear, like it's not often you get the CEO of Lange saying, you know, I think Wreckshep is doing great things and vice. But I think it only made sense to compare three classical chronographs in, you know, sub. Well, I guess the 5172 is now above 40 millimeters, but you know, in between that 40 and 41 millimeter size. And it just made sense to me. Does it make sense in the grand scheme of things? I don't know. But you know, again, the beauty of Hodinkee is I can write whatever I want.
- [06:31]
A
Well, that's great, Ben, thanks so much for that and thanks for the great article. Let's leave it there. We'll see you at Watches and Wonders in just a few days.
- [06:39]
B
Can't wait. See you soon.
- [06:40]
A
And here's our interview with Ellie Bernheim, the CEO of Raymond Weil. Elie Bernheim, the chief executive officer of Raymond Weill. I'm Here at your headquarters in Geneva today, you've been kind enough to welcome us here on the occasion of your 50th anniversary of the brand. Thank you very much for joining us on the business of watches.
- [07:12]
C
Thank you, Andy, for coming to us. And we are all very happy to welcoming you for this special interaction, I would say.
- [07:21]
A
Well, thank you again. And so, you know, we're here. Raymond Vile is 50 years old this year. Let's talk about the history of the brand and how it started and you know, how you ended up in this CEO role. It started back in 1976.
- [07:41]
C
Yes, it started in 1976, the, in the middle of the quartz crisis when my grandfather took the, the decision to create, to found his own watch company under his own name. Not an easy decision knowing that he was at that time 50 years old. Wow. So.
- [08:07]
A
So he was 50 years. Raymond VI was 50 years old when he started the brand.
- [08:11]
C
His entrepreneurship, his motivation was that important high that he, yeah, he took the, he took the risk at the end of the day to create his own company and to, and to develop it.
- [08:26]
A
And what was his history with the watchmaking industry? You know, was he a watchmaker?
- [08:34]
C
He was absolutely not a watchmaker. He, he worked for, for many years for another brand, Cami Watch. He was the brand director of this brand and for some reasons he quit his job and he took the decision to create his own company from scratch.
- [08:55]
A
And we think of Raymond Weill, I mean, it exists in the approachably priced space for Swiss watches, but it's quite unusual in that it's an independent family owned brand. I mean, talk about the Bernheim family and Raymond Weill and how this company is structured and how it came to be like this.
- [09:20]
C
Yeah, I represent today the third generation at the head of the company since 2014, so 12 years already. So as we just mentioned, my grandfather was the founder. My father joined him in 1992 as the second generation. But was it a true second generation or not? I don't know because at the end of the day they worked together for so many years until 1996 when my father became the CEO and I joined my father in 2006. He came one day to me and said, okay, do you expect one day to work closely with me or it's not part of your plan? And I said, no, man, you have no idea. Id it's part of my DNA, my blood. I mean, I felt that I grew up with the watch industry, with the watches and so on. So it was for me obvious that at some point I would join the family business with pride. And I said yes, but at some point I need to make my personal experiences in parallel. So if you are open to that idea, let me give me like sort of why car to develop other things. But you can, you can be sure that I will, I will join you for sure. He was pleased. And then we managed to work together in a sort of special way to the point where I fully joined him. I hope for the best, but I'm happy about this chance and at the same time it's a responsibility. But I like that very much. And yes, you're right. I mean, we are celebrating this year the 50th anniversary of our family independent company. It's something I would say special to remain independent and family operated. But I enjoyed that every day very much.
- [11:34]
A
Absolutely. And you know, has it we think of Raymond Weil, as I say, as, you know, approachably priced Swiss made watches with considered design, sort of distinct design that we see in various retailers around the world. Has it always been in that price point? I mean, has anything, you know, radically changed with the focus over the years?
- [11:57]
C
Neither my father nor myself have ever changed that. I would say goal or missions. That was my grandfather's idea to offer refined timepieces at accessible price. So since the day one until today, it's always something I keep in my mind developing the best timepieces ever at accessible or competitive price. Swiss made, as you just mentioned, very important for me, for my team, obviously, and so on. Yeah.
- [12:34]
A
Yes. And this is your 50th anniversary. Talk about how you are, you know, celebrating and marking that occasion. What kind of, you know, pieces are you doing? What kind of events and things are you doing to mark this occasion?
- [12:50]
C
I mean, working for a family company like Amobel is working with the idea that the human being is at the center of any interaction or connection of or success of our brand. Which means that for us it's a big milestone this year. But it's milestone as well for our suppliers that have been very loyal and partner with us for years and years, our distributors, our retailers. So I think that it's a big celebration not just for the company itself, but for all the different, I would say, parties that are around the company.
- [13:33]
A
Yeah, I mean, you know, watches are, you know, no watchmaker really makes everything in their watches.
- [13:40]
C
And that's the reality of our situation. I mean, we know that we can develop only the best watches thanks to the very good suppliers partners we have. I mean, from A to Z. I mean, we are well known for designing and engineering the best watches. But it's not a secret that we are outsourcing every single component of our watch until the final assembling part of them. So we need and we count on them. So it's a celebration for everyone that we started a few weeks ago with a legacy tour that we initiated to Asia with the first stop in Hong Kong, the second stop in Tokyo a few days ago. And just last week I went to Ivory coast for a third stop. And it's only the. The beginning of this legacy tour this year. The occasion for me to. To meet with everyone, partners, distributors, retailers, watch enthusiasts, the media as well. So yes, and it's also for us the, the opportunity and for me to particularly to introduce the special limited edition that we. We. We did create for.
- [15:08]
A
It's called the 50. It's a chronograph.
- [15:10]
C
It's very original. The 50 for the 50s, but I like that name very much. Yeah. So it's a chronograph Valjoux 23.6.
- [15:20]
A
It's a historical movement, it's an action.
- [15:22]
C
That was the idea behind this development to look after the past, but to foresee the future as well. And for me it was the perfect combination to find and to manage to get 50 movement from the. The 70s.
- [15:41]
A
How did you do that?
- [15:42]
C
Late 70s? Thanks to the. The very good relationship that we. We have with some key Swiss movement suppliers. I mean and makes a lot of sense for me to. To get them because the. The last production year was for. For them 1976. So you know, for creation of our company and, and rest. Customizing them was for me interesting in the sense that we managed to develop this chronograph timepiece in a millezime collection, which is for us one of the most important launch we had over the last past years.
- [16:29]
A
And for those who don't know, I mean the Millesim is sort of classic design, certainly, you know, a throwback to eras of the past and certainly a extremely interesting interesting watch for enthusiasts and people like Hodinkee readers. Talk about what the mill. You know, you've done the 50 within the millesime, you know, case and, and design. Talk about the Millesim and what it's meant for the brand lately if, if
- [16:58]
C
not our bestseller collection. But we, we launched that collection three, three years ago with great success. We won the Ghost Awards thanks to this collection. And I think that we. We managed to penetrate some as world and to particularly Asian markets without mentioning European markets as well. So it was for me a way to enlarge I would say our market shares across the world and this collection was that successful that we, we feel that it, it should be the, the piece that we, we. We pick for the 50th anniversary timepiece. Again thinking about the past with the movement, but foreseeing the future with a successful collection of the current range. Middle easing was obviously for me the right pick.
- [17:52]
A
Yes. And also in addition to the 50 launch, as you say, you're doing this tour with these heritage pieces for those who may not know or be able to call to mind the history of Raymond Weill pieces. I mean these are. I looked at the first and it's quite reminiscent of your Toccata, which is a new piece. So talk about the design history and what kind of watches that Raymond Weil has made over the last 50 years.
- [18:25]
C
I think that we have been well known for, I would say the elegance, the classical look of our watches. And it was not an easy job for the team and for myself to select 50 timepieces that that would represent the best the last 50 years of creation. I mean you can imagine that we have produced large quantities of models collections over the 50 years. So the idea to only pick 50 was not so easy. But we, we managed to select few of them with in mind the idea that they were our best seller for sure.
- [19:10]
A
Okay.
- [19:11]
C
No matter if they were today a bit old fashioned at some point or not anymore. The, the taste, the current taste. But we, we did select them because of that. And the second I would say axis of reflection was the thinking was the fact that some of those model vintage pieces from the late 70s or early 80s are for me an important source of inspiration for the future. And that was for me the again, the. I mean yes, we are very proud of the last 50 years, but I would like to consider now the next at least 25 years, which is my generation with a lot of inspiration from the heritage of our creation pieces.
- [20:00]
A
So this year is all about what you're doing this year. But looking forward, should we expect then as I said, that Toccata piece that you debuted last year, that very thin, round, rounded, sort of elliptical dress watch was certainly reminiscent of that piece I saw from 1976. So should we expect new models and new designs but taking inspiration from that heritage going forward?
- [20:28]
C
That for sure. That for sure. And within few hours, few days we will be launching a new model that belongs to the Tokata collection for which we took a big inspiration from an old model of, of REM wild from the the late 70s. So I think that it's our privilege. You know, having 50 years of creation allowed me. Yeah. To take inspiration from them.
- [20:59]
A
Definitely, definitely now. Yeah, we talked a bit about it about you know, sort of establish sort of process and, and working with suppliers. We're here at the headquarters here now, am I right to think, you know,
- [21:12]
C
how many
- [21:14]
A
have here in Geneva and are all the watches then assembled here? Is that the way it works? And I think you do about 80,000 watches per year, is that right?
- [21:27]
C
It's the unofficial number but it's not so far away from the official number. Yes, we are more or less producing 80,000 timepiece per year. Happy about that level of production again and happy to say that we have in total more than 120 employees. And you just mentioned the assembling division. There are something like 10 people here working on our models and.
- [22:03]
A
Yeah, and it's interesting to me. I mean obviously the trend that we've seen in the industry over the past decade certainly is for brands to move up in price, produce less watches. You know, why has Raymond Vild, you know, remained a producer of approachably priced watches and you know, still chasing that mainstream consumer?
- [22:29]
C
I'm very clear with that. I mean I think that we know who we are, we know what, what is the brand legitimacy or credibility in the different market. We know we can sell the best watches or timepieces. That again a price point which is in between 1,000 and let's say 5,000 Swiss franc at the really maximum. And I strongly believe in inconsistency coherence in terms of strategy. And I don't think that the end consumer can follow or can embrace a brand strategy that goes up one day, goes down the other day depending on the the economy situation of the world. Political. I think that we need to have a certain direction and vision and we need to strictly follow that.
- [23:26]
A
Absolutely, absolutely. But it's not easy, especially with the sort of economic upheaval and uncertainty that we've seen across the markets. What's your outlook for watch demand in the short and medium term? And in your price point, how do you think the watch consumer the interest is in pieces like Raymond Weill and how is that going to look over the next six months, year do you think?
- [24:01]
C
I think that more than ever before I think that the end consumers are over well informed and they're really looking for value for money timepieces and I think that when you think about removal, no one can predom better that offering very, very good value for, for a certain amount of, of money. So I think that at the end of the day I, I'm optimistic but, but cautious. We need to be cautious as a family company. I mean I need to operate the, the level of investment with a big care. I mean every single dollar or Swiss FR well allocated. So at the end of the day we, we, we need to protect the, the sustainability of our business and, and to make sure that by developing or launching models we will, we will definitely meet the end consumers we, we have in mind. So at the end of the day, yeah, I'm confident that the market will, will be resilient. We are also looking for, for new emerging markets to develop our brand. I just mentioned to you the Ivory Coast.
- [25:23]
A
Yeah, that's interesting talk about Africa. Yeah. And as a market and what, you know, because I don't hear a lot of watchmakers talking about
- [25:33]
C
to be, to be, to be transparent with you. I don't hear so much watchmakers looking after the African market. And I think that it's a, because at the end of the day I think that we all know that those markets will emerge pretty soon. So it's never too late. But I think it's now that we need to invest as a family company into those specific market to one day to take the benefit of this early introduction of our brand over there. And I think that it can be very, very interesting for the watch industry to look after them for sure.
- [26:21]
A
That's interesting. No, I mean it's certainly unusual. And when I think of emerging markets, obviously the ones that we hear more about are China has at times been the biggest market still a developing economy and India, you know, tell us about, you know, what Raymond Weil's presence is in China, in India, in those, you know, other emerging markets in Asia.
- [26:47]
C
I do remember that when I joined the company in 2006, every single person I could meet asked about the BRICs, Brazil, Brazil, Russia, India and China. And we are 20 years later, Brazil is not so much an easy market for, for the watch industry. Russia, no words. India is really moving up. I think that at least for, for one while it's, it's becoming a, an important market and since the very beginning, but I would say like the last 10 years proved us that the, it's a high potential market for, for the watch industry and particularly for, for China. We missed the train. We missed the train 20, 25 years ago was one of our biggest regrets into the family. But we have at the time we had not at that time the financial means to support the brand growth or brand development in China. Because it was very expensive. Big market means big investment that we had not. And we took the decision in family because I was part of this strategy to to allocate our investment more into our key markets to protect our market shares instead of scattering our resources into too many different things. And in China for maybe no returns. And then the COVID happened and we all know that what happened in Asia and to particularly in. In China with the big, big slowdown that at the end of the day did not affect us because we had almost nothing there. So when we. We said, I'm still saying that, that we. We are having and cross my fingers but having very positive years. No matter what is happening in this industry or. And in the last three, four years it was the. The reality of our business. One of the main reason was the fact that we lost nothing in Asia, lost nothing in China and at the opposite we managed to open slowly but surely one door after another door, one retailer after another retailer. So it's more for me a growing market when for some other more months it's a, it's a full downturn.
- [29:30]
A
Right.
- [29:30]
C
So that's the, the situation. So I mean if there is no market in China right now and not so big anymore, we need to look after other potential market in, in this world. And, and we all know that talking about the Chinese, they are heavily investing in Africa as some other people obviously. But, but that means that at some point, not just because of the Chinese, but because of the global investment in Africa right now. I think that at the end of the day being there, it's a good thing.
- [30:09]
A
Absolutely. No, it sounds like certainly a viable strategy to put that foothold there as the economies emerge. And should we think that, you know, just let us know quickly. I mean, is the US your biggest market? What are your biggest markets?
- [30:25]
C
The US market is by far our. Our biggest market. It's more or less 30% of our global turnover. We have a subsidiary company based in New York. No, it's for sure a key market for the brand since the day one. So when we think about the last 50 years, one of the first distributors that knocked the door to my grandfather was the US distributor and, and they worked very hard, closely for many years until we took over the distribution ourselves to make sure that we would have a full alignment of strategy. I think it was very important for us to have a good control on our number one market. For obvious reasons I would say.
- [31:17]
A
But yeah, for sure, for sure. And then how should we think about the rest of your markets? Japan is a Big market for you as well.
- [31:24]
C
The second biggest market is the UK Historically Japan. No, I think the Japanese is becoming one of the key market of our brand. But I would say that until 2020 and the COVID our distribution was very very limited and thanks to some good collections because at the end of the day we can have the best strategy in the world. Marketing speaking. I think the. That it's only the product that played the number one factor of success. And I think that since we launched a collection that appeal the Japanese and consumers we are doing extremely well. Milesim. We talk about milesim before. I think that was probably the best collection for this market as well as the Takata heritage. So those two collections create an opportunity. Did create an opportunity for the brand in Japan and we have now something like over 60 point of sales here which is not nothing. So it's becoming a. Yes, for sure. A key market of the brand. The Indian market we. We just talk about is for sure another one. I mean we. We are when you produce 80000 pieces per year, let you imagine that we have for sure an exclusive distribution. But a distribution which is really worldwide. For sure.
- [33:01]
A
Yes. And also how challenging and difficult has it been to remain independent and stay. You know, this family owned independent Swiss
- [33:13]
C
brand here to remain a family, independent company is not so busy every day in the sense that we. We cannot be supported by anyone else than ourselves. Which means that every single decision that we are taking should be I would say carefully analyzed taken in the sense to protect I would say the sustainability of our business. Which means that we cannot open boutique after boutique with just the idea of creating a brand image. Very aspirational. No, we need to make sure that the P and L of our flagship boutique or whatever will be profitable. Which mean that at the end of the day we are taking into consideration a lot of different factors. You will say everyone does the same. Yes and no. We are only supporting ourselves. And. And I think that it's not that easy to particularly when we know that the watch industry went through a lot of different situation trends into particularly over the last 20 years.
- [34:26]
A
Sure.
- [34:27]
C
We had the subprime then we have the covey, we have the smartwatches. That's where for everyone the coming destruction of our watch industry, Swisswatch industry. And now we have the tariff, we have the strong Swiss frame. So we are facing a lot of different external factors and we just need to be at some point very agile, flexible, resilient to move through all those different. Yeah. Counter wind in order to move on. Yes.
- [35:09]
A
Absolutely, yeah. And you know, you brought it up. How difficult and much of a headwind is the strength of the Swiss Franc at the moment? I mean, is that your biggest challenge?
- [35:23]
C
I think it's our biggest challenge. We discussed quite a lot with some other watch CEO last year about the tariff. Tariff. We have no control on that. It's, it could change from one day to the other. We need just to, to make sure that we can be very agile with that. But the Swiss Franc has been difficult for us over the last years but is becoming more and more challenged for, for our. And I don't see that this situation can change. It's just getting worse. So it's not just difficult for the brand but for all the different actors of our chain of distribution and for brands like Raymond Valle. We are still working with distributors, retailers and they still need to make some margin and if we want to, to keep the consistency of an aggressive pricing in the market, I mean leaving enough margin for our different partners to, to survive to, to develop the business with this strong Swiss Frank is. It's, it's a change, it's a, it's, it's for me the real number one change nowadays.
- [36:53]
A
And would you add your voice to the executives that we've heard in the industry that the Swiss national and Bay should be doing more to, to, to, to control.
- [37:05]
C
I wish they could do more. I wish they could do more because at, at the end of the day the situation, I mean is really problematic and I think that, I mean just if you realize that the law against Swiss Frankl was like something like 20% of more than 20% in the last two years, I mean it's a huge impact, huge. So at the end of the day and just talking about the, without mentioning all the other currencies. So at the end of the day, I mean if we want to protect the industrial know how and so on, we need to find a way to ease that a little bit. Yes, yes.
- [37:46]
A
And last thing, I mean would I be right to think, I guess, you know, under your leadership and what we've seen over the past few years, I mean you've identified sort of that shift in consumer, that the watch consumer is much more educated, understands or knows more about watches than they used to. And so, you know, there's been a bit of a shift in terms of making the case for the quality, the design and the, you know, the Swiss independence of Raymond Weill. And that's been, you know, sort of the key part of the key for your success in the Past few years.
- [38:24]
C
Well, you said absolutely everything in your question. I think that that's the reality of this world. I think that one of the reasons of the the shift that you just mentioned was the. Again I come back to that specific period of time which was the COVID But when we were facing the different situation of markets opening and closing, I got really afraid at the scale of this situation to particularly because we were too much focusing our energy into a specific market with specific collection dedicated to this market and thinking about the fact that we were claiming that we were a worldwide brand. That was not that true anymore at that time. And I thought that it was really the time to make a big shift, not only in terms of strategy by looking after other market, but if we were looking after the other market, we had to change our product strategy to adjust it to adapt the product to specific and consumer expectations. And to mine at the end of the day, to my personal one, because, you know, it takes time to change a product range or a DNA of a brand. And that's the chance of being a CEO of a family company, a new generation, because you can make some big changes to make sure that it will match your personal taste. So without changing everything, just within evolution, we managed to keep some key collection like Freelancer. But I also had the opportunity to bring my personal taste and appreciation of watches by launching the Millennium Collection. But also the Toccatai Haiti, which is for me again a very classical, elegant timepiece that reflects perfectly the value of our company. Sometimes inspired by past models, but also sometimes also looking for models that are really my personal taste and product that I want to sell at the end of the day to our watch enthusiastic across the world.
- [41:03]
A
Exactly. And so tell us what we can expect for the rest of the year from you know, what you can. Without giving away any secrets, you know, what should we expect to see from Raymond Viall for this year? Obviously you've got this heritage collection tour, the 50 to mark the 50th anniversary.
- [41:23]
C
Well, this is the anniversary development for sure. The Legacy tour is one thing, the limited edition on Midasim is another thing. But at the end of the day, we are developing a full new range of models for this 2026 year, starting with Virtual Wonder very soon. And we used to have too many collections in the past last we all thought that we had to reduce the number of collection to really focus on only key bestsellers, key collections. So from seven collection we reduced to three. But we came to the conclusion that three was a bit too, too short. So we will be launching at Witches and Wonder or right after Watchers and Wonder, a fourth collection to to complete what we feel the full good range of imovail this year and for the future.
- [42:28]
A
Excellent. Well, we certainly look forward to that. Ellie Bernheim, the CEO of Raymond Vile, congratulations on your 50th anniversary. Thank you so much for joining us.
- [42:41]
C
Thank you. Andy, thank you for the time you spend with me. Thank you very much.
- [42:49]
A
And that's the business of watches for this episode. We hope you enjoyed. Please head on over to Hodinky.com where you can join the discussion and leave any comments or questions about this episode or the business of watches in general. Who knows, we might even answer your question on a future episode. Thanks for listening and see you next time.
- [43:12]
C
Sam.