This strategic repositioning is being conducted by Olivier Bernheim, CEO of Raymond Weil, who today is joined in this venture by his two sons, Elie and Pierre. This effort is being carried out on several fronts, including recreating the corporate identity by producing a new advertising image and launching a new campaign. It also involves a major overhaul of the brand’s sales and marketing material. And, most import-antly, the brand is reorganizing and restructuring its product offer. Raymond Weil timepieces will now follow a clear hierarchical structure with precisely defined goals for each collection. The final objective is to “anchor the brand in precious values,” sums up Elie Bernheim.




8100 SR1


New segmentation
“We are the opposite of a niche brand,” explains Olivier Bernheim, “and this identity as a broad-based brand, which we want to be since it is our DNA, requires us today to develop specific products, clearly destined to different types of consumers. Because of this, we have created the foundations for a very precise offer segmentation, divided into three categories – Haute, Main, and Turnover. Each possesses its own style and its own strategy, thus avoiding any internal conflicts.”
Raymond Weil has always been perceived as a ‘rather feminine’ brand, relatively classic, offering fine products. “Nowadays, the feminine clientele is less stable, more volatile, has less brand loyalty, and is less worried about watchmaking legitimacy than their male counterpart,” adds Olivier Bernheim. “We have thus decided to partially re-orient our collections to men by offering them new models, which are essentially mechanical. Over time, our goal is to have 65 percent of our production in men’s timekeepers and 35 percent in ladies’ lines.”




The VME PKB and the FREELANCER 2720-ST


Mechanical electro-shock
The portion of mechanical watches in Raymond Weil’s global offer is therefore going to be much larger than before. In this perspective, which today poses problems for the supply of movements, the brand has largely anticipated its evolution, and has thus ensured that it will have sufficient quantities of movements (mainly ETA automatics and Valjoux) in order to carry out this strategy with the desired intensity. Its quest for a new masculine audience will begin at BaselWorld with the launch of a new sports line that is “virile, modern, and… an electro-shock,” which will effectively fill a void in Raymond Weil’s broad product line-up.
This new line, Raymond Weil Sport, is pos-itioned in the brand’s ‘key target group’, which means at the upper end of the ‘Main’ collection. It is an extremely vigorous collection, with forms carved from steel or steel and carbon fibre, coming exclusively with a metal bracelet that is both solid and very flexible (bracelets have always been one of the brand’s strong points).
Emblematic of this collection is an automatic chronograph that features a 46 mm case, a Valjoux 7753 tri-compax movement, water-resistance to 200 metres, screw-in crown and pushbuttons, screw-in date adjusting crown, anti-reflective sapphire crystal, screw-in case back, safety clasp, and a black dial displaying three counters which are screwed on to the dial. For all of this, there is no competition on the Swiss market, to our knowledge, for this value for money. At 2,700 CHF, it is unbeatable.
In the same collection is a model with three hands, equipped with an ETA 2824/2 automatic movement, and a GMT model, equipped with an ETA 2893/2 calibre.
Another new collection, targeting consumers who are a little less sports-minded, but who are nonetheless attracted to fine, highly contem-porary mechanical watches, is the Freelancer Collection. With its clean, clear, and simple lines, the aptly named Freelancer line should attract a young independent clientele. Made in steel, the Freelancer features a 42 mm case, screw-in case back, sapphire crystal, and an ETA automatic movement. It is available in three men’s versions: three hands; with day/date; visible balance (Movement SW 200); as well as a very charming ladies’ model with a visible balance in the shape of a four-leafed clover.
The third collection to be launched this spring, the RW Sport, is an entry-level line, mounted on a metal bracelet or rubber strap, intended for a younger consumer, and which replaces the Tango Sport, by rejuvenating it.
But if the essential of the new offer targets a masculine clientele, Raymond Weil has not forgotten the ladies, and is proposing a new collection called RW Spirit, destined for the ‘sexy woman in the city’ (a wink at the famous television series). This new line features 12 diamonds on the round bezel, and the watch comes with rubber straps available in white, black, pink or chocolate colours. Finally, the famous Shine Collection will gain two new models, all in line with the heritage of this successful watch.
“To be independent is to be an entrepreneur,” concludes Olivier Bernheim. “We are the only independent Swiss brand, whose founder is still with us. This fierce independence is what allows us to compete with the large groups, allows us to take risks, to react, to be close to the market. These are essential advantages today, not only for our customers, but also for retailers around the world who, you can be sure, appreciate to the highest degree this independence.”


Source: Europa Star April-May 2007 Magazine Issue