Jérôme Lambert on his Comeback as CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre, His Plans and The Collectibles

I have known Jérôme Lambert for longer than I want to admit. The man started his watchmaking career right there, at La Grande Maison, or the Watchmaker of Watchmakers. Lambert has already been CEO of Jaeger-LeCoultre from 2002 to 2013, and he left his mark on the brand. Strong collections, focus on complications and high-end watchmaking, but also global recognition. He then left for Montblanc before becoming the COO and then Group CEO of the Richemont Group. However, Jérôme Lambert is back at JLC and is about to kickstart a new era for the brand. On the occasion of a Parisian event, celebrating the launch of the fourth Collectibles collection, I thought it was time to meet again and ask him what he has in mind for the future of this important watchmaker, one that he probably knows better than anyone else.

Frank Geelen, MONOCHROME – Jérôme, so first, when you were at Jaeger-LeCoultre, it was an interesting period. To me, the brand was very dynamic, and there was a lot of diversification in the entire collection, from very classic to very sporty and very complex. Now that you have come back, after all those years of overlooking Jaeger-LeCoultre as well as the other brands within the group from a different level, what is your first feeling or emotion when you look at the brand and the collections now within Jaeger-LeCoultre?

Jérôme Lambert, Jaeger-LeCoultre – Well, Frank, the first thing that I felt was something very essential, which is: it is a pleasure to be back! I first set foot into watchmaking at Jaeger, as you know. My understanding of luxury and watchmaking, my system of values, my elements of analysis, all of that comes from my first years at Jaeger-LeCoultre. And of course, from the amazing interactions that I had with my predecessors and professionals within the brand. The second thing is that it’s a little bit like a family gathering where you have the pleasure of recognising and discovering the new members of the family, the new things that have evolved, as well as the new talents who have joined the Maison.

The Maison has grown a lot in many aspects, elevating itself from the first ideas and concepts that were developed when I was there. And that makes it very rewarding to come back. When I left in 2013, we had just finished developing the Gyrotourbillon 3, and I am still amazed by what that watch is capable of doing. And later on, see the Gyrotourbillon 5, the Reverso Triptyque, and then the Quadriptyque. Then we started the Atelier de Métiers Rares, and we integrated the jewellery workshop of Alain Kirchhof. The miniature enamelling explored new dimensions, so we launched a new Reverso Tribute. Overall, it’s a nice accomplishment to see development and growth on multiple fronts.

Knowing you for a while now, and knowing how you work, you must have some ideas about what you want to do? Are there specific things that you want to create in the coming years?

I think that Jaeger-LeCoultre has a truly unique blend of style, elegance, history and of course, an amazing technical creativity and mastery. So my first and perhaps only mission is to make sure that we have fusion between these elements. We need to find and keep harmony in a very creative, surprising and innovative way. And honestly, the talents today at the manufacturer are really amazing. It is also a pleasure doing things that I have not done for years. When you have a little bit of distance, you can even more appreciate the point of differentiation. The Maison and its professionals are stronger than ever. You can already see that in the Reverso program of this year, and you will see even more in the years to come. I’m very privileged to join a team that has been growing organically over the years and take the Maison to a new era of expression.

In that respect, what are your priorities and maybe the main challenges to move forward?

Fine watchmaking is evolving very quickly these days, and it’s not surprising. It’s quite typical for the time we live in, so you have to adapt. Which does not mean you have to change the style, but you have to tweak the menu a bit, like a good restaurant has its signature, every chef has their signature, but every season things change a bit. For us, one of the elements on the menu we could adapt is things like smaller watches and movements.

When you are a Maison like Jaeger, it’s important to capture this change, but it’s never a problem because we have them in the catalogue. Ladies’ watches are also very interesting these days. There is more diversity, and the Duoplan program has been super well-received. This shows that the expectation of women towards fine watchmaking is growing in its sophistication. The attention to the design and aesthetic elements is really particular in the ladies’ world. So there are some main trends that are structuring and shaping our industries, which serve as a very strong source of inspiration, or cardinal points.

I am super happy to hear that you mentioned that there’s a move to smaller watches, and also smaller movements. You don’t hear that with every brand. So, for me personally, I am super happy with that.

That is one thing, but the other thing is that a watch is a piece of jewellery, a piece of mechanical and decorative art. This is also true for technical watches. So the level of attention to the refinement of every single thing that makes a watch is growing at the speed of light.

I can see that. It is very interesting, and also higher complications become more available, because, technically, there’s just much more available these days than 20/ 30 years ago. It develops at a faster pace.

True, but nevertheless, count the number of Grand Sonneries on the market. It has not changed in 10 years. So the peak of watchmaking is still the peak. There are some functionalities of fine watchmaking that are more available than before, more accessible than before. But the peak is still the peak, and there are still very few climbers, obviously, willing and able to go that high, that’s for sure. The refinement of a bridge on the tourbillon, yes, there are more people doing it than before. There’s also a growing number of people with aspirations to play in this field, but who actually play in the field is another story.

We are now in Paris for Collectibles. This is the fourth Collectibles collection. How important is this for Jaeger-LeCoultre?

My colleagues who created the program in 2021 had an amazingly good idea. And the concept is expertly put together and still being further developed. What was very organic from the start is that we constantly acquired products for our heritage. And when your history is 192 years old, then you have been exploring a lot of fine watchmaking with a lot of expression during your time. So our team in the heritage department is constantly searching for products, and we are constantly restoring historic pieces. Over the last decade, we have developed an acquisition activity to build or rebuild our collection.

Sometimes you buy larger or interesting products that you restore. And naturally, some of the products which we acquire are super interesting for collectors. On occasion, we have been bidding against others to buy them. And then we had to think of how to bring them back to the collectors in an intelligent way, because we’re speaking about 40 watches a year. And at the same time, we want to reveal a part of our collection that speaks about our history.

And nothing is better than speaking from the time of the Maison than to show what has been the incarnation of that time. Putting it together was a very ambitious plan, extracting the right products that have been important, and presenting them in the right way. It’s a very sophisticated process to select the watches every time, and it has been remarkably impactful, bringing a lot of attention and equity to the Maison. It is a very good way to subtly reveal the depth, richness and wealth of our history. I find it a very strong instrument, because it has a dimension of interaction, which is higher than just a book. With a book, which is also fantastic, the interaction is more limited than when you say: we restore it, you can acquire it, and now it can be part of you, as it is part of us. So, to me, that is what Collectibles brings to Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Before there was that beautiful concept that I still have good memories of: The Watchmaker of Watchmakers. With the box with all the calibres. That showed an incredible depth and rich history. And this is actually maybe version 2.0, bringing it even closer to the people?

There is an experiential dimension that takes on a new shape and size. And what is very interesting, it is a program that speaks not only to lovers of the Maison, but to watch enthusiasts and collectors globally. And then the privilege of a Maison like us is that we, for instance, gave birth to the 101, which is the oldest mechanical movement still in production in the whole Swiss industry.  And it is mentioned in the Guinness World Records book for being the smallest one, but it’s also the oldest one in continuous production, which is remarkable.

Is there something that you or the teams learn from this project?

I think that what we learn is the importance of both Jaeger and Jaeger-LeCoultre. Because if you go back to the Duoplan, you go back to the Jaeger signature, and you go back to the importance of Edmond Jaeger and the workshops that were in France and merged with the rest of the brand in 1934 to form Jaeger-LeCoultre. You have that unique style of sophistication and classicism, which is not typical of classical complication brands of Switzerland.

Jaeger-LeCoultre has its own DNA with all the depths, all the mastery of the strongest and the most renowned Maisons of high-end Swiss watchmaking. But it also has a stylistic signature inherent in the shape of watches, with the Reverso, which is more the line with what you see in the Collectibles. In the tradition of these jewellery watch shape brands that are around, that’s very unique, that blend of these two things together.

There’s a unique elegance in watches born before 1940, for instance. An iconic watch from before 1940 that still has the original expression are watches like the Cartier Santos, the Reverso and so on. It’s a big part of our DNA. The Calatrava is an amazing name, but aesthetically it’s not on the same level. Oyster was born before 1940 as well, but it’s not the same concept. These ones are still so strong from their origin; they’ve been shaping the expression of the Maison, and they remain very true to their original signature.

Since Collectibles is a big step for Jaeger-LeCoultre, but only one step, have you considered a Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) program?

I have had this question a few times already, and it’s very interesting. At Jaeger, we have a rather simple service policy: we restore any watch. We don’t have time restrictions, which is very demanding. No matter the era, if you come to the Manufacture with one of our watches, we will restore it. With that in mind, every time we work on a watch, we also give it a certificate of origin. And because of this, I don’t immediately see the necessity to certify that these watches are from us any further. If a watch has come to be restored, it will already be certified as a Jaeger-LeCoultre watch.

This is already a very powerful communication tool. If you have a pre-owned Reverso, you should see if it is a Reverso or not. And luckily, we see very few fakes. Authentication is important, but very marginal on top of what we do. We can service and restore anything, and attest to a watch’s originality and its restoration. Structuring a pre-owned program is not impossible, and it’s not something we don’t want to do. But to do it more and better than what we do now would require a lot of attention and energy. So we don’t say never, but for the time being, our focus is on having the capacity to do proper restoration work and focus on the products themselves.

There is a great story about an auction in a very small town in France. There was a Jaeger watch announced at 800-1000 euros. A very particular watch from 1920, with a shaped case. It is an Asymetrique, signed Jaeger-LeCoultre on the dial! And it skyrocketed to 55.000 euros. So that shows there is a very dedicated collector’s community, even finding that particular watch at that very small auction house in France. I agree, it sounds like a marketing story, but it is true. This watch speaks from the anchor point of Jaeger working for another brand. But which one was first, this one or the other one? And to me, it first shows the importance of heritage and second, the importance of the Jaeger-LeCoultre name, and preserving and sharing it through the Collectibles.

For more information, please visit Jaeger-LeCoultre.com.