During Watches & Wonders we had the opportunity to do an interview with the CEO of Piaget: Benjamin Comar. Every time we talk to someone we try to get to the heart of their personality and how they became passionate about watchmaking, trying to discover their vision and some anecdotes related to the brand.

As Piaget collectors and enthusiasts, it is also an honor to be able to discuss the brand’s future and plans for the years to come. Here’s what the CEO told us.

The interview with the CEO of Piaget: Benjamin Comar

FB: What is your earliest memory related to watchmaking, as Benjamin Comar?

BC: I remember very clearly my first watch was a brand called Kelton. I don’t know if you know the brand. It was French and it had a NATO strap and it was sold in Tobacco Shops at the time. They had a very particular box in plastic and I remember vividly when my mother offered it to me: I was so proud.

This brand then disappeared, but I was very happy. That’s my earliest memory regarding watches, and since then, I never gave up. You get addicted to this amazing world. 

FB: What have you learned in your career that you still bring to your work at Piaget today? From a great experience in Cartier, to 12 years in Chanel. Tell us more about it. They are different brands and I think that each one of us gives you some kind of insight into this world. Is there anything that you’ve learnt?

BC: What I have learnt in those brands is that you must understand the people. Clients are at the center of everything, but you also have to be creative, you have to be different. People often don’t respond to something that they need, rather look for something inspiring and creative.

What I think is that everybody is different and should be different, you cannot have the same recipe from a brand to another. You have to adjust to the DNA of the brand, the culture of the brand and what is the brand about, and that’s very important. 

You cannot have a model that you duplicate anywhere else, that is the key statement of luxury: to be right to the DNA and truly authentic.

FB: I’ve read some of your interviews and your biography, where you say “Piaget is not nostalgic nor avant-garde, but lives perfectly in its time”. How do you think this balance is achieved? I guess it is not an easy task.

BC: It’s a sentence that I stole from Fatti Laleh, our Head of Global Communication at Piaget, it’s “in the know and in the now”. Ours is really a company of its time. 

We were talking about Yves Piaget and his relationship with Italy, in the past he was really the jeweler of the watchmaker: he had the right product, at the right moment, for the right customers. When Asia opened, Piaget was there as well, so that is why I think that there are very futuristic brands, there are those vintage/nostalgic brands. We are trying to say in our period, we’re in our times. I think Piaget means enjoying the moment, it’s about enjoying life. That’s why I’m not looking in the past. I mean obviously the DNA is our past and our future as well, but Piaget is for people that are living in this era of time, it’s a hedonistic brand.

FB: In the industry, many tend to stay in the past and keep proposing re-editions of what has already happened, while some tend to create hyper futuristic pieces. I think there could also need to be a balance between the two.

FB: What is your most important goal for Piaget watchmaking? Do you have one thing that is more important than anything else?

BC: What is important for me is the role of the team, obviously the teamwork. I don’t believe in “Superman” or anything like this, that a man can do anything by himself. I stopped thinking about this a long time ago. 

We are transmitters of the brand: we are working with Piaget now, but this brand was here far before me and will be here far after me, hopefully for the next 150 years. Our role is to enhance the brand equity and to transmit it to the next generations. I think it is about luxury, as I said, being creative but authentic and true to the DNA. That’s my most important goal. 

Also, what we have to keep in mind is the common link with jewelry. We do watches, high jewelry, we create for ladies as well as men. It is a whole universe, and I would like people to understand it and not say: “oh are you a watchmaker or a jeweler?”.

I would like people to understand the spirit as I expressed it. In a company you have so many roles (of course you cannot do everything) but you must try to find a way to make people understand all about the different aspects of the brand.

FB: Talking about the new releases, now there is a Grand Complication in the Piaget Polo collection, a Perpetual Calendar to be exact. How did it come out with this new choice? To put such an important complication on this model. 

BC: We used to do a Perpetual Calendar on the Emperador a long time ago. I like this complication; I think it is very cool and classy. We decided with the team to reintroduce this complication and the best collection that could accommodate it in our time was surely the Polo, which is our main line now.

The market has moved to the “sports chic era”, the Polo had so many executions in the past, that were adapted to the times as I mentioned.  Probably, in the 2000s, we forgot a little bit about sports watches, we worked thoroughly on the Altiplano, classic-style watches in gold, and it was in 2015 that we came back into that sporty style that we had forgotten a bit. 

Now we are really building the Polo collection, we started with the classic ones, we went ahead with the skeleton, which I think was a great move. I really enjoy the craftsmanship behind it and we should also point out that it was done before on the Polo, in the 80s, and I say very freely *laughs*.  We increased the range, the intrinsic value, trying to put more and more of the Piaget spirit in these watches. We see a hardstone dial, obsidian, for the first time on the Polo, we have a new bracelet on the steel one, on which we put great effort to redesign and update to recall a bit the original one (and improve the quality overall). 

On the gold version we have this mix of pink gold and green, which is a combination we used to do for a lot of time, it’s in our culture. I think we put more of our culture in these new releases, I like these executions.

FB: Yes, the new green dial on the gold really reminds of the vintage inspiration, the black tie / Andy Warhol’s.

BC: I’m happy you said that, the style is amazing, and the color is a bit like a chameleon, it changes with different lightings. 

FB: Talking about the younger generation and the new markets in the watch industry. We know that for a quite long period there was Asia dominating all the numbers, with double digit growth each year, for quite some time. Now watch brands have understood that it’s also important to focus on the local markets and create watches for the taste of the locals. How is it for Piaget in this matter?

BC: You’re right. We have to create for everyone but probably some brands have focused more or too much on Asia for a while. It was a booming market but I think there’s two things going on now: there’s a development of the watch and luxury market, not only in Asia, it’s everywhere, even in new countries: Greece and countries you wouldn’t expect, like Australia. For me when I entered to say you never sell or watch in Australia and now it’s crazy.

In Scandinavia as well, I mean, the globalization of luxury is there, so you have to take that into account. The second thing is that I believe that the best sellers are nearly the same everywhere. You need some local adjustments, because some like these stones, some don’t, Etc., but there is more and more of the best seller. The level of information that you can now get yourself, makes globalization itself. 

Now emotional purchases have covered pragmatic purchases, so you’re less buying a TV than before, because I think the world is getting more and more emotional and luxury purchases belong (of course) to the emotional ones. The pandemic sped it up, because you had plenty of time, you wanted to indulge yourself and luxury is about that.

It is the same for watches in general, they are not essential anymore to read time but they represent the feelings they provoke when you wear or see one.

FB: I agree, also during covid we had a lot of time to spend on our phones and on our computers, so we had to feed us a story to keep us entertained. 

BC: Exactly, the other thing is that the level of knowledge of people increased during the pandemic, because people had time to research and to learn more.

FB: What are your plans for the younger generations? You are focusing a lot on the Polo, the Altiplano is also important, you had a very important year with the Ultimate Concept. So do you have any particular ideas for the younger generation? 

BC: We don’t do things for generations, each time I did products and said this is for Asians, this is for Americans, etc, I’ve never succeeded. It was always the reverse of what I expected.

I think the younger generation are getting more and more cultured about brands and are very picky, because they are connected, they are geek, they can inform themselves independently. Authenticity and DNA, is what is all about, if you keep these in mind as much as you can, you will get the generations. I focus on hedonistic people that love Piaget and there’s a lot of young people among them and we are very happy about that.

FB: I’m starting to buy vintage just because of my passion for vintage watches in general, but I immediately understood that with knowledge everything comes easier.

BC: I mean it’s exactly that and the knowledge is going to help us a lot. 

FB: One question that just came to my mind. We’ve seen a lot of collaborations in the watch market, about craftsmanship and independent watchmakers, combined with big brands (these craftsmans make very few watches a year). Do you see something with Piaget, not necessarily related to watches, but maybe through something else?

BC: Collaborations come a lot from fashion, originally. If you do it, you have to do it with the right partner and not only to make the instant buzz. Have you seem our Andy Warhol wall? That was for us a natural collaboration, it was not marketing, it was spontaneous: he liked the watch so much that he bought it for himself. We see a phenomenon for collectors… this customer, who is Italian as well, a big watch collector, lent the timepieces for the exhibition. He and his friends do those things through creativity, trying to have those special orders made. We like it this way, I think it’s very classy and still historic. 

FB: Yes, it doesn’t shout but whisper.

BC: Exactly it’s whispering to people that know..

FB: Warhol’s story is one of the first that got me into Piaget so it’s very important. Also, I have never seen so many variations of dial on the Vintage Inspiration.

BC: You have a lot of great collectors in Italy, because you started earlier than anyone else in the 80s. Italians really started this vintage watch collecting era. 

FB: Many people have hundreds of watches, but you cannot wear them all so it’s also about admiring them.

BC: You have to wind once in a while, that’s a bit of a job there, but it brings satisfaction. Yves Piaget is now coming to the booth, so I will now join him.

FB: Sure, thank you so much for your time.

BC: Thank you too and great watch by the way, you’re a great ambassador sir, enjoy the show!

Per tutti gli aggiornamenti in tempo reale segui il profilo Instagram di IWS.