Iowe everything to the Swiss watch industry — my livelihood, my passion and the majority of my friends. As someone who’s been around in the luxury watch space for almost a quarter century, I’ve had a unique perspective on the individuals that have quietly played an instrumental role in shaping the industry as we know it today. Amongst them, I count the indomitable doyennes of communications and PR Marine Lemonnier-Brennan of 289 Consulting and Catherine Eberlé-Devaux of Bulgari, the technical genius Carole Forestier-Kasapi who is currently stationed as the movement director of TAG Heuer, and the movement making prodigy that is Valérien Jaquet, founder and owner of Concepto. But one of the individuals that I find myself most impressed with is my friend Pierre Jacques. Over the course of his own quarter century career in watchmaking, Jacques has worn numerous hats. First, along with Brice Lechevalier, he founded GMT magazine, one of the very first glossy luxury watch magazines that preceded my own title, Revolution, by a full five years. Then, he became director of the watch industry’s equivalent to the Academy Awards, the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG). Next, he became manager of the famous Les Ambassadeurs boutique in Geneva, before eventually finding the role he was born for as CEO of De Bethune in 2011.
It was there that he played a significant role in shaping what was the wildly libidinous creativity of genius watchmaker Denis Flageollet into a horological narrative that was comprehensible to the watch buying public. The watch that was born out of their collaboration, the DB28, was the perfect chalice of expression for Flageollet’s aesthetic originality and technical brilliance. It featured all his signature hallmarks from the front-facing proprietary balance wheel and three-dimensional moonphase indicator to mobile lugs and Grade 5 high polished titanium case. More importantly, it was the first step in Jacques’ approach to compartmentalize the brand’s story into two distinct chapters: the first expressing all of Flageollet’s avant-gardism with the DB28,
