How is TAG Heuer doing?
It’s doing very well. It’s high profile;
it has all the big ambassadors, so there’s a lot of
noise. We have two good ambassadors in India.
Shah Rukh Khan is a fantastic ambassador for
us in India. He is such a nice guy too.
Do you follow Indian films in any way? Do you know the stars?
I know Shah Rukh Khan because I sat next
to him at the big event we had in India two
years ago during an elephant polo match.
We talked about his family and his films and
I enjoyed meeting him very much.
Could you take us through some of the
highlights in your career with TAG Heuer? Which achievements are closest to your
heart?
I was privileged to take over the family
company at a very young age after having had
a fantastic education as an electrical engineer
and then having spent four years in America
where I learnt a lot of the marketing techniques
that you don’t learn as an engineer. When I got
back, I became the majority shareholder and
we had 15 years of fantastic growth; we did a
lot of things right.
Which were the years?
From 1962 to 1975 our company grew from
50 people to over 300 people. We were one of
the fastest growing companies in the industry.
We were very innovative; we created eight or
nine world’s firsts, which are well documented.
I can talk about the self-winding chronograph
and then of course in digital technology, as front
of the innovation. We also started lots
of fascinating things in marketing. I had
known a property master in Hollywood, so
we started putting our watches into the
films on the wrist of the actors. The
biggest coup was when we landed that
watch on Steve McQueen’s wrist. |
