CPP-LUXURY.COM has recently interviewed exclusively Viviane de Witt, CEO of luxury watch-maker DeWitt.
How would you define luxury nowadays?
We do not believe that luxury can be sold to millions of people. Luxury means scarcity, making very special productions for connoisseurs and passionate.
Creativity and innovation are an integral part of the DNA of your brand. How do you manage to stay relevant and desirable to your customers?
My husband, Jérôme de Witt, founder of our micro manufacture, has a continuous creativity, many new ideas every day inspired by his passion and knowledge for mechanics.
My main challenge to work conjointly is to oblige him to choose and launch only one new project per year. This means to avoid dispersing himself and therefore to launch many new models at the same time!
How have you been able to maintain exclusivity?
Exclusivity is totally related to scarcity. We produce a very limited number of watches every year and we are only distributed by the best professionals in watchmaking.
What is the profile of your consumer?
Definitely a man’s story with a real passion for mechanics.
What is the inspiration behind the story of each timepiece you create?
Totally and exclusively inventor of mechanical machinery.
To what extent your creations are about emotions and about the surprise factor?
Before deciding to choose a new project among many others, my husband need to see his team who has to be driven by one project only. They all have to be 100% convinced and shout for joy and surprise about it.
To what extent your creations are about emotions and about the surprise factor?
Designs are made very quickly and hundreds of them pile up in files. What takes enormous and incalculable time is fine tuning very complicated mechanisms which are totally innovative.
Which do you still consider as unsurpassed challenges in mechanical watchmaking?
We are very active working on a project which requires years of research and development. We have realized 70% of it. It is always the next challenge which seems unsurpassed, until done and behind us. Then a new idea occurs which is the next unsurpassed challenge. This is why mechanical watchmaking requires total passion and dedication.
What are the most efficient marketing tools for a brand such as yours today?
The real challenge for DeWitt is to be discovered by passionate and connoisseurs for mechanics who can afford their passion. Social media is indeed a very effective tool. Most young and well-off people browse, comment and share their discoveries among their communities.
How would you describe your first participation at SIHH?
We are very satisfied with our first attendance to SIHH. We welcomed our clients in a very elegant space with our own universe. The number of exhibitors is ideal for a small brand like us. This is a key of success.
Basel is too big with too many brands, clients and journalists cannot visit all booths in one day … Journalists had dedicated spaces to work. Impeccable organisation due to Fabienne Lupo.
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