iW: Why is music a theme around which
Raymond Weil develops its watches?
Bernheim: Music has always been at the center of Raymond Weil’s
universe. My grandfather was passionate about music and the arts, as
is my entire family (my mother is a concert pianist and I play the cello).
My grandfather named his first collections after his favorite operas
(Parsifal, Nabucco, Othello to give you three examples).
We decided many years ago to continue to use this true passion as
the main inspiration for marketing communication for the brand glob-
ally. We wanted to expand our music DNA into product design and
thus created our music special editions campaign.
We started the campaign back in 2014, working with artists that
were selected for their musical achievements– doing things slightly dif-
ferent to others, such as 2cellos, Labrinth, Milos Karadaglic.
The following year we partnered with Frank Sinatra, Gibson Brands
and Nicola Benedetti and began truly using music inspiration in our
product development and design. Last year (2016) saw Raymond Weil
collaborate with The Beatles, the most successful band of all time. This
year, we launched partnerships with David Bowie and launched version
two of The Beatles and Gibson Brands due to the success of the first
editions.
Are you a musician?
Yes, I play the cello and piano and also have started learning the elec-
tric guitar as Gibson has been kind enough to send me some of the
most incredible guitars in their collection. My entire family is musically
gifted, including my son and daughter.
Why should a collector consider a watch from
Raymond Weil as opposed to a watch from
another Swiss watch company?
Firstly, the design and manufacturing process of any of our special
edition products takes approximately six to twelve months. We pride
ourselves on how we use our horological know-how to interpret intri-
cate details of all of our music partners into our products. We work
hand-in-hand with our partners to ensure that our products are true
to the DNA of the band, artist of brand.
These subtle design details are the difference between a good
special edition product and a superior special edition. We also pride
ourselves on delivering a substantial product for the best price pos-
sible – again, adhering to the vision of my grandfather.
Lastly, we put an emphasis on the packaging of our spe