JEROME LAMBERT SPEAKS WITH LE TEMPS

Wednesday, 18 March 2026

Suisse Romande (think the west third of Switzerland that speaks French) daily newspaper Le Temps published on March 15 an interview with Jérôme Lambert: The interview is in French and unfortunately behind a paywall and a translation with Google Translate or other equivalent services allows getting the gist of it.

No spectacular announcement just a few weeks ahead of Watches and Wonders obviously, but it’s still interesting to see what Lambert has to say about year after his return at the helm of a house he knows intimately.

Two interesting tidbits for me. First: the manufacture seems to be doing well, with everyone working full-time in 2026 once again after some periods in 2024 and 2025 were the company had to reduce the working hours of some of its employees (and their remuneration as a result) to adapt to the reduced demand: This practice is legal (‘Reduction d’Horaire de Travail’ is the official name of the rule) and used in industrial sectors where activity can be cyclical but firing and re-hiring later on qualified workers would pose immense issues in terms of acquired knowledge and time wasted integrating the new recruits: We also learn that the manufacture employs just short of 1,000 people, which combined with those working in marketing and support functions in Meyrin on the Richemont campus is equivalent to the peak of 1,300 employees measured about 15 years ago.

The other interesting part of the interview is that according to Lambert, the correct segmentation of the market is no longer by geography, age or gender but by “affinity”.

If it is a question of analysing the clientele by gender and by generation, it does not seem very new?

This reading is no longer relevant. The culture of affinity is a transversal phenomenon. These are no longer sociological categories or geographical origins, but ways of experiencing watchmaking and maintaining a relationship with the watch.

(…) For a long time, watches were mostly designed according to Western aesthetic references. After the 2008 financial crisis and the fall of Lehman Brothers, market momentum gradually shifted to Asia, resulting in a more marked interest in classic models. Today, we are observing a new evolution, which could be described as "re-urbanisation" of watchmaking: a more knowledgeable, more urban clientele, and particularly attentive to the notions of wear, style and identity..

Lambert goes on to explain that the market is not as homogenous as it used to be and is now much more fragmented, comparing it to a kaleidoscope. Evoking the US market as an example, he no longer sees the territory as a monolithic market but rather as a “multitude of sub-markets”. The good this is that he’s cautious enough to know that the Manufacture can’t pursue every opportunity in the market, and name-checks the successful Reverso Tribute Monoface “Or déco” as an example of the Maison taking creative approach to one of its most classic and respected canvas.

NEXT: The Master Control Chronomètre Collection