# Hublot at Harvard: Swiss Day At Harvard University



## Michael Weare

Hublot's target audience may be bling-laden rappers, boy racers and freshly minted sportsmen, but for one afternoon in December last year, the brand was mixing it up with the world's academic elite at Harvard. For many, Harvard remains the intellectual capital of the world. This belief is supported by the fact that 53 Nobel laureates - 8 US presidents - 32 heads of states - and countless successful alumni including entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, have passed through its doors.

With a US$33 billion endowment, Harvard is the best funded educational institution in the world. Because of its stature and means, Harvard is able to capture a disproportionate share among the world's best professors and students.

This also makes its campus among the most sought after 'podiums' in the world. Recent speakers have included Kofi Anan, Ben Benanke and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. Among the guest speakers at the first ever 'Swiss Day at Harvard' was Hublot Chairman Jean-Claude Biver. During the course of an afternoon, a packed audience was whisked through a tour of those aspects of Switzerland's social, economic and democratic systems that have contributed to the country's success.

*Professor Nancy Hoffmann*, who advises the OECD on a 17 country wide study on vocational training, explained how the Swiss apprenticeship program has helped overcome the malaise of youth unemployment prevalent in western countries and helped Switzerland avoid the debilitating effects of inequality.









*James Breiding*, author of 'best selling' book _'Swiss Made - the untold story behind Switzerland's success'_ and a fellow from Harvard, walked the audience through the Swiss path from a poor, backward country to its current position as the most competitive country in the world, while pointing out to the surprise of many that Lincoln's famous quote: ' A government for the people, of the people and by the people' is a better description of Swiss, rather than American democracy.

*Dr Rolf Furter*, head of global product development of Syngenta, showed how his company battles world hunger and water shortage. As farmers have over time chosen superior yielding specimens, the genetic variability of species has declined so improvement potential arising from selection have diminished. Syngenta is undertaking to increase the variability in order to rejuvenate potential for further yields. The incentive for farmers to use Syngenta products are considerable, pointing out that returns on investment in the magnitude of 150% are available, superior to most any alternative within a farmer's opportunity set.









Then it was the turn of *Jean-Claude Biver*, perhaps the Swiss watch industry's most skilful marketing man and certainly one of the architects of the global resurgence of the Swiss made watch. Biver talked about the rescue and renaissance of the Swiss watch industry, drawing on his remarkable record of turning around Blancpain, Omega, and Hublot - with the same team and management principals. In the case of Hublot, the company had revenue of CHF 20 million when he took it over in 2004 and now sells 35'000 watches for CHF 440 million.









With Hublot, Biver deliberately targeted markets hitherto ignored by Swiss watch competitors. Hublot targets football and rapper fans who are buying a luxury watch for the first time and do not wish to buy the same watch as their father or grandfather. As with his success drawing on Cindy Crawford with Blancpain's success, Hublot now has music icon 'Jay-Z' as one of its global ambassadors.

The audience was amused and intrigued by his story of how watches have evolved from communicating information to the user to communicating to others information about the user. Biver believes the threat of iwatches is exaggerated because what they communicate is insufficient. On the contrary, it will expand potential by getting people to use watches who will later switch to watches that have more powerful statements.









Finally, it was the turn of *Hansjoerg Wyss,* who grew up on top of a bakery in Bern. He has become the wealthiest self-made man in Switzerland and is the largest donor in the history of Harvard, eclipsing legendary benefactors such as Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie.

Wyss argued that not for profit initiatives need to be run with the same rigor as industrial operations and this has historically been their demise. His formula is focus on area that can be 'transformative' and then attract allies and leverage his donation in order to magnify impact. His $125 million donation to Harvard for biologically inspired engineering was, for the first time, matched by Harvard for a defined cause. He replicated this formula with 'Campus Biotech' an initiative focusing on the promising but complex field of neurosciences. Here he recruited the support of the Swiss government, and the EPFL in order to extend and lengthen his engagement.

In Basel, Wyss has agreed to cover cash deficits of the Beyeler Foundation, but insisted that its board and management behave as a competitive operating business. Wyss believes that Switzerland risks falling behind in the increasingly competitive area of philanthropy (initiatives like the Red Cross, and the World Wildlife Fund make up 5% of Swiss GDP, and Basel has the highest density of foundations in the world on a per capita basis) unless it offers tax deductions for donations as is prevalent in other countries.

When asked by a student for his advice on whether it was better to pursue a career with a not for profit, or go out and make a lot of money, and then give it away, Wyss said there were plenty of opportunities for either pathway.

Harvard has long and close ties to the Swiss scientific and industrial community as the event showed. Former graduates include Egon Zehnder, Ernesto Bertarelli, Thomas Jordan and Markus Somm, the editor of the Basler Zeitung.

Visit the Hublot website


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## tony20009

As much as Hublot is one of those brands watchies "love to hate," I applaud Jean-Claude Biver for daring to find an audience among folks who mostly aren't the descendents of kings. I'm glad that the desires of that customer based was heard and catered to.

All the best.

Songwriting and poetry are so commonly birthed from underdogs because one can make even the ugliest situations admirable, or more beautiful than the beautiful situations - they are the most graceful media in which the lines of society are distorted.
- Criss Jami


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## edeag3

I really admire Biver's business acumen, but the general opposition to Hublot is that it's not a thinking man's watch. What I mean is that they lack real technical innovation (the Unico doesn't even have a free sprung escapement) and is selling jewelry rather than mechanical art. That being said there's definitely a market for such jewelry and good on him for making great business out of it.


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## tony20009

edeag3 said:


> I really admire Biver's business acumen, but the general opposition to Hublot is that it's not a thinking man's watch. *What I mean is that they lack real technical innovation (the Unico doesn't even have a free sprung escapement) and is selling jewelry rather than mechanical art. *That being said there's definitely a market for such jewelry and good on him for making great business out of it.


This may hit you as a really stupid question, but I do want to learn something from your comment. So, I have some questions:


Why should I care if the "Unico" (or any other movement) has a free sprung escapement? I'll admit the only escapements I have any idea of what they look like are the Breguet-style lever escapement and the Omega co-axial one. I'm aware of what a constant force escapement is.
Hublot seem to offer quite a few different movements and several of them appear neither more nor less mechanically artful than many others I've seen. What makes these be jewelry rather than "mechanical art?"

Watch Movements & Complications - Swiss Luxury Watches | Hublot - The pics below are from Hublot's website. There are quite a few more. The few I looked at in detail say they use a "Swiss lever escapement." I truly don't understand what's wrong or "jewelry-esque" about that. Help?

All the best.

For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.
- Neil deGrasse Tyson


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