Zenith CEO Benoit de Clerck Wants A Focus On Authenticity

This interview has been minimally edited for clarity.
 

[Wristcheck] - First of all, for our readers, could you introduce yourself and retrace your background leading up to your current position as CEO of Zenith.

[Benoit de Clerck, CEO of Zenith] - I've been in the watch industry for almost 25 years. I was privileged and lucky to start my career at TAG Heuer before LVMH acquired it, and then I was hired by Richemont to open up their subsidiary in the Middle East. After that I moved to the US to become the president of IWC North America, and then moved to Hong Kong to manage IWC, Roger Dubuis and Baume et Mercier. At that time there was a complete expansion of Asia, and I was developing China very quickly, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and all the countries around there. Then, the group CEO at that time asked me to come to Panerai HQ as the person in charge of sales and the number two of Panerai, so I managed, with the CEO, the brand for about nine years. And then I was open to new challenges. I was, as you say, hungry and I decided to join LVMH as the CEO of Zenith.

So I’ve had a long career in the watch industry, a great career as well. I consider myself privileged, and very grateful for what I've managed to accomplish, for the trust that I got from my previous managers, companies and groups, and I'm very happy at LVMH today as the CEO of Zenith with all the responsibilities that encompasses this role of a CEO.

It’s been just over a year since you took over the role of CEO of Zenith, how has this past year been for you?

It's been exactly 13, 14 months now. The role of a CEO is a very interesting one because you have a lot of touch points. And this is what drove me to take that role. Beyond the brand, I joined a great team and a great group. It's an incredible heritage and an iconic watchmaking brand in the industry. My job and the role of my team is to pursue the beautiful legacy that we have. We've been here for 160 years and our role is to be there for another 160 years. Those decades are going to be driven by innovation, insisting on the authenticity of the brand. And authenticity is very important for me because it's something that's very true to the brand in terms of perception and reality.

I'm flabbergasted by the number of people who tell me: “Ben, I have my Grandfather who has a Zenith!” or  “My cousin has a Zenith!” The brand is known, and there is that emotional link to specific milestones, whether it be a birthday, graduation, or an important moment in life. This is where it's driven. This is what's important and it’s the feeling that I have after 14 months of managing the brand.

What do you think are the key aspects that attracted you to the brand?

Being in the watch industry for so long, Zenith is not a brand where you’re indifferent. I feel a strong connection to the brand because of the story, the history of the brand and the fact that the brand has a lot of authenticity—you see it’s the second time I use the word authenticity—but it's important because it's a true brand. When you look at the way the brand has evolved, it’s unbelievable, they've done a lot of things within the brand, a lot of models—maybe too many—but they've done a lot of developments. We were the first one to create the high-beat automatic chronograph with 36,000 beats per hour, and the brand has beyond 2,400 prizes of chronometry. This is what's relevant as well, that integrated manufacturing prowess and strength is definitely something that attracted me to the brand, that's for sure. I went through the whole manufacture to greet the team, and I discovered new things. There's a lot of heritage and  expertise, and everything is under one roof.

As we are celebrating 160 years, it’s important to note that we have not moved; the company and the factory have stayed there for 160 years. We have not lost any history, all the archives are there, and this is very important. And when you look at a concept, or a new watch, or something that you want to read up on or dig into its history, everything is there; you just have to wipe off the little bit of dust [chuckles] and that’s it, it's there.

So number one is authenticity for sure. Secondly, it's definitely innovation as well because we are using that authenticy and taking what has been there, and what is there, to improve it, to innovate and to make it available to our audience and customers.

What challenges did you face when you stepped into your role?

The first challenge was for me not to judge. So I forced myself for a hundred days to say: “Okay, you know what, I'm gonna absorb it and I will not judge.” And that was very challenging but that has allowed me to listen more than to express myself. That's number one. And the second challenge is to try to understand what has been done in the past and try to funel it, and try to put them into pillars.

This is what I'm doing now with the creative team and the product team, is to define even further the collections. It's a challenge, but it's something very important as well. But the common denominator, what's important, is the vision of the creator, the vision of our founder, Georges Favre-Jacot. There's so much history, there's so many interesting things to say about the brand, there's so much craftsmanship, savoir-faire, and it’s very traditional. He wanted to pursue and have this manufacture integrated to have everything available. The gentleman was very daring and created this manufacture when he was only 22 years old! I mean, I wish I had the guts to do that. And this is very entrepreneurial. This is where I see myself, I was raised as an entrepreneur, I think I'm very entrepreneurial and my management style is very entrepreneurial as well.

The brand is celebrating 160 years since its founding in 1865, what will be the main focus for the brand this year?

My focus is that I know what I don't want to do. That's very important. I do not want to create fireworks and do a big show that will last half an hour, with a beautiful finale of five minutes and then the next day we will forget about it. And this is not what Zenith is all about. Zenith is all about craftsmanship. We have a manufacture, we have a history of 160 years, we're not the only one but it's definitely an important milestone, and because we are in Le Locle there's a lot atavism, authenticity, and everybody knows knows Zenith here. At one point, a few decades ago, Zenith was employing more than 30% of the population of the village. That's history. Our will is to continue and make sure that we can celebrate that healthy growth of 160 years through craftsmanship, authenticity and, of course, innovations in terms of movement and improving what we have. We will use the 160 years to reveal something that has existed, but that we improved. And this can be done only through the expertise of our watchmakers and the savoir-faire that we have at Zenith.

Part of the challenge is that with such a long history, if you want to stay true to yourself, you can’t steer too much away from the true identity of the brand.

This is my everyday challenge. Even when I sleep, I think of that, because there is a very fine line. And you said it, “True to yourself”, and I love that phrase because it comes into my everyday life. We need to remain true to ourselves. And on the management level, we're there, on the product, we are there. Of course, we could go to the complete extreme opposite and it's something that comes up sometimes in the conversation, but we want to remain true to ourselves. It's a real question, but that's how this job keeps me and the creative department team awake, and agreeing to disagreeing as well because we have sometimes different visions. And this is what nourishes us.

How does Zenith keep collectors engaged with the brand?

What's important is the community. The community is made of our collectors, our customers, and journalists as well. I was in Singapore recently and I met a lot of people there and experts in watches. I asked them questions and they asked me questions, and by nourishing the conversation, ideas come up, and this is very interesting to really be able to nourish that flame. Discussion is very important. There are roots which are very important for us; it's the patrimony, the legacy, and the innovation. How do you keep the patrimony? How do you intricate legacy, patrimony, and innovation together? How do you put these three, four, five elements together? We get it by asking, by sharing, by getting feedback, and this is very important.

The second aspect of that is the younger generation, be it Gen Z or younger. These people, these customers, they want something authentic, something real, something that speaks to them. There is a reddit Reddit page about Zenith, but it's not ours, we have nothing to do with it. My team goes through it and this is a good way to connect, because it's not triggered and initiated by the brand, we have no influence on it. Collectors and customers are important for us, and what's important is to be able to develop that emotional connection that they have with Zenith, that we want them to have with Zenith, but that we want to have with them as well. We want all this interconnected. Have we managed? Somehow. Can we do better? Absolutely. 

Zenith has a section that people might not know about which the “Icons” where you find old vintage Zenith watches that the brand services and then puts back on the market, how do you make use of that?

It’s a great program that was introduced before I arrived so the credit goes to my predecessor, Julien, and I think it's a fantastic thing, because first of all, it's all about recyclability. But then it allows us as well to go and look for the pieces we want, to buy it, to refurbish it with our engineers, with our watchmakers, and then put it back in the market as an icon, refurbished by the brand. All that circularity is very important for us. We have hunters who go and look for specific watches in the market within the collector’s community and within the internet community, and it's a very long process. I wish I could do more with it but it's very time consuming. It not something we do to make money, but it's very important for the authenticity of the brand.

In your opinion, what is the brand currently missing to take it to the next level?

You know, sometimes I wish I had an unlimited marketing budget. It's just my dream, but eventually dreams will come true. Why I say that is because the brand has so much potential, number one. The brand is missing probably a little bit of awareness and the story of the brand could be reached in a much broader way. I think this is where we could do more. The brand is so rich and we are only able to share a small portion of the story.

The brand today is doing well. Those who know, know. It's very true for a brand like Zenith. Those who buy Zenith, those who like Zenith, they know that we were the first one to create that chronograph, the El Primero. What we're missing is probably that specific awareness that the brand could do to be able to reach a broader and diverse audience. The brand is definitely very seducing, interesting, authentic. So awareness is definitely one of the important thing that is missing within the brand.

You have more than 25 years of experience in the watch industry, how have you seen the market evolve and what is your take on the current direction of the industry?

The world has changed a lot in the last ten years, and we had important milestones that put us back into reality. I'm convinced today that what people are looking for is authenticity; to be able to get something of very high quality, something with history for sure, because history is a proof and a testimony of authenticity. At Zenith, we've been there for 160 years, uninterrupted. We need to make sure that we are here for the long term. Smartwatches for example, when they started appearing we all believed they would be a threat, that they would reduce completely the existence of watchmaking and so on. As a matter of fact, it did not. People continue to buy watches with authenticity, with mechanical movements and the like. This is a very important thing because the number of smartwatches is growing every day, but the watch industry is growing as well. Demand is much more important for me than supply. I can tell you that in 14 months in my role of CEO, my message to all my team–being in the market, being at the factory level, at the manufacture level–is demand.

I can confirm to you that in 2024 we have sold more watches than we have produced. For me, it's an achievement. It's very important to be able to affirm this because this generates the solidity of the brand; we have put on the wrist of people in 2024 more watches than we have produced. This is a sign of robustness as well for a brand like Zenith. I'm very proud of that, very proud of the team. We could have pushed more numbers but we remained true to ourselves.