Copy of Antoine 2ndt presentation

My proposal for Baume & Mercier is that you shut down production. Immediately and permanently.

But, you will generate more profit. I know it sounds paradoxical. Bear with me, I’ll tell you how it doesn’t have to be.

The global market for secondhand hard luxury goods was valued at 21 billion Euros in 2019 and is growing at 8% per year. This is faster than the luxury industry overall.

And luxury watches counted for 75% of that market.

Now that was 2019, and you might think that wouldn’t be the case in this past corona year. But surprisingly, the vintage watch market excelled in 2020. Both Sotheby’s and Christie’s saw their vintage watch marked reach new highs,
and especially on products that had gone out of production.

As you’ve outlined in our brief; you are looking for a new and younger audience for your brand. There’s a fantastic opportunity for you to reach the market of financially independent women, however, when I’ve been talking to my friends about watches, I saw a clear tendency: not even one of them was interested in buying a new watch, even though they are financially in a position to do so. But, many of them were very interested in vintage watches.

The report from Boston Consultant Group supports my hypothesis, they have found that consumers of secondhand hard luxury tend to be younger (mostly millennials and Gen Z)

Here are a few of my friends in the demographic you are looking to engage. This is Frederike, my housemate here in Copenhagen. She has never bought a new watch but she owns a vintage Gucci

This is Mia, she is the Head Buyer at Høyer, and would buy new items in other categories, but never a watch.She told me: “There is something about watches - the have to have a history,”. She now wears a Piaget that she inherited from her grandmother

This is Betty, my business partner. She bought a vintage Cartier Tank for herself at her 30th birthday

Lastly, this is Anna, my housemate in London. She has been wanting a vintage Rolex Daytona from 1984 until Rolex got a tacky reputation in London. Now she is looking for a vintage Cartier

So clearly Antoine, you need to transition into secondhand commerce

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I suggest that when you do transition, you bring a sentimental value to the products and speak about how you make your watches truly last forever

Of course, I not only have your economic benefit in mind when I’m proposing this transition, but I’m also thinking of the best way of tackling the immense challenge we face in fashion; overconsumption and overproduction. And producing something new, however eco-friendly some of the materials may be, just feels wrong. It feels like we are wall street bankers in 2007 and we are still trading with capital that doesn’t exist. I mean, right now we similarly producing with resources that are borrowed. And I know this brief was about creating a new watch for you, but I can’t do that, because we really need to stop.

So instead of looking to other places to find waste, look to what you have already produced and recycle that

And how I see it, Baume et Mercier has that opportunity to make a real (!) change. You are ripe for this transition because:

First of all, you’ve built up an impressive repertoire of beautiful and timeless designs, dating all the way back to 1807

Secondly, you have the unparalleled expertise to improve watches that need a little love. Having the original drawings and parts puts you in a unique position to acquire less valued watches and repair them to a good-as-new standard

Finally, only you can verify and repackage your watches - and that brings another level of value to secondhand items

Thank you for your time and I hope you take my proposal into serious consideration and that we can develop this concept further together