Jean-Claude Biver is one of those rare men who have genuinely left their mark on Swiss watchmaking. Born in Luxembourg on September 20th 1949, his family moved to Switzerland when he was ten years old. He began school at Saint-Prex, obtained his maturité at the
Collège de Morges, and completed his studies at Lausanne University. Having obtained his diploma, he settled in Le Brassus.
Living in the Joux Valley, the cradle of fine watchmaking had an important affect on his life.
He took up residence next to a farm, which in later years became the headquarters of Blancpain.
He was fortunate to be offered a year of “all-rounder“ training at Audemars Piguet, after which
he concentrated on sales and marketing. During that year, he was immersed in all aspects
of the business, and acquired a deep knowledge of the watchmaking art. This is how
he developed his passion for watchmaking and watchmakers.
In 1980 he left Audemars Piguet to take up the challenge of gold product manager at Omega.
In this position, he learnt the rules and constraints of working for a big multinational brand. However, he became more and more nostalgic for the watchmaking culture of the Joux Valley, and in 1982 he bought – together with his friend Jacques Piguet – the Blancpain brand, which had been dormant since 1956.
.Using the slogan « Since 1735 there has never been a quartz Blancpain, and there never
will be », he quickly revived the company and increased the turnover to 50 million Swiss
francs. Within a few years, the brand was competing with the leading names in
watchmaking. However, in 1992, he sold Blancpain to the SSIH group (later to become
the Swatch group) and joined Nicolas G. Hayek’s management team
As a member of the Management Committee of the Swatch Group, he was given the mission
to develop the marketing of the Omega brand, returning to the company after a gap of ten
years. The revival of Omega was stunning, and partly due to the development of new products and the introduction of personalities such as Cindy Crawford, Michael Schumacher and Pierce Brosnan.
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At the end of 2003, he decided to take a sabbatical year off, but soon changed his mind with
the opportunity to get involved with a small but specialized company – Hublot Genève. As
soon as he arrived, he emphasized the brand’s slogan : The Art of Fusion.
In fact, the concept of fusion had been launched by Carlo Crocco in 1980, featuring the
marriage of natural rubber and gold. Since then, other brands have adopted rubber – from Breguet to Swatch, they all offer this material in their collections.
Since June 2004, Jean-Claude Biver has been in the driving seat at Hublot, where he has
held the position of CEO. He leveraged all his experience and marketing know-how for
the benefit of Hublot and within a year – in April 2005 – had launched a revolutionary watch
– the Big Bang. This resulted in rapid growth for Hublot and a spectacular rise in the
company’s turnover.
In terms of awards, at the beginning of 2007, Jean-Claude Biver was named « Best watchmaking manager » and « Best communicator » in a survey of watchmaking
journalists carried out by the magazine Business Montres, and the Big Bang was awarded
the prize of « Best Design » at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2005. At the
end of 2007, he obtained 5th place in the « Entrepreneur of the Year » awards organized
by Handelszeitung, a Swiss economic weekly publication – a classification established by
100 economics journalists, which places him in the top ten of Swiss entrepreneurs. In
November 2008, he was dubbed « CEO of the Year » at the Premier watches, jewellery and pens awards in Bahrain. The Swiss PME Magazine crowned him « Leader of the Year »
for 2008. 2009 began in the same vein for Jean-Claude, who was elected « Man of the Year » by the magazines Orologi da Polso, Revue des montres, GMT and Business Montres. |
