The future of Swiss-made watches, with Manuel Emch

Milano Watch Week 2025, a trade and consumer fair that takes place in late September in one of the world capitals of fashion, featured the indies, after a 2024 dedicated to luxury top dogs. The indies are disrupting the market, with their innovative product features, intriguing stories and great value for money. Swiss-made watches come from a cautious year, and a shocking 39% tariff burden inflicted by President Trump on almost all Swiss goods circulating across the US.

We  sit down with Manuel Emch, a veteran and a legend of the watch business, as it’s time to talk about one of the most symbolic and emotional accessories that we purchase for social affirmation and integration purposes, especially if you are a man. This is our exchange.

Tell us a bit about you and your story.

I was born and raised in the watch business. Watchmaking was an important industry for Switzerland, when I was growing up, and it was heavily hit by the quartz crisis. Already at that time, it was evident that the overall industry turned fragile. Longevity is guaranteed only by staying innovative and creative. A Swiss watch used to be a tool, therefore very functional. Now, it’s a full emotional decision.

My father was an architect. My mother has been in watches forever. Already as a kid and as a teen, I was going to museums and started appreciating the arts and beautiful objects. My instinct was to become an automobile designer, but I noticed kind of soon how the designer was rarely the decision maker. I wanted more. I made my economics studies, hoping to land in a place where I could control the creative and the business sides of things. I started off as a consultant for an engineering boutique consultancy, called PIT. It was a good school. It taught me about processes, restructuring, machines and supply chain. I moved into FMCG, with Philip Morris, until compliance and bans came about, handcuffing any opportunity for creativity. Finally, I arrived in the watch world, joining the Swatch group.

How did that go? A creative spirit joining a large corporation…

Yes, I started at Rado but felt right away that it was too structured and stiff. I did not have the flexibility to create something new. Then, I was given a brand called Jaquet Droz. Nobody wanted the project. It was almost like a startup. For me it was extremely interesting to create something from scratch. The brand had a glorious history and deserved a full relaunch. The key was that we had the liberty to try stuff. Business grew spectacularly in just eight years. I enlarged my responsibilities, overseeing 27 markets and opening up the branch in Russia, and joining the Executive Committee. Having too much freedom in shaping the four P-s of the brand started to clash with the group processes. When Mr. Hayek Senior, the co-founder and CEO, passed away, the group moved into a different phase. The culture was not the same, and I was ready for my next adventure.

I spent six years at Romain Jerome, an independent maison, delivering an agenda of innovation and creativity and structuring the offering according to a new brand architecture. It worked. I was starting to have fun with freedom and my disruptive business textbook. This is when I decided to create my own company. Louis Erard came to me naturally. The turnaround of the brand hasn’t been easy, but the medicine of distinctive stories, portfolio curation and a marketing made of collaborations and cross-contamination with the métiers d’art are paying off. One of my latest projects is the launch of my own brand, called kollokium, which is gathering around itself a community of lovers of a different way of making watches. We are exploring new territories and making the industry interesting to New Gen-s as well. I was able to build a network of trust, made of friends, partners, fans and lovers.

What’s going on with the Swiss-made watch industry? Is this one of those markets that will become a niche for a few nostalgic people or for collectors only?

Yes, we need new customers. But trade fairs, like here in Milano, show that there is a fundamental interest in young generations. We need more democratic price points and real value, substance. We don’t create pieces of art. We need to be creative and innovative, for sure. Volumes went down and will continue to decline, until we reach a plateau. The industry will not disappear, if we stress what’s unique: eternity, quality, extraordinary stories. The product has to remain human and highly crafted.

There is a second trend, I would say, which is different vs. the past. There is a humanization of the watch industry. Product comes first. Brands and branding come later today. For sure, the market is still dominated by the big luxury groups, with their global brands. But there will be a major clean up and consolidation. Big players will always be needed, but we will have fewer of them. This will open up space for a plurality of smaller voices. This is the piece that will create new customers and will make them fall in love with watches. Indies have the freedom to tell fresh stories and transmit emotions with their creations. Fewer big ones, indies and micro-brands, with no need to scale and last at all costs, will save this industry.

Trade also needs to change, and it’s not just a digital play, is it?

Yes, DTC alone will not do the work for us. Watches are a touch-and-feel business. Trade will be a world of “and”, with digital building communities and revenues, and physical being proximity and show & tell, therefore more of an investment. Distribution needs to take more risks. It’s also a generational matter. Luxury accessories are being still sold in stores with the same rituals and intimidating touch, owned by an old generation of traders.

Sneakers are probably the best example of product and trade change. Craft, small brands are changing the rules of the game, and concept stores, with a curated portfolio, are becoming the place where New Gen-s are spending time. Gen X and boomers have been the accumulating and branding generations. We talk now to a more conscious and quality driven buyer. We had abundance and brand standardization. Shoppers of tomorrow will want intentional purchases and fully thought through stories, that represent the network of origin and call for identity and sense of community, as much as for affirmation and integration.

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