This year will mark the 10th anniversary since Alfio Pennisi became the owner, taking over from the boutique’s eponymous founder. Pennisi is a well-known figure in Bienne, involved in and supporting many local organizations, and, when he is not behind the counter or in his office upstairs where we are sitting for this interview, often seen at the Tissot Arena supporting EHC Bienne, the city’s high performing hockey team.

Pennisi’s life is a concentrate of contemporary Swiss watchmaking history. Growing up in Bienne in an Italian family, working for Cartier and later Ebel in its prime, driving across each canton and city to meet its retailers, he now represents some of the country’s most prestigious watch brands, in the capital of watchmaking.

Can you tell us about your childhood?

I’m the son of an Italian immigrant family that came to Switzerland in the 1950s. I was born and raised in Bienne. I spent my early youth in the Gurzelen neighborhood, 200 meters away from Omega. That’s where I learned to play football, skateboarding, and even had my first girlfriends.

So Omega was part of your life from the very beginning…

My Mom worked there as a quality controller for years. Back then, my sister went to the daycare center provided by Omega, in what is now the canteen, and previously the museum. Behind it, there was a wooden building where displays were stored. Those displays were meant to be shipped around the world to their retailers. They were made in noble materials, like wood. I would collect the leftovers when Omega threw them away, and used them to decorate my room. My room looked like an Omega boutique!

Did you start your career straight into the watch industry?

In a way, but not directly at first. I studied trade, following my Dad’s footsteps. I wanted to be a goldsmith, but my father was not a huge fan of that plan. I started working at Cartier, at Villars-sur-Glane, as Area Manager for Yves Saint-Laurent, a Cartier license back then. I worked across many categories on license products: jewellery, pens, bags. It was a great experience, and I got to study gemmology at the company’s internal school.

Then I joined Ebel, when the brand was in its prime. It was run by Pierre-Alain Blum. A real boss, old fashion. An amazing leader. Ebel was run as a family business, with its pros and cons. Back then, the brand was at the top of the industry. Tennis was huge for us. When Boris Becker would win, we delivered trucks of watches to Germany. Our hospitality was thriving, we invited clients on boats. Things were more free back then, less regulated. And we were devoted to our boss.

Eventually, Ebel got sold several times. First to InvestCorp, then to LVMH and finally to Movado. That last move was too much for me. I wanted to leave, and create my own company.

So what happened next?

Well then I did exactly that! I started to focus on jewellery. Retailers wanted Italian jewellery but there was a lot of complexity around customs, process and administration. My goal was to combine Italian craftsmanship and creativity with Swiss business service standards.

I also created Time Is Luxury in 2003. I became an agent or distributor for Italian watches in Switzerland: Versace, Ferragamo and U-Boat, a brand I still represent. I learned a lot just travelling across the country. Still today, I spend about 30% of my time visiting retailers.

How did that lead to having your own boutique?

Jacques Tissot was a family friend. My mother was a customer of his. I knew him since my childhood, and, in my previous job, I sold Ebel watches to him. Later, he and his wife Marie became jewelry clients of mine. His son and I went to hockey games together.

In 2011, Jacques told me he would be retiring 2 years later. In November 2013, I became the owner, realizing a childhood dream: having my own high-end watch and jewellery boutique in my home town.

But many challenges remained. Brands are sceptical when there is a change of ownership. And to be fair, the store needed a significant refresh by that time. I had to negotiate with the brands one by one to keep them: Omega, Cartier, Breitling. I worked on a 5 year plan for a complete overhaul, which I presented to the brands. They trusted me and I’m proud to say that I delivered exactly as planned, 5 years later.

How would you describe the customer experience at Jacques Tissot today?

Today, clients are very well informed. They compare everything to what they learn online. Brands have invested a lot in training us, but the consumer still knows a lot compared to before. They test us. But with my 30 years of experience, I’m usually able to share things that they can’t find online. Industry insider stories, if you will, that increase their interest and understanding of the product.

Another important characteristic in how we do things is our commitment to objectivity. Speaking the truth, even if it’s not in our immediate commercial interest. Sometimes, customers want to compare with brands we don’t represent, and ask for my opinion. Who am I to criticize a brand that’s been around for 200 years?

What’s it like being an AD in Bienne? Your clientèle is at the heart of the industry…

For sure. Everyone who comes here has someone in their family working in the watch industry. We see this as an advantage. We are dealing with connoisseurs, and that forces us to always maintain a high standard, both in what we sell and the support we offer in after-sales. I’m proud to say that some industry legends have been my clients over the years.

What about employee discounts? Doesn’t that impact your ability to sell here?

The serious brands take those discounts seriously. They are limited in time, and in scope. That still leaves a lot of room for me to offer the model people really want, when they want it. And of course, the jewellery part of my business is important too, and it’s growing.

How have you seen the market evolve lately?

When interest rates were negative, people had too much cash on their hands. As they couldn’t get what they wanted from waitlists, they overpaid. Some started to think they were savvy speculators. But with the market now down 20 to 25%, reality has kicked back, and many of those people regret.

Things are flatter now. Rolex and Audemars offer Certified Pre-Owned, which means there must be potential there. Customers are younger now, they want long lasting luxury products. We must be there to meet that demand.

Financing has become a real thing. I had created a company back in 2006, Swiss Watch Credit, but it was too early. Now, we do about 100 sales a year from our website over instalments. It’s a trend.

Retail will continue to evolve, and we will need to continue to adapt.

To finish, what are your 3 Bienne icons?

The Moonwatch, the Daytona and, not from Bienne but close enough, the Navitimer. Another one that is close to my heart is the Monaco, which was developed by Heuer when the brand was based here in Bienne. I have an original one from 1972.

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2. The first ever Rolex watches were produced here in Bienne, before Rolex moved its HQ and final assembly to Geneva. Everything was done in Jean Aegler’s workshop, on Bienne’s Jura hills. The building is now used for higher education but has preserved the original Rolex signage.

3. The Federation of the Swiss Watchmaking Industry is here. They’re the ones who define “Swiss Made” regulations and share Swiss watch export figures.

4. The Omega and Swatch boutiques are open 7 days a week. This is unique in Switzerland, where basically every store outside of airports and train stations is closed on Sunday.

5. Cool brands that left Bienne over their history include Heuer, Bulova, Mido, Eberhard and Victorinox.

6. Cool brands that moved to Bienne in their recent history include Hamilton, Certina and Doxa.

7. Rolex is the largest employer in the city, with an estimated 3500 employees.

8. The largest publicly available vintage Rolex collection is at the NMB city museum. It consists of 46 watches, as many movements, and memorabilia.

9. There is a full size replica of the Lunar Module outside Omega HQ. It commemorates the brand’s lunar history and how the Speedmaster played a key role in saving the Apollo 13 crew. The replica is accessible 24/7 and lights up from the inside at night.

10. The reason Bienne is bilingual is due to the French-speaking watchmaking population who joined in the second half of the 19th century. The ability to school their children in French was part of the “deal” to attract workers.

11. You can live in a former Rolex, Omega, Heuer or Bulova production site. They’ve all been converted into apartments.

12. The office with a pirate flag hanging outside of it near the lake is the Swatch Group CEO’s, Nick Hayek.

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There are other candidates of course. La Chaux-de-Fonds, especially when coupled with its neighboring town Le Locle, is an obvious contender. The two cities in the Neuchâtel canton are recognized by UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention for their Watchmaking Town Planning. They host legendary brands such as TAG Heuer, Tissot, Minerva (now Montblanc), Ulysse Nardin, Girard-Perregaux and Vulcain to name a few, as well as the renowned Museum of Watchmaking History.

Finally, although not a city but rather an area combining several small towns, the Vallée-de-Joux, where prestigious names such as Breguet, Audemars Piguet, Blancpain and Jaeger-Lecoultre make their watches, is another obvious choice. The air over there is filled with the spirit of horology (and, in the spring, cow dung, a reminder I personally love of the ties between farming and watchmaking) in a way that cannot be found anywhere else. As if time had stopped because everyone is busy crafting it.

And yet… For the 3 reasons below, I am going to explain to you why I still think that if we were to choose just one capital for the Swiss watch industry, well, it may just have to be Bienne.

1. Home of the 3 Most Famous Watch Brands

Ask anyone in the world to mention a watch brand they know. I mean, normal people, not obsessive watch enthusiasts like many of us. While I have no hard data to prove this, I am pretty sure the 3 names that will come out the most often, the most ubiquitous household brands of watches, will be Rolex, Omega and Swatch. Other brands surely have extremely high level recognition, but really, those 3 are on a level of their own.

Omega was founded in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in 1848, but quickly moved to Bienne, in 1880, where the brand has been established ever since. And by established, I mean their entire organization, both corporate and production, with the exception of their movements, made in Villeret. Omega rapidly becoming such a large player at the beginning of the 20th century, it played an essential part in attracting other brands and suppliers of the watch industry to Bienne. The Omega museum, one of the best watch museums out there, is also in Bienne.

Swatch has always been in Bienne, ever since it was founded, officially in 1983. Beyond being probably the most famous watch brand in the world, Swatch played an absolutely critical role in restoring the Swiss watch industry after the “quartz crisis” during which Japanese companies had swallowed its market share. The brand is now hosted in the picturesque “snake” building designed by renowned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, right next to Omega. It also has its own museum, Planet Swatch, and a boutique, designed as a Drive-Thru.

Last but not least, Rolex. You may wonder: didn’t I just write that Rolex’s home is in Geneva? Well, yes, that’s where its headquarters are. But Rolex’s largest production site is right here, in Bienne, where all of its movements have always been manufactured. Rolex is actually the largest employer in the city, with an estimated 3,000 people working on its expanding site. Finally, Bienne is actually where the first Rolex watches were made, about 115 years ago. Oh and one more thing: while Rolex doesn’t have a museum, the largest publicly available Rolex collection is also here in Bienne.

2. Home of the Leading Watch Group

There is usually nothing spectacular about corporate offices of holding entities, and Swatch Group’s rather austere buildings near Lake Bienne are no exception (aside from the pirate flag hanging outside the CEO’s office!). That does not make it any less of a powerhouse: with about $7.5 Bn in revenue, Swatch Group is the number 1 watch group in the world. Founded by Nicolas G. Hayek in 1983 through the merger of the heavily declining SSIH and ASUAG groups, and effectively saving back then the Swiss watch industry, it comprises 17 brands. Among them, Swatch, of course, but also Omega, Longines, Tissot, Rado and Hamilton. The company also owns some of the most strategic players in the watch industry supply chain, including its leading movement manufacturer, ETA.

3. Home of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH)

While the FH offices display a lovely clock over a street parallel to the train station, its facilities are, rightly so, nowhere as impressive as any of the brands listed above. That said, its presence in Bienne is a strong indicator of the city’s strategic importance in the Swiss watchmaking landscape. The FH, which stands for Fédération Horlogère in French, is the industry organization behind the “Swiss Made” label. While the label itself is regulated by the government, the FH acts as an activist and watchguard around it on behalf of its 500 members. The FH also publishes the Swiss Watch Export data that is often quoted in industry reports around the globe.

Still not convinced? Maybe I should add that Bienne is also home to many other beloved brands, including Hermès, Hamilton, Certina, Norqain, Horage and Armin Strom.

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