New North America IWC President

Hi Michael,

Could you explain what the nature is of you working with Edouard? Has this some influence on what we see here on the forum? Thank you for your answer.

Kind regards,
Paul

Well, I suppose it does have some impact on the forum - as a function of personality or affinity to collectors. In the past, other NA Presidents prior to Mr. d'Attis have been more involved with collectors and supporting forum interests and events through direct interaction.

Congrats to Mr d'Attis on his new responsibilities and welcome Mr D'Arbaumont.

OK....this time I have thought for quite some time whether or not I should respond to the announcement of MF about the new North American IWC officer.
Not living in the US but in Europe, my first reaction is :
who the h.. is Gianfranco d' Attis? Did his name ever show up on the Forum? And if so, what role did he play for the Forum?
And who the h.. is Edouard Maulbon and what might be his significance for this Forum?. Did his name ever show up here? Please inform me.
What I am trying to say is that the fast change of responsible jobs for IWC over the world is done by the company as it is done by most of the multinationals worldwide. But referring to these important business men as possibly significant for the forum is, I guess one bridge too far. It reminds me to a dinner where the president of the USA was sitting next to a person, wearing a top gun IWC pilot watch.
The president asks : " Are you a top gun pilot"?
The man answers, "no sir, unfortunately, I have no license to fly a military aircraft"
The president replies :"I understand, I even was not in the Army,but if you have one, where can I get such watch?"
The man says : "Mr. President, if you like this watch, it is easy. You don't have to be a US pilot, you don'thave to know where this watch was made. You don't have to know its history. There are a few idealists who debate on the pro's and con's of this watch but they are not important for the company, which makes these magnificent timepieces.
The president answers : "I understand completely. And before you ask me to wear such watch at official meetings, the answer is yes, I will roll up my sleeve. Did you say IWC? Is there any dealer in Washington?

Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc)

???

It confused me too. :-)

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the info.

I had the opportunity on a few IWC event talk to Mr Edouard, he is a customer centric person and it was a short period he work in Singapore.

Any idea who is replacing him in SGP?

Personnel at IWC don't seem to be given the chance of warming up their places, and to really know the company, the product they are selling, and establish a relationship with longstanding clients, before they either move to other Richemont concerns, or just leave. Personnel rotation seems to be abnormally high.
Moving from watches to perfumes is not exactly linear, unless sales are sales, and it does not matter what you sell as long as you sell, even if you don't really know much about the product you are selling.
I gave up establishing a "relationship" within IWC because as soon as I thought I had one, the person in question was gone.
The exception is obviously Dr David Seyffer, the knowlegeable curator of the IWC Museum, with whom I have established an excellent relationship, and whose assistance has been invaluable in building my modest IWC collection. I do hope it will go on for a long time.

Dear Antonio,
You said it right but more polite as I did and yes, David Seyffer is for collectors the ideal man, always at service.
Thanks for your post.
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc)

Well Adrian and Antonio, that is the quintessence !

Collectors are interested in information and service and not interested in clouds in the sky, because they are coming and going.

I don't quite understand what is going on here. Quite a simple announcement was followed up with some questions and good answers about the nature of a cooperation. I thought, that is about it, it is quite possible that the new North America IWC President has some positive influence on this forum: no objections or special thoughts here. What a not too interesting story about the President of the United States has to do with this announcement is beyond me, but let me take the blame for this. That a top businessman, making sure new and beautiful watches are selling well, has to know enough about his product seems obvious to me. That he may not know much about watches that sold 20+ years ago may not be a drawback for his business, as long as he sees some similarities and connections between a Mark XI and a Mark XVII. That he may not be able to communicate with specialised collectors of old watches about the intricacies of these watches is not a huge problem. He may be more interested to talk about the new watches, but these collectors may not be that interested, I have the feeling most of the time they are no prospect customers, as they live in the beautiful past instead of the challenging present when it comes to watches. These are quite often two different worlds, and I wonder: what is the problem?

Kind regards,
Paul

I will just quote the dialogue between Q and James Bond on Skyfall.
Q: Age is no guarantee of efficiency.
James Bond: And youth is no guarantee of innovation.

I would respectfully like to wish Gianfranco a farewell and good luck with the career move!

Equally, a warm welcome to Edouard with best wishes and hope to have the chance to meet him soon!

It sounds like a good bit of the restlessness here is stemming from the fact that people are moving around Richemont, and not around IWC, yes?

I only wish the best to Edouard- welcome to North America!
And to Gianfranco, safe travels and good wishes.

Nelson