This week on The Business of Watches, we sit down with the business leader who has headed the reborn Czapek & Cie. brand for more than a decade now. Xavier de Roquemaurel didn’t come from the watch industry when he co-founded Czapek with fellow entrepreneur Harry Guhl, with help from watchmaker Sébastien Follonier, in 2015.
He’s had to learn the industry on the job, and while Czapek burst on the scene by winning the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) Public Prize in its debut year in 2016, the company and de Roquemaurel have faced plenty of challenges along the way. From the novel financing and shareholder model they created to fund the startup, to reckoning with a massive surge of back orders for their popular Antarctique integrated bracelet sports watch model during the boom times of the post-pandemic era, as well as serious health and medical ordeals. Reconsidering all the tests he and the company have faced, de Roquemaurel says he now believes that “adversity gets the best out of you.”
Today, Czapek has just opened a new boutique on the historic Quai des Bergues in Geneva on the same banks of the Rhône River where François Czapek himself had his first atelier in the 1800s. In a wide-ranging interview, the Czapek CEO traces both the path of the reborn brand and how it has found inspiration in the legacy of the watchmaker who opened what is believed to be the first watch boutique on Place de Vendôme in Paris while producing timepieces for Napoleon III and the French Imperial court. Stay tuned to the end for a preview of what complication the brand might take on next.
The Czapek Time Jumper, produced for the brand’s 10th anniversary. Photo Credit: Mark Kauzlarich
There’s plenty of watch business and strategy to discuss, and we hope you enjoy the conversation. Please leave any thoughts or questions in the comments section, and we’ll do our best to respond. Want to subscribe so you never miss an episode? This show is being published to the original Hodinkee Podcasts feed, so you can subscribe wherever you find your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or TuneIn.
Show Notes
1:05 Czapek Quai des Bergues Collection
1:58 Deconstructing the story of François Czapek (The Naked Watchmaker)
4:20 L’Oreal steals French stock market crown from LVMH (Reuters)
5:05 Agustin Almodovar Reflects on His Career as Brother Pedro’s Producer (Variety)
7:01 Czapek Promenade Transparencies “Aqua Blue” (Hodinkee)
7:31 The Fratello x Czapek Promenade Transparencies “Viridan Green” (Hodinkee)
8:43 Watch Time New York
9:22 Czapek Documentary – An Unexpected Renaissance (YouTube)
10:07 Rolex, The Making Of A Status Symbol With Author Pierre-Yves Donzé (Hodinkee)
12:01 Battle of Warsaw 1831 (Wikipedia)
13:48 The Story of the Founding of Patek Philippe (Company website)
18:20 Czapek & Cie (Wikipedia)
23:09 Understanding Crowdfunding (Financial Conduct Authority)
24:50 Prospectus definition (Cornell Law)
35:54 Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm Dissection (UCLA Health) – we Googled it
39:57 Zegna
41:16 FINMA
42:13 Right of first refusal – definition (Harvard Law)
42:20 Tag along and drag along rights definition (Investopedia)
46:19 Czapek Deep Dive (SDC weekly 104)
49:25 Rolex Certified Pre-Owned
52:27 Inhotec SA
54:11 Czapek Watches (website)
