Interviews
The Game Changer: Jean-Marc Pontroué, CEO of Panerai
Interviews
The Game Changer: Jean-Marc Pontroué, CEO of Panerai
Says Panerai CEO Jean-Marc Pontroué of their collaboration, “Mike came to see me in Neuchâtel, and he presented me the worn steel rudder shaft of his boat which had helped him circumnavigate the planet 27 times. He asked me to see if I could somehow reuse the metal to create a watch case. Of course, I thought it was a great idea, but then he paused and explained that he has been exploring the earth for most of his life. And what he has been constantly shocked by is the amount of pollution in even the most remote areas of our planet. It was at that moment I realised the importance of diminishing the constant extraction of virgin material in our industry and the necessity for Panerai to do whatever we could to spread this idea to others.”
Says Pontroué, “My son is from what we call ‘Generation Z’, and when I explained the eSteel project, he replied that the question is not ‘Why did you do it?’ but ‘Why have you not done it before? And why has everyone else not done it?’ That was when I realised that it was time to make this first step for Panerai. On a broader level, I also had to reach out to the rest of the industry to try to convince them to join this effort.”
Changing Perceptions
Pontroué correctly understood that in order to convince his clients, he had to make his recycled eSteel watches some of the most appealing in his line-up. Simultaneously, he also brought on board a new ambassador, Jeremy Jauncey, the founder and CEO of Beautiful Destinations, a company that educates the public on sustainable travel, but also reconciles what is sometimes considered to be the disparate concepts of ecological responsibility and beauty. As to whether Jauncey’s role as an ambassador was part of a sustainability strategy, Pontroué explains, “It’s not really a strategy. Honestly, as a brand, we are not actively searching for ambassadors. So we only create these partnerships when it is meaningful, such as with Mike Horn.
“What I liked about Jeremy was that he was already a proud Panerai owner, and he was displaying his watch to his followers [on social media] of which he has over one million. I also liked that he was focused on ecology and sustainability and showing how travel, which is something we all love, can be done in a way that also offsets your carbon footprint. He was, of course, very sporty and adventurous, but it was his genuine passion for Panerai that got us interested in him. About two years ago, we got to meet him and now he has become an official part of the family. I really liked how as a young man, he discovered travel, and it made him so receptive and genuinely appreciative of all the different cultures in the world. When you meet people up close, you can see all the beauty in the differences we have as human beings, and this I found very uplifting. I liked the way he spoke about Panerai, which was very fresh and very open and natural. He is like Mike Horn in this way but, of course, reaching an all-new generation.”
Are the doors of his manufacture open to his competitors in terms of what Panerai has learned about the recycling process? Pontroué replies, “Recently, I was contacted by a French company called Awake Watches that makes their products out of recycled plastic waste found in the ocean. The two founders of this small brand were excited to hear about eLAB-ID. So I invited them to Neuchâtel to see what we do. In a few days, I have lunch with the leader of one of the biggest brands in our industry. I will explain everything that we do regarding recycling because, at this point, there is nothing to hide and a pressing need to do what we can to participate in the change. Our objective is to have 30 percent of production incorporate recycling in a meaningful way by 2025, which is basically just around the corner. If you look at the fashion industry, they already have the Fashion Pact, with the objectives of helping to stop global warming, restore biodiversity and protect the oceans. This was initiated by François-Henri Pinault of Kering Group and [Frenchpresident] Emmanuel Macron, and it’s a big step in the right direction. I find it brilliant. The participants are all competitors, but they understand that the threat to the planet is far greater than the competition amongst themselves. Our industry must also commit to doing the best to protect and restore what we can on this planet. Panerai was born in the ocean; without the ocean we would not exist. We owe everything to the ocean, and so we must make it one of our core mandates to protect it.”
Investing in Recycling
When I last visited my friend Alessandro Sartori, the creative director of Zegna, he explained that he and Zegna CEO Gildo Zegna have invested significantly on the technology for recycling wool up to four times. He pointed out that the initial cost was significant, but they preferred to be the pioneers rather than the followers and so agreed to accept the financial burden. When I ask Pontroué if this is the same for his recycled watches, he explains, “Yes, using recycled material is far more expensive than using virgin material. I often compare it to when you want to restore a beautiful historic home. At first the contractor will come and tell you it will cost 100 thousand pounds. But then you will realise because of the complexity related to maintaining the integrity of the original structure, it costs much, much more. It’s the same thing with incorporating recycled material into watches. It’s expensive for now because we are paying for the knowledge to learn how to do it correctly, which takes trial and error. You know, in Switzerland, we’ve been making watches for 250 years. Of course, the style of watches has changed. But the materials we use are all basically the same — steel, gold, brass, etc. For a quarter of a millennium, we’ve been solely reliant on extracting new material to make our watches. But the thing is, new material is finite. As we learn to create, for example, recycled cases, this is a totally new approach that has never existed in the 250-year history of Swiss watchmaking. So we have to learn how to do it.
It all comes down to that one fateful day when Horn visited Pontroué at the Panerai manufacture in Neuchâtel. When asked what else he remembers of this fateful visit, Pontroué states, “The steel rudder shaft from the Pangaea had been instrumental in Mike’s circumnavigation of the planet, and he felt it was a shame to discard it. He challenged us to come up with a use for it. I suppose this is the nature of innovation — you don’t plan to be innovative at 9 a.m. on Monday morning. When I was at Roger Dubuis, I had worked on a project with Pirelli that supplies the tyres to all the F1 cars. We made straps from these tyres which had been on cars that had won the Grand Prix at Monaco, for example. It was not so much about recycling but more about creating emotion. But it was the same principle — the idea of wearing tyres that had crossed the finish line first, and wearing a watch made from a piece of metal that had been 27 times around the world.
When asked if he feels that a watch made from recycled material has a palpable feel-good factor to it, Pontroué remarks, “Yes, absolutely. A watch is today something that is there to provide emotion, dreams and pleasure. When people see the eSteel watch with the green dial on Jeremy’s wrist, it makes them smile. When I asked him how it feels to wear it, he said that it fills him with a sense of positivity. Because there is this feel-good factor about wearing a watch that you know is doing something good for the planet. That’s why I wanted to share all the suppliers that are focused on recycling. Because just Panerai alone doesn’t have the critical mass. We need more brands to join to make this a global shift in terms of the way we think and to offer a great array of watches across multiple models and multiple brands that all incorporate recycling. Right now, there has been a focus on straps and packaging, but we need to take the next step and we need to do it together and communicate about it together.”
Evan Kwee, the head of design and hospitality at Pontiac Land Group, recently opened the Patina resort at the Fari Islands, Maldives. Kwee’s objective was to prove that sustainability could be incorporated into a luxury hotel to epitomise the very height of beauty and style. For him, it was about showing the world you don’t have to choose one or the other. For Pontroué, it pleases him that Panerai watches are present at The Rake and Revolution shops for this very reason. He shares, “There is a nice connection to the Patina resort in the Maldives that is the ecology approach. I am a big believer in community and partnerships. Because of our long relationship with you, because of the trust we have for you, because in addition there is a strong focus on sustainability, we feel that your shops will be well positioned to not just retail but also communicate the values of Panerai.”