Philippe Charriol, luxury watchmaker, dies doing what he loved: car racing
- ‘I love action and racing cars’, Frenchman, 77, said in 2006 Post interview. This week he suffered fatal injuries in a car race at France’s Grand Prix course
- Charriol worked for Cartier in Hong Kong in the 1970s and 1980s before founding his own watch brand, and launched a foundation to help young artists
Frenchman Philippe Charriol, founder of the luxury watch and jewellery brand that bears his name, has been killed in a car accident at the Le Castellet racing track in southeast France.
“During a car-racing session that was taking place on the Circuit Paul Ricard … French driver Philippe Charriol was the victim of an accident on the Mistral straight,” circuit director Stephane Clair said on Wednesday.
Despite receiving emergency treatment at the track and being rushed to a hospital in Marseilles, the 77-year-old succumbed to his injuries.
Charriol, originally from Marseilles, had a long association with Hong Kong. Prior to founding his own brand, he lived in the city for 15 years, initially as Cartier’s general manager and brand president for Asia. Seven years after he set up the Charriol brand in 1983, he chose to open its first stand-alone boutique in Hong Kong, well before most major Swiss luxury brands targeted the Asian market in the 2000s.
