Bulgari CEO talks about his love of Asia and the challenges of watchmaking
Jean-Christophe Babin, the man at the helm of one of Italy’s most prominent luxury houses, talks about how hard it is to carve out a unique identity when you only have 40mm of real estate
“I was brought up in a family of lawyers. This influenced me in my career in that I didn’t want to be a lawyer. Instead of studying law, I went to business school, which eventually after many different experiences, led me to Bulgari.
My family loved art and travelling. I went to China back in 1965 and early in my life, this type of exposure developed my curiosity for art, architecture and my passion for travelling. One of the things I did when I was in my 20s was backpack across Asia to various countries such as India, China, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nepal.
In fact, my first impression of Asia was India back in 1980. I visited the city of Jaipur. I was just so amazed at how different it was to Europe in terms of lifestyle, colour and artistic expression. I was also impressed when I came to Hong Kong, with its striking, modern tower. Already in the ’80s, Hong Kong was one of the most cultivated cities in the world. I was so impressed that eventually when I went back home to Europe, I couldn’t wait to return to Asia.
I worked at Tag Heuer for 12 years before I was offered a job at Bulgari. I never planned my career to get to where it is today – it was more of a lucky coincidence. Michael Burke, who was my predecessor at Bulgari, was offered the opportunity to lead Louis Vuitton. I was given the chance to take his place.
I was very happy because I had already been at Tag Heuer for many years and felt it would be a good change. Also, it was a good opportunity to challenge myself and evolve. I would still be able to work with watches, but at the same time discover new and fascinating things such as jewellery, perfumes and hotels.
When you spend many years in the world of watches, you learn to improve your understanding and appreciation for detail. When you talk about a masterpiece which may come in the form of a 40mm watch face, you have to express your identity: how you are different, your competency and your creativity in such a small piece of real estate. The watch is the most challenging piece of luxury because it is not only very small, it needs two hands for movement, and a mechanism to rewind it. This means it is not only about artistic expression, but functionality as well.
