Xavier de Roquemaurel survived a serious heart condition and three retrenchments to find success in luxury watchmaking

This month, Czapek & Cie celebrates Sincere Fine Watches’ platinum jubilee with a 38-piece special mirrored edition of its best-selling Antarctique S. It is one of 12 independent brands the Asian retail giant has hand-picked to collaborate for this momentous occasion, attesting to its growing global prominence.

Once an esteemed watchmaker that crafted bespoke timepieces for European nobles and royalty in the 19th century, the brand had virtually disappeared for over 140 years from either the death or illness of its founder Francois Czapek — until it was officially revived by three Swiss entrepreneurs in 2015 as an ambitious crowd-funding project backed by watch enthusiasts worldwide. And take off it did. 

Within a decade, the house counts several Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve (GPHG) nominations and a win as some of its triumphs. And that’s not including the unexpected sell-out of limited-edition watches even before their release, and having influential personalities making unannounced visits to its Watches & Wonder Geneva booth.

One of the most important men behind Czapek’s steady rise in Swiss horology is its CEO Xavier de Roquemaurel, one of its trio of swashbuckling new-gen pioneers. On a recent trip to Singapore, he speaks to us about how he mounted an inspiring comeback after a third retrenchment in his luxury fashion and beauty marketing career, and beating the odds of being “an outsider” in an industry as conservative as Swiss horology.

Tell us about your serendipitous entry into the world of watches.

I lost my job three times in a row, and that was the perfect time to reset completely. However, I’m also a father of five children and had to network like crazy to find a solution. This opportunity came up when I met Harry Guhl (a Swiss businessman who re-registered Czapek & Cie, and wanted to relaunch the brand with watchmaker Sebastein Follonier), and we clicked immediately. 

As a marketer, it felt like a dream project — a brand with a legacy, a story, and incredible potential. This wasn’t just a business for me; it was a project with a soul, and I knew I wanted to be part of it. 

To me, marketing is the light on the diamond. You want to clean the diamond and to put a beautiful light on it. Marketing should never be visible, pretend it’s the diamond, or that it could change the diamond. The marketing is just the light to serve this dormant company.

How did the founding group resurrect the brand while maintaining its original identity?

First, it’s to respect Francois Czapek and imagine he was seated with us — young, but with 200 years of knowledge. Same style, same personality as before, so that we can take the past and project it into the future. Then we decided to start the assembly with a simple model featuring a seven-day power reserve, the Quai des Bergues, which is inspired by an 1850s pocket watch. 

We didn’t pretend to reinvent watchmaking; we simply presented our version for today. The response was that it’s beautiful and fantastic, and that’s how we won GPHG’s 2016 Public Prize. 

Being a crowd-funded start-up already makes Czapek & Cie different. What did you bring to the table?

Coming in as an outsider gave me a lot of freedom because I wasn’t bound by the traditional ways of doing things. The openness was enjoyable — just by doing whatever that was coming to my mind gave me an advantage. 

I felt that some of the industry guys had blinders on, and they are giving Czapek the chance to do it right. And that’s how our company has become a real player, because we organise our work completely different from the rest. My view is that common sense, street smarts, and intuition form the pinnacle of intelligence, but people tend to disregard them.

Also, at the companies where I came from, it’s important to have that capacity to deal with uncertainty. It’s a fallacy to believe that when the company grows bigger, one could reduce it by a lot. No, you’re going to continue to dance on the string, and be humble enough to make decisions that integrate a high level of uncertainty. Once you’re used to it, you’ll get the balance.

What’s the culture like at Czapek?

Everyone has a very high level of autonomy in job organisation. Every morning, we have a five-minute standing meeting we call “The Morning Life”, as we don’t want to make it serious. Everyone talks about what he or she has done the day before, and the others are there to help resolve issues. So, the idea is that the earlier we know the problems, the better.

And there is no top-down approach; the staff organise themselves. As a result, there is transparency, openness, fluidity, courage, and the highest self-esteem. That’s worked very well for us, and not at all based on yesterday’s principles.

That sounds very unconventional in this industry.

A company should not be like an army. In the past, people were thinking that you need to raise level of controls to achieve a higher level of efficiency and productivity. That’s nonsense — they work better when you let them run. Our staff are free horses; they love to race each other to see who’s fastest getting to the top of the hill. 

We have young people and veterans at the same time, and the veterans transmit knowledge just by doing, not by giving orders. Our youngest watchmaker is 25 years old, but capability is not a question of age; it’s a question of precision. So if you want a very good company, you need a high level of diversity. 

Making watches is something that has no barrier. Unlike cars, watchmaking is not dangerous and anyone can do it. Indeed there are new brands coming out of the blue every year, creating more diversity in the industry. And competition is good — it pushes people forward.

What has Czapek’s journey been like considering its rapid rise?

During the first five years, we were struggling and starving to death. Initially we were making 150 watches, then 300 and 450, per year. And then as demand went up, we nearly died from indigestion — it’s like you have nothing and suddenly it’s completely crazy. 

We always had in mind this magic number of 999 watches annually, and to my surprise, it turned out to be a good number. The reality brought me to my initial business plan, even though we didn’t respect anything in the middle, because you never know where the current in the ocean might take you. 

The recent acceleration was a bit insane, but today the market is so open that the propulsion will be much bigger than 20 years ago. So we decided not to grow too fast. It’s not about growth for growth’s sake; it’s about keeping the freedom and creating beautiful watches that we love.

What does the future hold for Czapek & Cie?

Today, we make about 1,200 watches a year, but nobody’s clear on the future. I think that for the next three to four years, the market will be cooling down. Using the analogy of a wave, I think we were on an extreme peak, and the next few years will be the calm before the next peak. During the trough period, we will stay within 1,000 to 1,500 watches. For the next peak, we’re looking at 2,000 to 3,000 watches.

We were just four persons a decade ago, then eight two and a half years ago, and now there are 28. I can see our culture working for up to 40 staff. Over 40, I will have to learn another way to make Czapek incredible and that is a challenge.

This commemorative watch for Sincere’s platinum jubilee has such a stunning dial with a mirrored finish.

For the first time in watchmaking, we’ve created a mirror made with platinum to achieve the highest level of reflection. Our company is about openness, so we listened to other people to get their views, and this mirror concept was mentioned two years ago. The watch’s yellow gold with steel combination is also a first for us. It’s a big bet for us. No risk, no return.

That’s bold. How much of your personality has been imbued into the company?

I’m very cool now, but I was not that cool previously when the company was really in difficulties. It’s not a one-man show, and I let everyone own their space and I spend a lot of time putting other people in front.

Over two years ago, I had TAAD (thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection), which is a family disease and a huge wake-up call. And it happened when the company was growing quickly. With the disease at the back of my mind, I’ve done the confidential exercise of nominating my replacement, as I’ve always believed that a CEO should always have his successor ready.

Czapek was relaunched as the product of a community of watch lovers. Who are your collectors today?

I don’t think they can be defined easily, as they buy from us and also from other independents, which we call brothers or “confreres” (colleagues in French). I would say that they are more sensitive to the human adventure that our brand represents. To describe them, there’s this term from the mouth of someone else and not our brand: “Czapek & Cie collects rare people.”