The ‘wow’ factor behind Jaeger-Lecoultre

For Swiss brand Jaeger-LeCoultre, a store is not just a store, and a watch is not just a watch.

The luxury watch manufacturer reopened its flagship store in Greenbelt 5 last week, and “it’s not a store, it’s a boutique with an experience,” says Maxence Kinget, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s managing director for Southeast Asia and Oceania. “For us it’s very important that there is emotion and discovery, the two key mindsets when we designed the boutique.”

Emerson Yao, managing director of Lucerne, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s distributor in the Philippines, says, “We started representing Jaeger-LeCoultre in the year 2000, but it is not until 2008 when we opened the first boutique at Greenbelt 5 mall. The market very quickly appreciated the brand since they are one of the largest manufacturers of fine and exclusive Swiss movements in Switzerland. They also have a long history of supplying the industry with very high-quality movements.”

Emotions were indeed heightened when Kinget and brothers Emerson and Ivan Yao unveiled the renovated boutique with its stunning wares. Rarely do watches have an overt “wow” factor unless they’re huge or covered in bling, but not so with Jaeger-LeCoultre. As understated and elegant as their watches are, a more discerning glance will make you go, “Wow!” when you take in their designs, which show unbridled exhilaration at the art and craft of fine watchmaking.

On one arm Kinget wears a gold Duometre Quantieme Lunaire, which proudly shows off two movements through windows in the dial: one controlling watch functions while the other displays the phases of the moon. On his other arm is a Geophysic Tourbillon Universal Time, the flying tourbillon of which rotates around the dial once a day, much like the earth goes around the sun. A world map on the dial also displays time in 24 different zones.

“You’re putting the world on your wrist,” Kinget says about this limited-edition piece, which the newly reopened Philippine boutique will carry only one of. But don’t fret: Jaeger-LeCoultre has launched a new Geophysic collection for men with a steel metal bracelet, “which is very good for South Asia because with the humidity and warm weather sometimes you want a stainless-steel bracelet instead of the alligator strap,” Kinget says. 

For ladies there’s a new take on the iconic Rendez-Vous, a round watch with diamonds around the bezel. “The meaning of the name Rendez-Vous means meeting with your love in French,” notes Kinget. “We are coming out this year with a new complication, the moon and the stars, and the idea is you have this little star going around the dial as a reminder of your meeting time.”

This year, they’re also introducing a new complication called Sonatina: in addition to that little star that goes around the dial, the Sonatina musically chimes a prompt at the hour you’re supposed to go to your meeting.

“We carry most of the collection except the high-jewelry pieces,” notes Yao. “The two main collections are currently the Reverso and Master collections — they are the two pillars of the brand and both are very popular,” he says. “The Reverso is the iconic square watch Jaeger-LeCoultre is known for, while Master is the classic round watch where many complications are developed. Recently, the Rendez-Vous collection is very popular with the ladies.”

Though there are boutique-exclusive pieces collaborated on by Jaeger-LeCoultre and Lucerne that aren’t available anywhere else in the world, these limited-edition creations come and go, according to Yao. “Currently there aren’t any; however, we do get allocation when there is a special occasion for the brand to create a Limited Piece.”

But while limited pieces are hard to come by, you can create your own one-of-a-kind watch with Jaeger-LeCoultre’s new bespoke services. “We never had it before but today you have the opportunity to be a designer at Jaeger-LeCoultre,” Kinget says. “Thanks to technology like the iPad and an app, you can create your own Reverso, and can decide which material, size, straps, color of the dial — the whole package you can do yourself.”

There’s also more to discover about the brand’s 184-year heritage through the photographs in the boutique. “Not everybody knows this but the name of the Maison is made of two names,” Kinget relates. “Mr. LeCoultre is the inventor, he created the manufacture, and Mr. Jaeger is the partner who was more towards the elegance in the design. So those two gentlemen developed the company together and that’s the origin of the whole success.”

Behind the display cases, there’s also a cozy space in the back where staff can sit with clients at a desk and give them a closer look at the watches.

Though compact at 40 sqm, the boutique is larger than typical watch stores and thus able to carry more pieces. “They can show a larger variety of styles that other multi-brand stores cannot due to space limitations,” says Yao.

Fortunately, in Manila, Jaeger-LeCoultre has found a significant market of watch collectors and aficionados. Kinget considers Manila one of JLC’s key cities in Southeast Asia.

“There is in the Philippines a very high level of watchmaking knowledge, a very strong appetite for watches and a very strong Maison in the Philippines,” he says. “Jaeger-LeCoultre is considered a reference in fine watchmaking, as well as having a very high level of craftsmanship. Within our manufacture we have developed the biggest collection of movements — 1,200 calibers developed in our history, which is absolutely crazy — and we still produce more than 50 calibers in the collection today. We spend a lot of time trying to make sure there is a very strong connection between respect for our tradition, our heritage, as well as being oriented towards the future.”

While in much of the world Jaeger-LeCoultre’s clients are evenly divided between men and women, Yao says that in the Philippines men buy more JLC watches than women. “Men still make up the majority of our customers, but with Rendez-Vous, we are able to increase our women customers.”

Lucerne has just opened a new store: L’Atelier Lucerne at Shangri-La at the Fort. “And we have a beautiful corner for Jaeger-LeCoultre inside the shop,” Yao says. “So for the time being, we are happy with Jaeger-LeCoultre’s presence in the market. Next year will be the boutique’s 10th anniversary.”

For sure, Jaeger-LeCoultre will have more wow-inducing watches to celebrate that milestone.

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The Jaeger-LeCoultre boutique is located in Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati. Jaeger-LeCoultre watches are also available at Lucerne showrooms and L’Atelier Lucerne.

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