Five months into the role, the Swiss watchmaker’s new chief executive explains why price has to be earned, why partnerships are won in the execution and why he sees no reason for pessimism
The Swiss watch industry enters the final quarter of 2026 on firmer ground than a year ago. Exports for the first eight months of the year reached CHF 17.24 billion, up 1.7% on the same period of 2025 and the first positive eight-month result in two years, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH).However, the recovery is uneven, and growth is gathering at the two ends of the market, with watches under CHF 200 and above CHF 3,000 rising faster.
Jean-Marc Pontroué took over as chief executive on 1 May 2026, a year after leaving Panerai, which he ran after senior roles at Roger Dubuis and Montblanc. He has little time for the gloom: “the Swiss watch industry has never been in such a positive shape,” he says. He inherits a brand that expanded rapidly under Georges Kern before the industry-wide slowdown, and which now forms the core of House of Brands, the group led by Kern, in which Swiss private markets firm Partners Group became the largest shareholder in a deal agreed in December 2022, and which also includes the revived Universal Genève and Gallet.
Speaking to hosts Robin Swithinbank and David Sadigh on The Luxury Society Podcast, Pontroué describes the company he found as “a big startup company, in terms of spirit, speed, and entrepreneurship”. “ With about 2,000 staff, 300 stores and operations in 50 countries, he says, Breitling has kept an agility few brands of its size have: an idea backed by numbers can move fast, as boutique openings, internalisation, new products and partnerships have shown.
Pontroué accepts the polarisation of the watch market but rejects the idea that it is peculiar to watches. “It’s true that we have a high polarisation in our industry, like we see in all the others,” he says. “Low-cost airlines in Europe have never been as strong, and at the same time you see a growing number of airlines with first class.” FH data show the same split in watches: in August, exports of watches priced above CHF 3,000 rose 10.2%, while the CHF 500 to 3,000 band slipped 0.9%.
What distinguishes watches, in his view, is geography: “The huge majority of luxury watch exports come from Switzerland. This is unique. You don’t have that in shoes. You don’t have that in glasses. You don’t have that in bags,” he says. He concedes that some suppliers are in challenging position, but exports value have picked up since June. And the industry is not facing the kind of rupture hitting carmakers or telecoms.
“We thought 10 or 20 years ago that digital watches would create a big rupture. In the end, we still see the Swiss watch industry stronger than ever,” he argues.
On pricing, Pontroué is direct. “We are not obliged to increase prices,” he says. “Many brands didn’t change anything, or even decreased the perceived value of what they were doing.” Bain & Company addressed that luxury consumers base has contracted by 5% in 2025, and price hikes out of step with perceived value have alienated shoppers. . Pontroué’s answer starts with restraint. Of the Top Time B01 Chronograph 41 Tribute to Aston Martin DB5, released in July in three limited editions, he says: “We could have produced much more and we could have sold the product 20% higher.”
He intends to widen the range at both ends. At the entry point, Gallet, relaunched by the group, “allows us to have this entry price point product in our assortment, which goes from 2,000 to 4,000”, he says. Above it, “Breitling is going to re-enter that segment, which is four to six, more forcefully,” a band where, he says, “we also have lost customers because they were not able to follow us any more in the higher price segment.” At the top, he cites strong feedback on the perpetual calendar at 30,000.
Pontroué’s view of partnerships is grounded in execution. “Signing a partnership is very easy. Making it work is very complicated,” he says. “A good partnership doesn’t need to be explained. Rule number one.”
The two agreements he inherited, with Aston Martin and the NFL, which named Breitling its first official timepiece partner in August 2025, “are for the long term”, he says. “The partnership is a minimum of five years, and 10 years is even better.” Beyond Formula One, where Breitling became official watch partner of the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team in early 2026, the Aston Martin tie extends to “the hypercar with Valhalla” and “the vintage segment with the DB5”, while in the US, “our 40 stores in America are very much exposed to the NFL.”
He applies the same practical lens to artificial intelligence, focusing on training. “You have a best practice in one of your stores in Japan. How do you make sure the one in Chile is aware of it?” he asks. “We have 300 stores with about 1,500 people working in them. This is one of the biggest challenges we have.”
Pontroué’s optimism is deliberate. “It’s a scandal not to be optimistic when we have the chance to work in this industry,” he says. “We are in the love business. So as long as there are human beings on this planet and there is love, the luxury industry will continue to exist.” He argues that conviction in markets such as India and Mexico, “which are still small markets today, but are growing three times faster than the mature markets”, and in Switzerland itself: “We’re not challenged by any other country so far, because of our history and because of the network of suppliers.”
With thanks to Breitling and Jean-Marc Pontroué for facilitating this conversation.
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Listen to the full interview with Jean-Marc Pontroué on The Luxury Society Podcast on Apple, Spotify and other major podcast platforms.
To discover how Breitling built its current position, read our interview with Georges Kern, who now leads House of Brands, or listen to the podcast episode on Apple, Spotify and other major podcast platforms.
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