Jean-Claude Beaver - in January 2014 he was appointed president of the watch division of the LVMH Group and in this position controls the work of TAG Heuer, Hublot and Zenith.
Jean-Claude Beaver is one of those rare people who have left a noticeable mark on the history of Swiss watchmaking. He was born in Luxembourg on September 20, 1949. At the age of ten, he moved with his parents to Switzerland. Here he studied at the College de Morges, graduated from the Lausanne Business School and the University of Lausanne. After graduating from the Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC) at the University of Lausanne, he moved to Le Brassus. Years of life in the Valley de Joux, which is considered the cradle of precision watch mechanics, decisively influenced his future fate. Jean-Claude Beaver settled on the farm, which in a few years will become the headquarters of the watch company Blancpain. He was given a unique opportunity to take a one-year comprehensive training course at Audemars Piguet in 1975, after which he devoted himself to sales and marketing. During that year, he studied well all aspects of the business and gained deep knowledge in watchmaking. So in him an interest in watches and the art of watchmakers arose. In 1980, Jean-Claude Beaver resigned from Audemars Piguet and became a gold product manager at Omega. From this position, he learned what rules work in a large international corporation is based on. In 1982, feeling nostalgia for the watch culture of the Valle de Joux Valley, Jean-Claude Beaver bought with his friend Jacques Piguet the watch brand Blancpain, which has existed only nominally since 1961.
Armed with the motto “Blancpain quartz watch has not been around since 1735 and never will be,” Jean-Claude Beaver quickly revived production and increased the company's turnover to 50 million Swiss francs. Within a few years, the Blancpain brand competed in the watch market with leading brands. But in 1992, Jean-Claude Beaver decided to sell the Blancpain to SMH (later transformed into the Swatch Group) and joined a management team led by Nicholas G. Hayek. As part of the Swatch Group Management Committee, he began developing the marketing strategy and assortment policy of the Omega brand, from which he had left ten years before. With its amazing revival, the Omega brand owes not only the development of new watches, but also the involvement of celebrities such as Cindy Crawford, Michael Schumacher and Pierce Brosnan, who is also agent 007.
At the end of 2003, Jean-Claude Beaver decided to take one year off on creative leave, but as an active person, he soon changed his mind and took control of a small company founded in 1980: Hublot Geneva. In 2004, as the CEO of the company, he decided to focus on the originality of Hublot and set about developing a new concept called The Art of Synthesis. In fact, Hublot became in 1980 the first watch company to create a watch that combined two completely different materials - gold and rubber. Putting his knowledge and talent in the field of marketing at the service of Hublot, Jean-Claude Beaver was able to achieve much during the year: in April 2005, the launch of the revolutionary Big Bang chronograph began. Presented at BaselWorld 2005, it immediately became a success. Rewards poured from a cornucopia. The key to the rapid growth of Hublot was extraordinary dynamism. Jean-Claude Beaver has become the person to whom the Hublot brand owes its second, if not the first, as it is now, in 2012, birth. In just seven years, the company showed impressive growth thanks to the unlimited energy of its unique owner: in 2008, when the brand was sold to the LVMH group, its turnover amounted to 200 million Swiss francs, although 4 years earlier it did not exceed 25 million francs.
Production growth was the opening on the shores of Lake Geneva, in Nyon, equipped with the latest technology of an industrial building with an area of 6,000 square meters, which took place in November 2009 in the presence of Bernard Arnault, in the release of a new manufactory chronograph with a column wheel UNICO, as well as in the development the most important hourly complications, such as tourbillon, minute repeater with cathedral gong, Antikythera clockwork, Key of Time clockwork, MP-05 LaFerrari model with a record 50-day power reserve. Seeking to keep Hublot at the forefront of technological progress, Jean-Claude Beaver opened a foundry that has been producing the scratch-resistant 18-carat Magic gold alloy, developed in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), from the end of 2011. In the same year, Hublot acquired the Swiss company Profusion, which specializes in the manufacture of carbon fiber parts. And our own department of electroforming is constantly testing new methods of finishing metal surfaces. In 2013, Hublot introduced bright red ceramics for the first time in its industry.
Just as consistently, Jean-Claude Beaver acts in the field of marketing, subordinating his strategy, which can be expressed by the phrase: "Go where there are potential customers." Therefore, Hublot was the first watch brand to be introduced into the football world. In 2008, Hublot became the “Official Timekeeper” of the UEFA European Football Championship. In 2010, she was the first in history to receive the status of “Official Watch” and “Official Timekeeper” of FIFA and the World Cup. And this happened almost immediately after the brand was chosen by the "Official Watch" and the "Official Timekeeper" of Ferrari. The presence of the Hublot brand in these two disciplines ensures global recognition.
Jean-Claude Beaver and Hublot gathered around an exclusive club of envoys, which includes not only athletes. These people work with Hublot on various charitable projects and give the brand status as living legends: the fastest person on the planet Usain Bolt, the football teams Bayern (Munich), Juventus (Turin), Ajax (Amsterdam) and Sen Germain "(Paris), Ayrton Senna family and Ayrton Senna Institute, Monaco Oceanographic Museum, sponsored by Prince Albert II of Monaco, Dwyane Wade and NBA champion Miami Heat, Kobe Bryant and Los Angeles Lakers in basketball, Maria Rish and Dario Cologne in skiing, Depeche Mode and Jay-Z in music. "Because communication is always an interchange. Without giving anything to others, you lose yourself. Hublot is lucky and it feels obligated to share its own success with others."
Under the leadership of Jean-Claude Beaver, Hublot was the first luxury watch manufacturer to open its own television Internet channel (Hublot TV) and continues to seek new, revolutionary ways to interact with the audience interactively. In 2007-2008, the company rapidly expanded its network of single-brand boutiques and official dealers. Today it has 750 outlets and more than 70 single-brand boutiques located at the most prestigious addresses in the world (Geneva, Place Vendôme in Paris, Madison Avenue in New York, Miami, Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, Cannes, Saint-Petersburg Tropez, London, Berlin, Munich, Moscow, Warsaw, Prague, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, the Ginza district in Tokyo, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuala Lumpur, etc.).
Hublot is in constant development, is at the forefront of the technical process, is engaged in fundamental research of new materials, but at the same time remains faithful to traditional craftsmanship and creates watches that bear the stamp of the most talented watchmakers. In this sense, the brand demonstrates the art of combining traditional watchmaking culture and the most advanced technologies, past and future. Indeed, as Jean-Claude Beaver, chairman of the board of Hublot, says: “We do not break with the past. On the contrary, looking to the future, we pay tribute to the past.”
In January 2014, Mr. Beaver was appointed President of the watch division of the LVMH Group and in this position supervises the work of TAG Heuer, Hublot and Zenith.
