RomainJerome

Romain Jerome Watches New CEO Manuel Emch

I feel like this is watch industry musical chairs. First Yvan Arpa gets ousted by Romain Jerome as their CEO. He then sues them for wrongful termination and wins. In another room, Manuel Emch spends several years putting his heart and soul into building up and refining Swatch Group owned Jaquet Droz, only to later leave. Now Yvan Arapa is busy fighting in karate and not watch makers, and Romain Jerome appoints Manuel Emch as their new CEO. Is history doomed to repeat itself? Will the wild Mr. Arpa be the next unlikely CEO of an ultra conservative Swatch Group brand? Who knows.

Yvan Arpa made Romain Jerome what it is today - hands down. After unwisely letting him go, avant garde watch maker Romain Jerome was without good talent. They perhaps wisely attracted the younger and energetic Manuel Emch to their ranks who has just been announced to lead the company in hopefully more or less the same direction as Yvan Arpa was taking them (which is more or less good a thing). Emch will take his seat at the helm of the unique watch maker on January 1, 2010. It will be a good holiday season for him now that he is no long unemployed. I am curious to see what changes and new products he will bring.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: CEO, Manuel Emch, ManuelEmch, Romain Jerome, RomainJerome, watch

Avant-Garde Watch Maker Romain Jerome Loses Avant-Garde CEO Yvan Arpa

by Ariel Adams (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

He has been everything from controversial to overly confident, but he made watch company Romain Jerome what it is today - successful. Abruptly, the board of directors at Romain Jerome ousted the now former CEO Yvan Arpa a few days ago. Officially it might have been that Yvan Arpa "resigned" but local voices agree on the fact that he was forced out. He, as well as four members of his management team are out - a total purging of previous control. A new CEO and management team has already been assigned. It is unclear why this occurred, expect for the fact that Mr. Arpa has a reputation for being "difficult to control" and highly "characterful" in his management style. Who else could come up with some of the ideas that Yvan had, such as the Romain Jerome Titanic DNA and Moon Dust DNA watch lines.

Prior to Arpa's time at Romain Jerome, the brand was extremely "niche" with a couple of golf themed watches with highly limited marketability. In my opinion. Yvan Arpa came in, shook things up, and eventually caused Romain Jerome to be backed-up with millions of dollars in orders from interested buyers willing to wait long periods of time for their watches to be made. As unwise as the Romain Jerome board's action seem, it is easy to get overly confident once things are good. It is possible for them to survive another decade at least on the ideas and image that Arpa created. They might feel as though he is no longer needed, but without him their ability to innovate may be limited. In the meantime they can imagine new ways to spin the brand. This has happened before with other brands, but once the creative juice is gone, so is the passion, and the character of the watches quickly begins to fade. Although I was not a fan of every Romain Jerome watch, I liked enough of their novel timepiece creations to now lament Mr. Arpa's passing - to hopefully greener pastures. If we are lucky he will be snatched up by another watch brand or start something fresh (the economic "crisis" permitting).

Via WorldTempus (in French).

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Tags: ceo, romain jerome, RomainJerome, yvan arpa, YvanArpa

$300,000 "Day&Night" Watch Doesn't Tell the Time

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

One of the first releases in the DNA of Famous Legends collection by Romain Jerome was the Titanic DNA watch, featuring oxidized steel salvaged from the real Titanic. The collection is rapidly expanding with several different models now available featuring everything from rust to jewels, but perhaps one of the most noteworthy is the "Day&Night" watch. It doesn't tell the time, it just tells you whether it's day or night.

It may seem like a silly idea but it's really just a reflection of the times -- watches are less and less about actually telling the time (we all have cell phones and PDAs for that now) and more about style and luxury. The Day&Night watch sells for $300,000 and the first lot sold out in just 48 hours. Apparently there are a lot of people looking to know whether it's day or whether it's night -- from their watch.

Gallery: DNA of Famous Legends Collection

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Tags: day and night, day and night watch, day night watch, DayAndNight, DayAndNightWatch, daynight, daynight watch, DaynightWatch, romain jerome, RomainJerome, timepeice, timepeices, titanic, watch, watches

Romain Jerome Watches Will Feature Titanic "DNA"

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

Watch company Romain Jerome has taken a page from the book of Krone Pens with their new DNA of Famous Legends collection. As Krone did previously, Romain Jerome is creating products that have a connection to iconic figures in history. Their first model in this series is the Titanic DNA watch. It is partially made of oxidized steel from the Titanic and titanium from the future Titanic II at the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast. The watch uses an automatic La Joux-Perret 8235 movement with a 42-hour power reserve. The hands were inspired by the anchor of the Titanic and the dial's deep black is meant to reference the coal collected from the wreck. The watch is being done is an edition of 2012 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Titanic in 2012 which is when Titanic II will be launched in Belfast. It is available in a case of platinum or white or pink gold with elements of steel and titanium.

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Tags: romain jerome, RomainJerome, timepiece, titanic, watch, wristwatch