Jack Heuer Honorary Chairman TAG Heuer

THE TIMES OF MY LIFE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY JACK HEUER HONORARY CHAIRMAN TAG HEUER To Leonarda Contents Foreword by Jean-Christophe Babin Preface Chapter I: 1932 Childhood, Youth and Education − 1957 Chapter II: 1958 Learning the Ropes − 1963 Chapter III: 1964 Working Hard − 1969 Chapter IV: 1970 Building the Brand − 1974 Chapter V: 1975 Tackling the First Problems − 1978 Chapter VI: 1979 Coping with Real Difficulties − 1980 Chapter VII: 1981 Dealing with the Watch Crisis − 1982 Chapter VIII: 1982 Re-starting from Scratch − 2000 Chapter IX: 1982 Heuer becomes TAG Heuer − 2000 Chapter X: 2001 A New Millennium Begins − 2013 Epilogue Foreword When Jack Heuer was completing his autobiography in the summer of 2013, he invited me to write a foreword, saying that he would be very honoured and pleased by such a gesture. As I pick up my pen to introduce this story of an ex- traordinary man who is not only one of the last living legends in Swiss watchmaking but who over the past 12 years has also been my “spiritual father” in the industry, I must state that the honour and pleasure are entirely mine. Jack Heuer is the great-grandson of Edouard Heuer who, in 1860, founded a small watchmaking workshop in Saint-Imier which he named Ed. Heuer & Co. One hundred and fifty-three years later, Jack – now in his 81st year – is retiring as Honorary Chairman of TAG Heuer, one of the most reputable and innovative Swiss manufacturers of luxury watches in the 21st century. Jack has been the last member of the founding family active in the industry. He not only personifies the company but is also its leading ambassador. Above all, he has been the inspiration behind its development of technical and aesthetic masterpieces, thanks to his forward thinking and pioneering spirit, which would be the envy of many a young entrepreneur. During his youth, Jack witnessed the impact of the Second World War on the family chronograph and stopwatch business, which was run at the time by his father and uncle. When the war ended, he understood that there had been a shift in the centre of gravity of world power with the emergence of the United States as a political and economic superpower. In 1957 he graduated as an electrical engineer mastering in production and management from the prestigious FederalI nstitute of Technology in Zurich, fully 7 equipped to examine the family business from a perspective which was more open, rational, systematic and academically rigorous than that of traditional watchmakers. Although Jack had initially set his sights on a career with one of the large US management consultancies, he agreed to join the family company on a trial basis in January 1958. A year later, together with his uncle, he established Heuer’s first foreign subsidiary in New York. Jack was a front-runner in that he was quick to embrace America’s superior expertise in marketing, a science then unknown to Europeans. He also ven- tured into Hollywood to market his company’s “Film-Master” stopwatches. This allowed him to establish contact with several producers and actors in the 1960s. By getting Heuer timepieces on the wrists of many Hollywood stars he became a pioneer in product placement. His greatest coup here was getting a Heuer “Monaco” chronograph on the wrist of Steve McQueen during the filming of “Le Mans” in 1970. In 1961, aged only 28, he became Heuer’s majority shareholder and launched a string of innovative measures to prepare the company for the future. In 1963, influenced by modern architecture and avant-garde design, and committed to elegance and the legibility of dials, Jack created the iconic “Carrera” chronograph which, 50 years later, is acknowledged by watch aficionados and collectors as one of the top ten iconic Swiss timekeeping masterpieces of all time. Jack’s love of motor sports and his obsession with mastering measure- ments of tiny fractions of time prompted him to develop the world’s first portable timing system which could measure 1/1,000ths of a second. This 8 in turn opened the door for him to the unique world of Formula One motor racing, starting in 1971 with Enzo Ferrari and his Scuderia. By persuading Enzo Ferrari to feature a large Heuer logo on the cockpit of his Formula One cars, Jack laid the foundations for the globalisation of the Heuer brand, a move boosted by the dramatic rise in television audiences for Formula One racing in the 1970s. Jack’s know-how in electronics and his unrelenting quest for the ultimate in precision did not prevent him from making parallel innovations in the design and manufacture of traditional mechanical chronographs. In 1967 he pooled resources with a competitor and in March 1969 they unveiled the world’s first self-winding mechanical chronograph. When the watchmaking crisis struck in the mid-1970s, Jack fought fiercely to protect his company. He daringly changed business models in 1979 with the launch of the Heuer “1000” series, the first professional sports watches designed specifically for diving and today named the “Aquaracer” series. Over the following 25 years this series and its variations were to become the backbone of the company and helped turn it into one of the largest Swiss luxury watchmaking companies existing at the beginning of the 21st century. In 1982, a string of unfortunate developments forced Jack to give up control of his company. He recounts the traumatic events of that time with great frankness and honesty. I’m sure he could never have imagined then that within 20 years he would re-enter the industry as Honorary Chairman of TAG Heuer and actively participate in one of the Swiss watch industry’s most remarkable success stories of the past decade. TAG Heuer went on to win no fewer than eight Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix, including the “Golden 9 Hand” in 2012. Behind this success were breakthrough innovations allowing the tiniest fractions of time to be measured and displayed mechanically, innovations largely driven by Jack’s know-how, vision and inspiration. I have mentioned just a few key moments in Jack’s life and I am thrilled that the full fascinating story – which in effect is a history of the Swiss watch industry since the middle of the last century – is now available for a wider readership. Finally, I would like to say that I have worked with Jack for 12 years and often refer to him as my “spiritual father” because of the knowledge, guidance, wisdom, experience and advice that he has generously imparted to me. Without him TAG Heuer would not be the successful and outstanding company that it is today. I am proud that on more than one occasion Jack has said he considers me to be the fifth generation of the Heuer saga. Jack is truly one of the last living legends in Swiss watchmaking. Jean-Christophe Babin President & CEO, TAG Heuer (2000–2013) 10 11 12 P reface The Times of My Life tells the story of my life following a request from TAG Heuer and suggestions to do so from family, friends, journalists and colleagues in the watchmaking industry. When I sat down to write I was con- scious that the finished result might be picked up by a wide range of read- ers and I have tried to satisfy the interests of various constituencies. You may, for example, be a TAG Heuer customer or one of the many dedicated Heuer watch aficionados and collectors. For you this book tells the story of the Heuer company from the middle of the 20th century, in particular the development of its chronographs, the background to the innovations and the unfolding of the brand. I trust my story will impart to you the essence of what our watches stand for. You may, on the other hand, be someone drawn to autobiographies of entrepreneurial leaders to learn about their experiences, the things that make them tick, the background to the decisions they made and – perhaps the most important human factor of all in business – how they handled set- backs. Although I was born into an entrepreneurial family I had to learn on the job and often called on family, colleagues and friends for advice and support along the way. I hope through my stories and anecdotes to pass on a small baton of experience which will be of use to a younger generation of entrepreneurs in the relay race of business life. While writing I also had my fellow players in the Swiss watch industry in mind and have tried to produce a useful reminder and record of the crisis we all went through and the lessons we can collectively learn. 13 Members of my family shared not only the joy of the highs of my professional career, but also the anguish of the lows. With regard to the latter, I hope this book provides some comfort by giving an account of events as I believe they actually happened. My professional life was certainly not one unbroken stream of successes. I made mistakes and took decisions which in retrospect turned out to have been wrong and I have tried to give as hon- est an account of these as I can. I owe debts of gratitude to many people who helped and supported me with the project of writing my autobiography. I am extremely grateful to Jean-Christophe Babin, the President and CEO of TAG Heuer, for suggesting – indeed requesting – that I write this book and for all the encouragement and recognition he has given me, most importantly by inviting me back into the company in 2001 at the ripe age of 68! I also wish to thank Françoise Bezzola and Marie Ansel who look after TAG Heuer’s corporate communications for helping to turn the original idea for my book into a physical reality.

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