JEAN-PASCAL PERRET

Call to Action

IF CONCEIVING, DESIGNING and manufacturing fiendishly difficult-to-make timepieces for devotees of haute horlogerie is a noble occupation - and how could it not be? - then so is spending time and money on ambitious projects to help save the planet. Omega, the Swiss company whose watches have been worn by the likes of President John F. Kennedy, Prince William, Buzz Aldrin and James Bond, manages to carry out both endeavours with great aplomb.

Jean-Pascal Perret, Omega’s Vice President of Communications and Public Relations, explained his company’s mission during a compelling and stirring interview at Alila Villas Soori, one of Bali’s most luxurious hideaways. Omega, he explained, believes that it is just not good enough for successful international corporations to focus only on making profits. The world, including - and perhaps especially - customers, expects big companies to do more in the form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects.

Planet Omega is an ambitious CSR initiative that includes a partnership with the GoodPlanet Foundation and its founder, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, a French environmental activist. In 2012, Omega produced Planet Ocean, an award-winning 90-minute documentary, with Arthus-Bertrand and Michael Pitiot. The film is a devastating call to action, being both depressing and inspiring to watch. It made its debut at the Rio+20 Earth Summit and has been shown to audiences at exclusive Omega-hosted events all around the world, including a special screening at the United Nations in New York. In addition to these viewings, public Planet Ocean exhibitions were set up in four major cities in order to share with a wider audience the beauty of the oceans, the dangers they face and what we can do to save them.

Now, Omega has launched a new phase of its collaboration with GoodPlanet called “Time for the Planet”. This project is of special interest to Indonesians because it concerns two environmental conservation projects in Sulawesi: on Tanakeke Island and in Bahoi. The brand is taking steps to protect the oceans and underwater ecosystems, and to help the people that rely on them most, by funding two three-year projects focused on educating local communities, managing the regions’ natural heritage and creating protected marine areas.

The project on Tanakeke Island in South Sulawesi is based on advancing scientific knowledge and teaching the local population, including the younger generation, how to protect its natural resources. Following the aquaculture boom in the 1990s, Tanakeke lost 70 percent of its mangroves, greatly reducing the local biodiversity. The Bahoi project is centred on respecting biodiversity. It encourages protection of the coastal village’s ecosystems by creating a network of marine protected areas that, in time, will be managed by the communities themselves. To support these two projects, Omega has created the Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M GoodPlanet GMT. A portion of the proceeds from sales of the timepiece will go towards “Time for the Planet”.

Perret is the architect of the Planet Omega initiative, which enjoys the enthusiastic backing of the Swatch Group, of which Omega is a member, and of Omega President Stephen Urquhart. “I think that what we are doing is part of our culture,” says the handsome and personable VP. “Even if there were no pressure on us to exercise corporate social responsibility, Omega would still want to give back in some way - for no other reason than that it’s simply the right thing to do. If you are successful company you have to share something. If you never share, it will turn back on you. Nobody likes greedy people. No one wants to

work for a greedy company. Some might say we could do even more. And I would say to them: ‘Yes, we could always do even more – but at least we do something’.”

You could say timepieces are in Perret’s blood, for he was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the most important centre of the Swiss watchmaking industry, and grew up in a village in the Saint-Imier municipality nearby. “Because of the arrival of quartz watches in the 1970s, it was not a good time for the industry when I was growing up,” he says. “This downturn had a serious economic impact on the area because most people living there were working in the watch industry.” After graduating from university, Perret undertook an internship at Longines. “Then I joined Omega in 1995 and worked there for a while, before going to Australia to study at Bond University. My main objective was to improve my English, but I have to say that the great surfing that’s available on

“I discovered that I loved watches and that the idea of trying to add beauty to something was important.”

the Gold Coast was a big attraction! I had been there for a year when, one day and out of the blue, I received a fax from Omega offering me a job. So I went back to Switzerland. My first assignment was in the finance department, to help put in place an SAP enterprise software system. After completing that task, I moved into marketing. I had thought when I first joined the company that I would love numbers – my father is a banker and I studied finance. But when I got into the marketing department, I discovered that I loved watches and that the idea of trying to add beauty to something was important. I worked in marketing and advertising for a few years before stepping up to VP of Communications in 2003.”

Perret is especially proud of the watches that have been developed as a result of Planet Omega. The Planet Ocean timepieces are held in high esteem for their professional divers’ features, style and innovative Co-Axial technology since they were introduced in 2005. Three years ago, Omega upgraded the entire family after developing new movements and using materials like titanium, aluminium and LiquidMetal.

Perret says the idea for Planet Omega came to him when he was looking at the historic photographs of the Earth that were taken by the crew of Apollo 8. They were the first humans to witness “Earthrise”, on December 24, 1968. “The idea of the mission was to learn more about the Moon, and take lots of photographs of the lunar surface,” he says. “But the big thing those guys brought back was their pictures of the Earth. They took one colour photo and one black and white. No one had seen the Earth from space before. You could say that we went to the Moon – and discovered the Earth. And we learned that it’s a fragile place.”

After seeing his 2009 film Home, which features aerial footage from 54 countries and shows how Earth’s problems are all interlinked, Perret contacted Arthus-Bertrand. They met in Paris and discussed how to make Planet Ocean with Omega’s support. “What pleases me about our involvement is that, using our strengths as an international company, Yann could make a better film that would be seen by more people. Now we are making a new movie with Yann called Terror.

It’s about wild animals and their relationship with the wild. They are running out of space and food. The human species is the world’s super predator.”

Perret goes on: “It also thrills me that Omega has been able to bring more attention to the work of Orbis International, the international flying hospital that fights preventable blindness around the world.” Omega’s partnership with Orbis came about after Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek learned about the hospital’s work and decided it needed more exposure. Daniel Craig, the current James Bond, and supermodel Cindy Crawford are among the Omega brand ambassadors who support the work of Orbis. When he sat down with Prestige, Perret had just completed a trip with Orbis to Trujillo in Peru, where Omega shot a documentary about the flying hospital’s work – it operates as a teaching hospital that shows local doctors and nurses how to do simple cataract operations – along with Crawford and her 13-year-old daughter.

Working with celebrities – Omega’s brand ambassadors also include George Clooney and Nicole Kidman - is without a doubt one of the perks of Perret’s job. “People often ask me how we select our brand ambassadors. The answer is that we are very careful to choose people who are true ambassadors. They don’t need to know everything there is to know about the company, but they do have to be genuine fans. We set out to a create relationships with celebrities that are true, and that’s why we keep our brand ambassadors for so long. Cindy has been working with us for 14 years. My feeling is that if a relationship is not genuine, customers will notice. They will see the celebrity with a rival brand, and then your credibility has gone. Customers will be upset, and they have a right to be upset. We spend time with the celebrities we are interested in and get to know them - and they get to know us. That’s why it works so well. For me, it’s like life. When you meet people you are comfortable with, it makes for a good fit.”

When he was young, Perret liked Swatch watches and collected a lot of them. The first Omega watch he ever owned was the Speedmaster Moonwatch, and it’s still his favourite model. He takes the opportunity during the interview to point out that a new version, the Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon, is now available. It was awarded the Revival Watch Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve 2014.

“My association with Swatch is emotional,” he says. “After all, it was the Swatch Group, led by the late Nicolas Hayek, that saved Omega from bankruptcy in the 1980s. I have some other watches in my collection. But because I joined Omega as a young man, most of my watches are Omegas. The company was much smaller than it is today when I went into the head office in Biel/Bienne for the first time. But I remember feeling there was a magic in the building. It’s still there.”