ON THE BRIGHT SIDE
Who better to ask about the changing face of luxury than the steward of a global watch and jewellery house? Charmaine Ho speaks to Piaget CEO Chabi Nouri.
It has been over a year since you took on the role of CEO at Piaget. What has be been your key focus for the brand?
It h has been very exciting. I’ve done a lot of deep d dives into the brand to immerse myself in the essen essence, DNA and values of Piaget so that I am able to represent it and, together with the team, ensure we were going in the right direction. It was very important for me that there is a common understanding, across the world, of what Piaget is about. That was probably the first big, important thing I wanted to do.
Recent years has seen Piaget focusing on reinforcing its jewellery segment. Can you tell us more about this?
Piaget is gifted to be a brand that has a very credible and long history in watchmaking, which is where it all started. Very quickly, it managed to create a kind of fusion between jewellery and watches, before we started making jewellery; for
70 years now. When I joined [Nouri was Piaget’s Director of Marketing, Communications and Heritage in 2014, before becoming its International Managing Director Sales and Marketing in 2016. She became Piaget’s first female CEO in 2017], the team said: “Okay, we have to accelerate the development of jewellery because that’s also a very credible and legitimate segment for
Piaget.” So that’s what that we’ve done in the last two years.
Which is about the time that Piaget launched the “Sunny Side of Life” collection.
The “Sunny Side of Life” [refers to] the positive energy behind the brand.The key signatures of Piaget are creativity in design and innovation in technique and craftsmanship. When people buy a Piaget creation, they are buying into the 140-year history of the brand and they’re buying into audacity and elegance. And this is what Piaget is about; this encountering of elegance and creativity, mastered by artisans and their passion for their work.
How has the onset of e-commerce changed the way people buy watches and jewellery?
We were discussing this recently; that where we shop and how we shop has also become a part of the entire [shopping] exper ience. Before, we just went into a shop to buy. Today, you choose if you want to buy something in an airport, a city, on holiday, online… In many ways, the experience is not only about the end point [of purchasing]; it’s the journey. It’s when you browse, when you look on Instagram, when you talk to your friends, and when you go to events. And today, what we push for is the entire exper ience throughout your journey with Piaget. The face of business has changed dramatically, but it’s exciting and much more interesting. ■