- Christmas
-
Brands A-Z
FeaturedBrands A-Z
-
Rolex
FeaturedBy Collection
- Rolex Certified Pre-Owned
- Patek Philippe
-
Mens
Popular StylesBy EditPopular Brands
-
Ladies
Popular StylesBy EditPopular Brands
-
Pre-Owned
Popular Brands
- Sale
-
Sell Your Watch
Sell your watchWe will expertly assess your watch and offer you
a competitive and accurate valuation for the
watch you wish to sell to us.Free Instant Valuation
Drop off at any Showroom
Unrivalled Knowledge & Expertise- Calibre - Watch News & Stories
- Calibre - Watch News & Stories
- Shop by Category
- Christmas
-
Brands A-Z
- Back
- View All Brands
-
Brands
- Arnold & Son
- BALL
- Bamford
- Baume & Mercier
- Bell & Ross
- Blancpain
- BOVET
- Breguet
- Breitling
- Bremont
- BVLGARI
- Cartier
- Certina
- CHANEL
- Chopard
- Czapek
- DOXA
- FENDI
- Frederique Constant
- Garmin
- Gerald Charles
- Girard-Perregaux
- Glashütte Original
- Grand Seiko
- Gucci
- Hamilton
- H. Moser & Cie.
- Hublot
- ID Genève
- IKEPOD
- IWC Schaffhausen
- Jacob & Co
- Jaeger-LeCoultre
- Kross Studio
- Longines
- Louis Erard
- Maurice Lacroix
- MB&F
- Montblanc
- Nivada Grenchen
- NOMOS Glashütte
- NORQAIN
- OMEGA
- Oris
- Panerai
- Parmigiani Fleurier
- Patek Philippe
- Piaget
- QLOCKTWO
- Rado
- RAYMOND WEIL
- Rolex
- Rolex Certified Pre-Owned
- Seiko
- Speake-Marin
- TAG Heuer
- Tissot
- TUDOR
- Ulysse Nardin
- Vacheron Constantin
- William Wood Watches
- WOLF
- ZENITH
- Rolex
- Rolex Certified Pre-Owned
- Patek Philippe
- Mens
- Ladies
-
Pre-Owned
- Back
- Shop All Pre-Owned
- Pre-Owned Home
- By Category
-
By Brand
- Certified Pre-Owned Rolex
- Pre-Owned Patek Philippe
- Pre-Owned Cartier
- Pre-Owned OMEGA
- Pre-Owned Breitling
- Pre-Owned TAG Heuer
- Pre-Owned TUDOR
- Pre-Owned Jaeger-LeCoultre
- Pre-Owned IWC Schaffhausen
- Pre-Owned Blancpain
- Pre-Owned Breguet
- Pre-Owned Chopard
- Pre-Owned Panerai
- Pre-Owned Rado
- Pre-Owned Vacheron Constantin
- Pre-Owned ZENITH
- Shop All Pre-Owned
- Sale
- Sell Your Watch
- Calibre - Watch News & Stories
- My Account
- Wishlist
- Store Finder
- Book an Appointment
- Help & Support
In conversation with Maurizio Pisanu, Managing Director for watches and jewellery at Gucci
Join us as we sit down with Maurizio Pisanu the Managing Director for watches and jewellery at Gucci.
Can you please introduce yourself and share a brief overview of your journey at Gucci?
I’m the Managing Director for the watches and jewellery business unit at Gucci, I started at Gucci seven years ago after more than 20 years of experience in the watches and jewellery business. Starting at Bulgari then Swatch Group and the LVMH group, at the end of 2016 I joined the Kering family for Gucci.
First I oversaw watches and jewellery, licencing, accessories and the core categories. Before focusing solely on watches and jewellery, considering the size of the business and the specificity of the business, we decided to create a dedicated unit where I oversea all the functions, starting from design, merchandising, sales, marketing communications, store planning and production.
How would you describe Gucci to those who are unfamiliar with the brand?
I think Gucci represents the perfect blend of creativity, innovation and craftsmanship in watches and jewellery. Few people know that we started the journey in these categories a long time ago, for example in 1972 we started making Swiss made watches, this means we have more than 50 years of history in watchmaking. We have a huge and beautiful archive of pieces, which we brought to life a few years ago but especially this year with some of our newness. What we are trying to do now is to communicate and educate people of our rich history, as it becomes more popular to have investment behind the aesthetic, of course the more story you have as brand the easy it is for people to embrace everything the brand is proposing.
The fact that we have a big history in watches and jewellery really helps the brand in terms of developing new collections and new aesthetic. What we are doing more and more is opening the archives to see what we have created in the past and brining back to life some of the most iconic pieces, making time more contemporary working on details, such as dials.
Can you talk to us about the new launches presented during the event in Geneva?
This year is a special year for Gucci watches because we decided to revamp and renovate the entire watch collection. It’s quite disruptive and a long process but we are introducing five new lines, everything is changing. We decided to show our business partners, press and our clients, what we can do thanks to the history that we have. The direction is to go into more timeless pieces, improving the quality of the products, in terms of aesthetics having something that lasts forever exactly like we did in the past. We love the idea that we can have generations wearing the same watch.
In terms of launches we have 2 new families the model 2000 which is a round feminine and elegant watch, which was missing from our collections and a request from the market. The second launch being the G-flat first designed in the 1970’s it has a very retro vintage style, but when saw it from the archive we found it extremely contemporary and modern and when we put it on our wrist it feels super modern, like we only made it yesterday. So, we thought why we don’t create this full line again, changing some elements making it even more contemporary. It has a very strong character and image.
I have one favourite watch, it’s the G-flat. The main reason this is my favourite watch is the strong character. I like the idea that the market is saturated with watches and brands, especially this week at Watches & Wonders inside and outside of the fair, but we need to distinguish our self from the rest of the brands. So, I like the idea that when you put the watch your wrist, even without the logo people can look and say, “I love that watch” and in the future they will say “oh that’s a Gucci watch” even if we don’t put the logo on it. This is a very difficult thing to achieve but I think the G-flat has all the elements to be that watch as it has a very strong construction, with an octagonal case and bezel with screws, we also brought back the design of the vintage dial and put it on the case back, as a souvenir of the past. I like the mix of future and past.
Can you share your favourite memory at the brand so far
There is one moment in 2021, when we first launched the high watch making collection, I remember discussing the possibility to introduce this new category which didn’t exist within the brand. It was a big risk and a big challenge, but I saw the potential and together with the team we had an intuition that it could work. From launch it was successful and sold out, so it’s a very good memory. You don’t get a lot of chances in a brand to just have an idea, express your idea and get the green light in a few seconds, and that’s what happened.
That’s what I like about Kering and Gucci especially is the agility of making decisions and taking your own risks, there’s nothing to lose, but if you succeed that’s the most amazing result you can have.
That’s the best memory I have as of today.
With such great history what key elements or values from the brands past do you believe still resonate with today’s watchmaking industry?
There are two key elements Italian design and Swiss made craftsmanship. I insist on this because usually when we talk about Swiss made people always think about very classic watches, but I think that isn’t an enough for a luxury brand. Being a Italian luxury brand a big component is the design, that I think can make a difference in watch making today.
To have a very nice watch in terms of the mechanics and what’s inside the watch but at the same time having a very strong design I think you can win today as a newcomer. We still think as Gucci as a start-up, even though we have more than 50 years history we are still new in the market, we have to make something that speaks loudly immediately, that I think is the reason for the success of what we are doing today.
How do you envision the future for the brand?
To continue to innovate in terms of technology and complications, not only complications that exist in the market, at the end of the year we are releasing the highest complication the minute repeater but the idea in the future is to invite new complications, sometimes fun complications but they are very long and difficult to make and sometimes combining more complications together. But always with a strong and impactful design.
Sign Up For Calibre Newsletter
Get a round up of the latest stories from Calibre every month, directly to your inbox.
© 2024 Watches of Switzerland
Watches of Switzerland is a trading name of Watches of Switzerland Company Limited. Registered Office: Aurum House, 2 Elland Road, Braunstone, Leicester, LE3 1TT, Registered in England and Wales, Company number 00146087. Registered VAT Number 834 8634 04. Watches of Switzerland Company Limited acts as a broker and not a lender and offers finance from Secure Trust Bank PLC trading as V12 Retail Finance and PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH trading as PayPal Credit. Watches of Switzerland Company Limited is authorised and regulated by the Finance Conduct Authority. Our registration number is 308710. Credit provided is subject to age and status, minimum spend applies. Terms and Conditions apply. UK residents only. We may receive a commission if your application is successful, and the amount may vary depending on the product chosen and the amount of credit taken out. Not all products are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and FOS protection will not be extended to unregulated agreements. Please note the Consumer Credit Act states that should your purchase / loan amount cost more than £30,000 you will not be covered under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.
*Next day delivery available on most items. See product pages for more information.