May 21, 2006: race day at the Monaco Grand Prix Historique, and Karl-Friedrich Scheufele is looking down longingly from his vantage point in the Chopard hospitality suite at a tightly-packed group of pre-1960 single-seaters battling it out on the circuit below.
“I would love to take part in this event, but I have too much opposition, both from my wife and from Jackie Ickx [friend and champion racing driver]. They say it’s too dangerous,” says Mr Scheufele, watching a 50-year-old Maserati 250F being wrestled around a hairpin bend beside the Rascasse restaurant.
It might be a contradiction in terms, but Scheufele could be described as a cautious thrill-seeker. He adores owning and racing classic cars, the more powerful the better, but when it comes to business he believes in taking one step at a time.
‘It is like being at a great party; if you overdo it, you end up with a hangover’
He is co-president of Chopard, one of the most successful family-owned brands in the luxury goods industry. Founded in 1860 by Louis-Ulysse Chopard and bought in 1963 by Scheufele’s father – now company president – it has grown into an internationally-recognised name.
Success has been achieved through a combination of quality products and carefully considered exposure at events as diverse as the Cannes film festival and Elton John’s White Tie and Tiara ball, which ensure Chopard jewels and watches are seen on the right people and sold in the right places.
Scheufele’s younger sister, Caroline, takes care of the jewellery side, while he looks after the horology, an arrangement that has seen the company expand into more than 70 countries with almost 100 boutiques and 1,500 points of sale.
Mr Scheufele, 48, started working in the family firm during the early 1980s, having served an apprenticeship with a Geneva jeweller before joining Chopard at the bottom.
“My other option was to study art, but I decided to work in the company because I thought it offered an opportunity for creativity,” says Scheufele, who is a keen amateur artist.
“I began by working in every department, discovering the different processes, finally ending up learning how to make a watch case. It was invaluable experience. There are many managers in our field who have theoretical knowledge but who don’t appreciate the practical difficulties of watchmaking.
“Once I had been through that and really got inside the company, I realised we had great potential, but it could only be achieved through gradual growth.
“Caroline and I both have the entrepreneurial spirit, and when we began to be successful in one or two areas, we realised we could try and do a little more and a little more and so on.
“But,” he explains, “we have never made long-term forecasts or set specific goals. We prefer to remain within our capabilities and to take one step at a time.”
It is a philosophy that clearly works, as Chopard regularly features among the top five in watch industry rich lists, valued between SFr1bn and SFr1.5bn, making it a pie plenty of people would like a slice of.
“We are approached on a yearly basis by people who want to buy the company, but we are not interested. We have had many offers, but when you are passionate about something you don’t want to give it up,” he says.
Passion is a word used with abandon in the watch industry, but in Mr Scheufele’s case his fascination with anything mechanical is clear and genuine.
He often arrives for work in one of his 30-strong collection of classic cars and has managed to integrate his love of them into the watch business by involving the company in historic motoring events such as the Monaco Historique, Egypt’s Rallye des Pharaons and Italy’s Mille Miglia, for which Chopard produces a special edition wristwatch each year and in which Mr Scheufele often competes.
The greatest expression of his mechanical appreciation came in 1996, when he brought Chopard “manufacture” status by founding an atelier in Fleurier, which makes inhouse movements under the initials LUC (for Louis-Ulysse Chopard).
You know a watch brand is serious when it becomes a manufacture, and Chopard spent three years developing and perfecting its first movement.
Six further LUC base movements have been created, including a regulator, a tourbillon and a four-barrel calibre called the Quattro.
The Fleurier manufacture, which opened with a staff of three, now employs 110 and produces 4,000 high-end wristwatches a year in addition to the 70,000 standard timepieces made at Chopard’s factory in Geneva.
In recent months, Mr Scheufele has been working hands-on to help create a suitably impressive wristwatch to mark a decade of the LUC manufacture, but he is keeping the details secret until its official unveiling this summer.
“All we can say is that it is an entirely new automatic calibre that will give birth to a family of watches. It will be a traditionally-arranged chronograph, but it will not be traditional inside or function-wise.”
What we can be certain of, however, is that the new LUC watch will not be a flash in the pan. Like everything that emerges from the Chopard machine, it will have been carefully thought through.
“The watch industry is at an all-time high, but there is bound to be a consolidation in the event of a downturn,” Mr Scheufele says. “Whatever anyone else wants to do, we will continue to expand within our means.
“It is like being at a great party; if you overdo it, you end up with a hangover.”
