Bohne Jurg
Although we are an old brand, which has proven its value on countless occasions over the past century and has successfully weathered countless financial crises, we are concerned about the current situation and have taken steps to prevent a deterioration of the results of the company, says Bohne Jurg, CEO of Atlantic.
Atlantic was established by Eduard Kummer in Grenchen, Switzerland, in 1888. The manufacture, initially called EKB after its founder, was employing 20 people back then and specialised in making parts for pocket watches. The first wristwatches were launched around 1900 and EKB started to make parts for them, too, at which time it had reached more than 700 employees.
Although we are an old brand, which has proven its value on countless occasions over the past century and has successfully weathered countless financial crises, we are concerned about the current situation and have taken steps to prevent a deterioration of the results of the company, says Bohne Jurg, CEO of Atlantic.
Atlantic was established by Eduard Kummer in Grenchen, Switzerland, in 1888. The manufacture, initially called EKB after its founder, was employing 20 people back then and specialised in making parts for pocket watches. The first wristwatches were launched around 1900 and EKB started to make parts for them, too, at which time it had reached more than 700 employees.
Under the guidance of Eduard Kummer, EKB, stood out through its constant innovative power and in 1920 made a waterproof watch, one of the first of its kind, whereas one of the first water resistant watch lines was named Atlantic. In 1953, Atlantic was registered as the company’s name, and since then it has been making watches that gained a very loyal following, because of their stylish design, painstakingly executed finishes and affordable prices.
After the collapse of the Swiss watch making industry in the seventies, some brands were sold again to private entrepreneurs. Atlantic has changed hands several times and has been operating in its current structure for about twelve years.
Atlantic’s most important markets have been stable for quite a while: Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine, the former USSR member states and the Middle East. “Considering most of them are emerging areas, we believe our offer mattered because we are known for the quality of our watches at reasonable prices,” the Atlantic official says. Prices usually range from 100 to 600 euros for basic lines (which account for some 95% of the production), but the company also makes limited editions or special mechanical timepieces, whose price reaches 1,000 euros.
“We exert a very tight control of product development and specialised companies make the various components according to the blueprints we provide. Movements come from ETA, Ronda, Selita and Claro. We also have an entire quality control department for all components, which we then assemble,” Bohne Jurg explains.
The company has 15 employees, which take care of all the aspects of the operation, including customer relationship. “One of our advantages is that we provide almost any timepiece that is required and we do not ask our clients to buy huge amounts,” the brand official says, revealing that Atlantic shipped almost 100,000 units last year.
“Everything went really smoothly before the crisis – we had an excellent 2008, and in October, November and December 2008 we posted the highest turnover of the short history of the new Atlantic,” Jurg says. “I was convinced we had enough orders for a very good start of 2009, to keep us very busy until the Basel show. Yet we were taken by surprise at the end of January 2009 when orders plummeted – an about 30 drop compared with the same time of 2008.” To be able to cope, Atlantic relies on reputation and is trying to cut costs without letting people go. “We will cut back on some of our product lines and instead of outsourcing we will do more in-house. There is still a reasonable interest around and besides traditional clients we are trying to win over new retailers through creative marketing campaigns.”
The brand has also launched many new products, relying on the same things emerging markets like – aesthetically pleasing design, either classic or sporty, quality and good prices. “Romania has become a very important market to Atlantic, so that we are clearly focusing on this region.” The new products of the latest collection include a Worldmaster model (Big Original 1888), which has a rarer ETA self-winding movement (calibre 2895 with small second), launched in 300 copies, as well as an impressively varied Worldmaster Square range, with both quartz and automatic movements.
“We have only quartz calibres for the ladies’ segment, because we have noticed ladies are mainly looking for a beautiful design and small size, they do not pay 500 euros just because there is an automatic movement inside. The price is very important, as design and quality,” the Atlantic chairman says. Ladies’ watches are part of both the Worldmaster collection (adorned with zirconium and sporting a mother of pearl dial) and of the Elegance (rectangular) or Seaport (round, very classical and stylish) collections. The automatic models part of the latter range can be easily worn by women because of their size and design. “A segment that is going very well is the sport-elegant watches, chronographs, which are available at 350-400 euros at Atlantic and do a very good job of showcasing the DNA of the brand,” Bohne Jurg says. In all, Atlantic sells some 800-900 models.