The Joy of a Mechanical Watch with Oris CEO VJ Geronimo

0:00Bloomberg Businessweek Daily is brought to you by HPE, bringing you the self-driving network, a network that's self-optimizing, self-healing, and self-protecting, and only continues to get smarter. Learn more at hpe.com slash networking.

0:14Carol Massar:Some people treat ChatGPT like some kind of smart search engine, and some use it to get work done. ChatGPT Work is a new way of working in ChatGPT that can take action across your apps and files, stay with a project for hours if needed, and turn a goal into finished work. It's designed to help you move from a chaotic starting point to a reviewable first version. So all the source materials, briefs, and scattered information that you have to grind through to turn into something useful can just become something useful. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting Work Mode, available on Plus and Pro plans.

0:57Carol Massar:Never bet against American grit or American energy. Through innovation, Venture Global is not only building some of the largest energy facilities in the world right here in the United States, but delivering American energy at a fraction of the cost in a fraction of the time. So while others are busy talking, we're busy building. That's venture global. That's unstoppable energy.

1:28Carol Massar:Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio. We are very excited because, Carol, whether you call them timepieces or wristwatches, there's nobody we'd rather talk about them with than Chris Rauser. He's the editor-at-large for Bloomberg Pursuits, and today he brought a special guest with him. That's Vijay Geronimo, the U.S. CEO of Oris. It's the more than 100-year-old Swiss watchmaker. Chris and Vijay both join us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio. Welcome to both of you. Thank you.

2:09Vijay, on any other day, I'd start with you, but I want to start with Chris because, Chris, you brought Vijay to us. I did. And you brought him to us for a reason, and you know our show, our program very well. You know what we love. We know what our audience loves. What did you think would resonate so well with our team? Gonzo the Muppet. Totally. I knew you were going to say the Muppets.

2:33Carol Massar:You have no idea the conversation we've had in the news about Muppets and... Disney and... Versus Sesame Street versus like we like. Are they different? Are they the same? There was a diagram drawn for me. Yes. Well, Gonzo is where I want to start. Vijay, I want to bring you in because you are the U.S. CEO of Auris. It's more than 100 years old. Typically, if we think about an old-ish Swiss watch brand, we wouldn't necessarily be thinking of the Muppets. But why does Gonzo have people so excited? Yeah. So if Auris, as you said, we're 122 years old, actually. We're one of the last independent Swiss brands.

3:10So we only make mechanical watches. So if you know much about our industry, it's a lot of larger companies, larger conglomerates that own brands. So we're one of the really few independents. And, you know, watches are an emotional thing. So we believe that our goal with watches, it's not anything these days that really anybody needs, right? It's an emotional thing. So we like to say we like to make people smile with our product. So this is our third watch with the Muppets. So we did a Kermit, we did a Miss Piggy, now Gonzo. I love Kermit. Thank you. You're welcome. We love them, too.

3:44Carol Massar:What's not to love? But how do you get there? Yeah, do you call Kermit? This is my question. Actually, you call Miss Piggy. Yeah, it's a whole thing. Yeah, so we worked with Disney, obviously, to bring those projects together. And it's a little bit of a long road, a conceptualization of it. But in the end, it's just fun. It's just... BJ, how do you get there, though? What's that first conversation? Somebody comes to you or somebody comes to a member of the team and says, we need to do some of the Muppets. Yes. Like, how does that... Yeah, and it's an idea. Like, we're a relatively small team in terms of people.

4:21Like, we're not a huge company. So it's an idea that gets bounced around and people talk about. And everyone was on board with it and kind of the emotional side of it. And again, making people happy. So just contacted Disney and started from there. Is it something that's resonated with people as much outside of the U.S. as it has in the U.S.? It actually has. I mean, I would say it's one of the most, the Kermit was one of the most popular watches we ever made, I would say. And I think a lot of people know it. He goes by different names and other parts, but certainly. Kermit? Yeah. Kermit. I mean, you and I are very close.

4:55That's the only thing.

4:57Carol Massar:But Chris, you know, like we talk about so many different watches and designs. We've got about a minute and then we're going to take a break and come back. but there are things that are different that like move people to buy it right yes and the original kermit watch was so cute it was a very simple watch and then in the little hour the date window and it shows you normally what the date is it had kermit's little face and it was very cute um i got a t-shirt of it for my daughter i don't have the watch yet um and you know they've gotten more complicated the the gonzo the great watch that they have this year which we can look at later is more complicated than that.

5:30Yes. So it's one of our more complicated pieces, to your point, one of our in-house movements and a skeleton piece. I'm happy to show it to you when we come back. Chris, is that why you're wearing a glove? I am wearing a glove so that we can handle these precious watches. This is part of my job is putting on these gloves and playing with expensive things.

5:48Carol Massar:I mean, okay, just a quick teaser. It costs$2 ,000? $3 ,000? Between$2 and$10. $4 ,000? Between$2 and$5 ,000? And Gonzo is$10 ,500, actually. Yeah, I mean, this is a piece of art. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty amazing. And it's all relative, right? Like, the price point is all relative among all brands and all things. Yeah, that's pretty low. Yeah, no, exactly. It's always relative. So we've been waiting to take a look at these watches, Chris. Yeah, let's take a look. So Auras was just at Geneva Watch Days, which is one of the two big watch shows in Geneva. and one of the watches that they revealed was this Gonzo watch, which we would love to see.

6:27Correct. So this is the Gonzo. So for those listening on radio right now, both Chris and Vijay are wearing gloves to hold the timepieces up right now. The Gonzo, tell us a little bit, Vijay, about the Gonzo. Yeah, so it's based on our Caliber 115, which is our in-house movement 10-day power reserve. But some of the features for Gonzo that are really, shout outs to him, instead of 10 days it says 10 great days. Chris go ahead and hold it up there. That's his the way he refers to it. Also instead of a power reserve indicator with just a normal hand it's actually in the shape of a chili pepper which is something he's also known for.

7:06The colors obviously are very eccentric as he is and then he also the first time we've done this actually on the mainspring of the watch the mainspring itself is actually six feet long because it's a 10 day power reserve when it's fully wound his um he appears on the mainspring so oh my god wow and fully fully wound based on oh there's the chili pepper sorry yeah so basically winding up the movement winding up the mainspring so it will last for 10 days manually yes the mechanics are unbelievable and it's skeletonized so if you're listening on the radio they've cut out all of the dial so that you can see and parts of the movement so you can see so much of the movement working which we always love on a watch.

7:46Carol Massar:You see the layers. Yes. Like I think of just how many different layers. Can I ask you about the expertise in creating something like this and having the skilled individuals to do it? Yeah, it's a long process from the perspective of both movement and design of case. This particular model with Gonzo and before Gonzo, this caliber 115 has been out for a number of years. It was designed exactly as a skeleton, So sometimes a lot of watches will have a skeleton. They just skeletonize what they already have. This was designed specifically like that so that the proportion of the case was made for the movement and vice versa.

8:22The movement was made for the case. Titanium, super light. But the whole complication of power reserve and power reserve indication and nonlinear power reserve indication. So what that means is, you know, between nine and ten days, you don't really care how much time you have. But when you get to the bottom and you want to know, do I have four hours? Do I have eight hours? It opens up at the bottom. So that's also a very technically complicated thing to do. And a movement, by the way, is not just like a watch moving. A movement is the engine of the watch. So it's like the beating heart of the watch where all the mechanics happen.

8:52And they're built-in manufacturers, which is another word for factory. And Oris is an independent company. So for them to do all this stuff on their own is very cool. And it really sets them apart.

9:02Carol Massar:Chris, you see millions of watches, tons of watches. I do, yes. And we really do adore. Chris has a lot of watches, too. He has a lot of watches. But we love talking. Like, when you see something like that, like, you see lots of things. This is really fun. So the Swiss are not always known for having fun. And watchmaking is actually great because there's so many different. It can be very serious. It can be very classic. It can be very silly. And I love it when a brand is silly and it's just really distinctive. So Oris has a lot of watches that are really well known for them. They've got the Big Crown, which is literally a watch with a big crown.

9:34They've got a ProPilot series. They've got divers that are great. And what would you say, like, sets Aura's apart, like, for collectors? I would say it's really getting a very good classic watch for a very good value in terms of just offering something that punches well above its weight. I think that's what we're all about. The design is second, you know, really, really part of it. And the big crown pointer date is one, something that's been in our line, for example, the heritage of the brand since 1938. So we've made a lot of iterations of that, but certainly having something that has that kind of history and that heritage at a price point that is approachable and responsible.

10:11A lot of the watches are$2 ,000,$3 ,000,$4 ,000, which is really, at this point, entry level as the industry gets more and more high priced. We're speaking with Vijay Geronimo, the US CEO of Oris, and Chris Rauser, editor-at-large of Bloomberg Pursuits. Vijay, you're a private company, so you're not going to give us any numbers as to how things are doing. But has it been a good year? It has been a good year. We've done, we've seen a good uptick in terms of just the price point segment that we're in. I think, you know, in the past, like the high end of the market and the really low end of the market have done, you know, very well at times.

10:47We've done very well. But this year it seems to be very good in our segment of the market. You do, no, go, no, no, Chris, please. Can you walk us through like the last five years for you and for the watch market generally? because it's been a wild ride. Yeah, I mean, I think COVID was one of those things from a counterintuitive perspective, you wouldn't think, but watches became very popular during COVID. People had a lot of time. They had a lot of disposable income to do things. So actually the watch hobby, as they say, became very popular in terms of that. So the watch industry had some very good years during COVID.

11:19I think it normalized a little bit when people kind of went back to doing their normal things. But again, seeing a resurgence now, The U.S. is also leading the market in the world in terms of the business side of it.

11:32Carol Massar:So how many of these kinds of watches would you sell? Like something that seems very specialized, but pretty cool. Yeah, I mean, this one is a limited production piece. So there was 250 pieces made of it. So it wasn't really that many at the moment. Other limited editions we've done, depending on what they are, they can go up to 2 ,000 pieces or so. Wait, what's in that? This is the Lou Gehrig limited edition that we did for the Lou and Eleanor Gehrig Family Foundation. We launched this. This is the third in our series of baseball watches around that. You do a lot with different teams, right? We do, yeah.

12:07We do a lot with teams. We do a lot of things that really have purpose and meaning. That's what we try to do, especially with our limited edition product.

12:14Carol Massar:That's a great-looking watch. So if you know, Lou Gehrig was a very famous baseball player, a very famous Yankee. ALS carries his name. So we worked with the foundation to kind of help bring that along. You know, you mentioned that you're only doing 250 of the gonzo. Does that mean the secondary market is ripe with these? Like, not ripe with them, but in terms of how, you know, the price point would, you could be leaving money on the table. Correct. Correct. I mean, with that, yeah, it just depends how it, yeah, I mean, how it progresses and that sort of thing. But certainly with the limited edition pieces at all, you also see that as well.

12:48Carol Massar:U.S., you said big buyers. Chris, I mean, as we kind of get ready to wrap up the year, your thoughts is you've been looking at the watch market here. Watches are coming back. So watches had this, as he said, very big boom after the pandemic. It was one of the only things you could see in a Zoom screen, so people wanted to spend money on them. They got really into researching them. Pajamas on the bottoms, but they had their watch on. Yeah, exactly. It's a good watch and the good beauty products, right? And then the secondary market went crazy, and then things kind of softened. Swiss exports kind of softened, especially due to tariffs.

13:19And now we're seeing things, but not to pre-pandemic level. So the people are hooked on watches now. So now things are kind of coming back and I'm really excited.

13:27Carol Massar:Yeah. This was really fun. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for having me. Chris, thanks for bringing. Anytime watches. And if you grab one of those now, then there's only 249 available out there. So that's all you got to do. Great stuff. Chris Rouser, editor at large for Bloomberg Pursuits. BJ Geronimo, US CEO of Oris. Guys, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

13:51Carol Massar:Healthcare doesn't always work great. If you've ever waited on a refill or couldn't schedule an appointment, you get it. That's the kind of stuff Optum is changing. They're using data and technology to integrate patient care, pharmacy, and everything else. So healthcare is connected, not complicated. What's that look like? Cheaper prescriptions that are easier to get and care that looks at the whole person how you need it. Optum is helping make healthcare work as one for everyone. Learn more at business.optum.com.

14:48Adio orchestrates your work around the clock. Built to handle the scale of your workloads, extensible with API and MCP, and with the infrastructure to keep up with your most ambitious agents. Loved by high-growth startups like Granola, Modal, and Etched, Adio runs the work behind every win. That's Adio, the agentic CRM, the intelligent system that never sleeps. Picks up leads at 2 a.m., catches renewals before they slip, hands you the answer before you ask. Try Adio free at adio.com slash iHeart. That's adio.com slash iHeart.

15:48Carol Massar:That's BloombergLive.com slash Canadian Finance.