Philipp Plein’s Unstoppable Rise Continues With His Most Ambitious Timepieces to Date
“The watch industry is much smaller and more protected than the fashion industry,” the designer tells Bazaar Qatar. “But we are approaching it in the same way.”
It’s been a year since Bazaar Qatar’s last encounter with Philipp Plein, the German designer and entrepreneur that is both a wild card and wildly successful. Having founded his eponymous luxury brand 26 years ago and cultivated a reputation for unconventional and non-conformist style combined with impeccable craftsmanship, his latest disruption has seen him infiltrate the notoriously close-knit, heritage driven world of Swiss watchmaking.
We meet in Geneva, the home of luxury Swiss watchmaking, for the unveiling of the Philipp Plein Crypto King Flying Tourbillon and the Crypto King Hexagon – the new timepieces from the visionary creative. Functional, architectural, and design-led, the Hexagon includes a tonneau-shaped case adorned with the brand’s signature hexagonal motif, a cutting-edge strap, and a powerful Swiss Made automatic movement. The exceptional Crypto King Flying Tourbillon, innovative and defined by Swiss craftsmanship, goes further and transports Plein into the coveted world of Haute Horlogerie.
Having introduced the inaugural Philipp Plein Swiss Made timepieces in 2023 to client acclaim, the new watches demonstrate both ambition and ability. The tourbillon comes in four distinct models, each boasting an exceptional colour combination and available in strictly limited editions. From the classic black and white of the Ninja Panda to the black carbon meets 18-carat rose gold screws, hexagonal side cage, and crown of the Night Wolf, each model combines Swiss horological skill with the brand’s signature DNA.
“The watch industry is much smaller and more protected than the fashion industry,” Philipp observes, “but we are approaching it in the same way – we look for our niche, for our opportunities. I am a customer, I love watches, I collect them, wear them, and enjoy them, and I found myself asking why there are so few competitors in the industry? If you look at the fashion world, it’s full of brands competing with each other, but in luxury watchmaking it really comes down to a very limited number. I recognised that there was room and space for a new offering and we’ve approached the market in a very aggressive way, whether in the way we design the timepieces or how we market them. We are not here to take a leading market share; we are here to take the niche and we are happy to grow out of that niche. The tourbillion watches are limited to 49 pieces – obviously these are available at a different price positioning to our previous timepieces but they have developed out of the positive response we have had over the past year. There is a demand and there is a market for us.”
“People don’t want to be uniform anymore. There are certain watches that everyone has – nice but somehow also kind of boring,” he continues. “At some point you don’t want to be wearing the same watch as your friends. There are people out there who are looking for something more custom, more special, different. That’s where these timepieces come in. We have put a great deal of effort into each detail. Every watch has its own personal packaging with a video inside, for example; its own digital asset and content. We’re telling a story – in our own way.”
For affluent Plein clients, who have access to the world’s most exclusive timepieces, that sense of difference is key, as too is the relationship they share with Philipp himself. Whether opening up one of his homes for an event, or travelling extensively to meet clients worldwide, Plein promotes an intimacy that is a rarity in the luxury world. “We are selling a lifestyle”, he says. There are people who love the brand and who identify themselves with it, and funnily enough we have also brought new clients to the brand with this project. They have come to us because of the watches and then discovered the entire Plein universe. That’s great to see because I have created this brand and I continue to create my dream products. If I don’t like it, I don’t do it. This is the same concept I have applied to the watches. We don’t have to follow the rules, we can write them, and that philosophy makes it even more attractive for some clients.”
Images supplied.
From Harper’s Bazaar Qatar’s Summer 2024 issue.