Man on a Mission

Ever since Georges Kern took over as CEO of Breitling, the brand has undergone massive changes. When Kern arrived at Breitling, he discovered a company with a very broad range of products, targeted at a very narrow market. So, what did he do? He streamlined almost all of the collections. Of particular note, Kern reorganized the products into three focused pillars—air, land, and sea—designed to extend Breitling’s reach beyond the aviation crowd. Using those pillars as a guide, he established seven distinct collections: Aviator 8, Navitimer and Avenger for “Air,” Superocean Heritage and Superocean for “Sea,” and finally Premier and Chronomat for “Land.”

Now, almost two years later, the outlook for Breitling is very much brighter. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to sit down with him for an in-depth chat about this year’s novelties and more major changes for the storied brand.

DA MAN: First of all, let’s begin with one of the biggest topics about your brand, namely about Breitling leaving Baselworld