The friendship virus
"With this virus, I wondered what it meant to talk about watches, says Fabrice Pougez, creator of the French brand MAT Watches. It would have been indecent." Hence the idea of launching the #fightthevirus campaign, around sharing and friendship, with all the brand's friends: Bruce Dickinson (singer of Iron Maiden) disguised as D'Artagnan, the navigator Vincent Riou, the former rugby player Christian Califano ... 25 of them took pictures to create a united mosaic. "If there was any action to be taken to be useful, at the moment, it was by funding the AP-HP," explains Fabrice Pougez. I will donate 10% of our online sales over the whole of 2020 to the benefit of Paris Hospitals. We have enough stock, our watches are assembled in Besançon and engraved in Paris. Our craftsmen haven't stopped, and it also keeps them working. ” www.matwatches.com/fr
MAT Watches
Doubly united
"Our online sale is participatory," explains Yohan Bizy, head of Frédérique Constant in France. When a watch is sold via the Internet, the customer receives his watch at home, via DHL or Fedex. As for the retailer closest to his home, we give him 25% of the amount of the sale to support him. ” In addition to this, Frédérique Constant pays 50 € for each watch sold to the AP-HP Foundation in order to support the nursing staff. ” An approach imagined in France which could, we hope, give ideas to other countries, and to other brands ... https://frederiqueconstant.com/fr
Frédérique Constant
In the heart of the Jura
"We currently produce in two weeks what we produced in one day," says Maxime Herbelin, associate marketing director of the French watchmaking workshop Michel Herbelin. With the stocks available in Charquemont, in the French Jura, “we have at least enough to hold until May 11. Even if we were out of style, we would still be able to produce. ” The brand can thus continue to deliver watches directly sold via its website. During the entire confinement period, it transfers 20% of the total amount of purchases made on its site to the fund “All united against the virus”. The Antarès with interchangeable strap, on Brigitte Macron's wrist, remains one of its best sellers online today, with its Inspiration collection, in fifties design. https://www.michel-herbelin.com
Michel Herbelin
Caregiver auctions
Jewelers, creative jewelers and watchmakers joined forces to offer a sale called "Our caregivers are worth gold". For the benefit of the Paris Hospitals Foundation - Hospitals of France, it will be held until April 20. At the initiative of Isabelle Langlois, more than sixty lots are offered, with a value ranging from 50 euros to 5,000 euros, with a price tag of 50 to 500 euros. No sales charges will be taken by the Millon auction house, and the profits will be entirely for the benefit of the heroes in white coats.
Augarde
Among the lots offered as part of this charity sale, we find an Alpina AlpinerX Outdoors smartwatch, an Akrone K-05 chronograph as well as an Anonimo Montreux, Augarde Camo, a Baltic Bicompax Panda, a Bodet 1868, a Citizen Promaster Diner Limited, a Frédérique Constant Classics Index or a Fugue Chronostase. But also a Garmin Fenix 6x, a GreenTime Solarwood, a March LA.B AM1, a Michel Herbelin Antarès, a Mondaine Classic, a Péquignet Hexagone or a Longbridge Reservoir. So, up for auction for a good cause ... www.artprecium.com
Pequignet