Raymond Weil Remains a Innovative Swiss Luxury Watchmaker

​Based in Geneva, Raymond Weil, a family-owned watchmaker, launched in 1976 and stands as one of the Swiss timepiece industry’s last independent brands. Born in 1926 in Geneva, Raymond Weil (pronounced “Vay”) joined Camy Watch SA after earning a commerce degree, becoming a manager for 26 years.

The “quartz crisis” of the early 1970s (known as the “quartz revolution” in countries such as Japan and the United States) led to the creation of the company. It represented a move away from timepieces with movements requiring hand winding, toward cheaper, battery-powered quartz movements.

The first quartz watch launched in 1969, the Seiko Quartz Astron 35SQ, named after space travel to the moon. It moved away from traditional Swiss manufacturing, with the number of watch companies within the country falling from 1,600 to 600 from 1970 to 1983, and industry workers declining from 90,000 to 28,000.

Amidst this turmoil, Raymond Weil and colleague Simone Bedat broke away from Camy Watch. Even before producing a single watch, Weil reserved a 16-square-meter Basel Fair booth to showcase the future. Taking advantage of their international ties, they established an extensive distribution network, spanning Europe and the globe. The initial well-received Golden Eagle watch collection combined octagonal design and sporty elegance, with cost-saving quartz movements.

Thereafter, the unique niche of a high-quality quartz watch proved enduring, with its luxury timepieces relatively affordable. The company forged an outsourcing agreement for calibers with ETA, a movement-making arm of the Swatch Group. Moreover, the company pursued an impactful expansion pathway that attracted global entrepreneurial talent, leading to a sales outlet presence in 139 countries.

Benny Shabtai, an American-based businessman, had experience in the shipping department for the Eastman Watch Company, which imported inexpensive products from Hong Kong. On his second trip to the watch and jewelry fair in Basel in the late 1970s, Shabtai made a personal connection with Raymond Weil. Impressed by the corporate vision, he invested his savings of $10,000 in acquiring 400 Raymond Weil watches, which he was able to sell to just two customers in New York City quickly. It funded the launch of Raymond Weil USA, and Shabtai created high-profile marketing campaigns, including an iconic black-and-white Vogue magazine ad that took up half a page.

Next, in the early 1980s, Raymond Weil brought on board son-in-law Olivier Bernheim, who ultimately became president and CEO and turned the company toward increasingly high-end designs. Among these was the steel and 18-carat gold Parsifal collection, which featured mother-of-pearl dials adorned with diamonds. Despite retailers' resistance, Shabtai's team's dedicated sales and marketing efforts helped this line break the $1,000 retail barrier in the US. They established Parsifal as the company’s signature timepiece, making up a third of the American market.

Olivier Bernheim’s wife, Weil’s eldest daughter, is a classical pianist. The connection with the arts led to watches such as Fidelio, named after Beethoven’s only opera, and the ultra-thin Othello line, which introduced a moon-phase complication. A high-water mark for classical music lovers involved the 1993 launch of the Amadeus collection. It launched in tandem with Milos Forman’s Academy Award-winning film “Amadeus,” which depicts the colorful and tragic life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The Amadeus 200 in this line was also significant as the brand’s first sports watch. From then on, music and the arts influenced nearly all the Raymond Weil collection names.

In 2017, Raymond Weil took a significant step forward in producing its own proprietary movements. Moving away from the ETA partnership, the company collaborated with Swiss-based Sellita to create the Caliber RW1212 automatic movement. It features an elaborate balance-and-spring construction, exposed through a partially open-worked dial, which creates a visual effect similar to a tourbillon. In 2023, Raymond Weil broke new ground by introducing its Freelancer Collection of square men’s watches. It integrates the in-house movement with a visible balance wheel into elegant, business-appropriate creations.

Benny Shabtai

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