Fashion industry veteran Piero Braga took over as President and CEO of Gucci Timepieces and Jewelry in 2016, and was instantly tasked with bringing the company’s watch collections into sync with the design vision of Gucci’s heralded Creative Director, Alessandro Michele, who has reimagined the venerable Italian brand’s image for a younger generation. Judging by this year’s collection, he seems to be succeeding. I had a chance to talk with Braga at Baselworld 2017 about what the future holds for Gucci watches.
Piero Braga hopes to align the Gucci timepiece collections more closely with the brand’s other luxury products.
WT:  When did you start at Gucci and what do you hope to bring to the company in this role"
PB:   I?ve been with Gucci since 2005, but working with the watches only since October 2016. I come from the side and still serve as Senior Vice-President for Wholesale, Franchising and Travel Retail for the brand. The CEO of Gucci asked me to take the position as CEO of the Timepiece division last October. The idea behind that is that we felt the necessity to put together the Italian creativity and the Swiss craftsmanship, and to create a new vision for these two product categories ? watches and jewelry ? that would be embedded into the creativity of the brand. When Gucci started its own journey in 2015, with Alessandro Michele coming on board and a new type of creativity spreading out ? let?s just say that the watches and je...