As the watch industry deals with the struggles brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, we at WatchTime welcome insights from industry leaders on how they’re coping and planning for the future as dormant world economies begin to reopen. Recently, Hublot North America President Jean-Francois Sberro kindly consented to a candid, wide-ranging conversation about how his brand is steering through the crisis.

Jean-François Sberro, president, Hublot North America

MB:  Hublot shut down production at its manufacture on March 17. Some watch brands have shut down and partially re-started production since then. Where is Hublot right now in terms of both resuming manufacturing and launching new products to the market the rest of this year"
JFS:  Obviously, the current crisis is unprecedented, because of the extreme suddenness and also because of the scale of the economics consequences we are facing. It has required everybody in the company to be very flexible, to be very reactive, and to keep lucidity in making the right business decisions while also keeping the interests of our employees as high a priority as possible at all times. The health of our employees is vital because without the Hublot employee, there is no Hublot. That?s why the manufacture closed on March 17, and that?s why, in the U.S., it was almost a week before that we shut down our entire network in North America ? first our corporate offices in Florida, both in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, as wel...