Philippe Charriol: I first came here in 1973 and 1974 during the war.

It was quite an extraordinary experience.

I was just a young businessman.

I didn’t do any business here, but I had a good time.

I came here again more than 10 years ago to visit a friend from Hong Kong who opened a restaurant here.

Swiss watch and luxury accessories entrepreneur Philippe Charriol

Then I felt the time was coming for better merchandise and we found a distributor and opened our first store here in 2005.

Since then, many brands have started to come but it is still an emerging territory compared to some countries around it.

But don’t worry.

It will come very fast.

It is like a plague.

It will come all at once.

[There will be] French, Italian and Swiss brands – Swiss for the watches and jewelry.

Is it profitable to do business here?

We are in the business of so-called luxury.

Of course, in countries like Vietnam, there are rich people and poor people.

We provide better merchandise at the higher prices for those who can afford it.

We are not selling to all [Vietnamese] people.

There are entrepreneurs and people who want better merchandise, better watches.

Then there is good growth.

What is special about watches?

For many years, having a watch on your wrist was very important.

It showed you the time.

Today, it is less and less important.

First, everybody has a watch – cheap or expensive.

Second, everybody has things like computers or cell phones and the time appears everywhere and it is extremely accurate.

Today, the object by itself – in its shape – is more important than giving the time.

The trend is changing and whether for men or ladies, we are talking here about better merchandise, not basic merchandise.

We are talking about elegance and luxury watches, if you want.

It’s where brands are very important.

And a brand is something that takes a long time to build.

You need luck, hard work, perseverance and talent.

It’s like making mayonnaise.

You mix the ingredients together and suddenly, in one second, you have beautiful mayonnaise.

Sometimes it doesn’t work.

But sometimes it does.

A monster conglomerate can spend huge amounts of money and a basic product can become a well-known brand.

It’s more difficult for my type of family business because I don’t have at my disposal the power and leverage that some big brands from big conglomerates have.

And once [the brand] is built, there is a lot of inertia.

The bigger you build it, the more inertia you get.

In China and even here, some brands were known 30 or 40 years ago and then disappeared for 40 years.

But they were still in the memory of the family and fathers and then when the system changed, they started like new again.

We have to remember the first thing which makes things different from each other is the name.

People read the name first.

You see ‘Valentino’ on a shirt and then you think, ‘It must be good’ [not the other way around].

And if the name is very famous, the price never exaggerates.

You accept the price to pay for the brand because it gives you some special features and style you are looking for.

Some brands give you more features, more style than others.

What makes your brand different from others?

I’m known for the use of cable – steel and gold cable.

That feature is unique.

Whenever someone is wearing a watch with anything cable, you can pick out from 10 meters that it is a Charriol product.

Others have their own features.

They are very beautiful, but their features are not recognizable from afar.

All luxury brands have their slogans. What is yours?

It’s ‘l’Art de Vivre la Difference.’ What it says is that we try to be different.

I just saw a beautiful shirt made by one of your people and bought it because it is different.

Some guy at Central Park may ask me where I bought it and I’ll say I bought it in Saigon.

When it comes to luxury watches, what is the difference in tastes between Asia and Western countries?

Asian ladies, who constitute the majority of my consumers, still like small watches.

In Europe and America, ladies buy even bigger watches than men.

Because there, they [watches] have become a decorative object, not a watch.

It is like you buy a bag because it is a new bag and you buy a watch because it is a new watch.

Rich men like complicated movements.

It is a fad.

I don’t do complications.

I sell more style.

Why did you target the Asian market when you first started Charriol?

It was easier for me to invest in smaller countries and territories like Hong Kong and Singapore than in major territories.

Smaller countries react faster than big countries.

If you are a distributor in Japan or the States, you have to plan.

But in places like Singapore, it happens [quickly].

I was also accepted in the Middle East where the countries are small but they are very important buyers.

Everyone is rich.

But it’s not because they are wealthy that they buy.

If they don’t like, they won’t buy.

I was very lucky.

In the 80s, gold color was very popular.

At that time, I came into the market with [gold].

So people, especially in the Middle East, became crazy with this new style.

How different is doing business in Vietnam compared to other Asian [markets]?

In [markets] like Singapore and Hong Kong, most people know about us.

In this country, we have to do a lot of promotion to inform the Vietnamese that we [sell] beautiful watches, jelwery, writing instruments and eyewear.

The challenge is to be associated with the right people to do the right promotion for the brand.

After 25 years of running Charriol, what are you yet to achieve?

I do believe what I do is the best.

But then, sometimes I’m not strong enough to convince customers that it ‘s my brand they should pay attention to.

We have some successes and some failures, which is life.

I’ll keep trying.

There’s never an end to anything.

Today my brand is present in 60 countries but there are still many countries where I’m not and which I have been trying to penetrate but am unable to.

I’m still a little boy knocking on the doors and very often receive a “no, thank you very much.”

So it is like racing – you can never take the foot off the pedal.

We can never stop.

You have to be self-convinced.

You wake up every morning and you look into the mirror and tell yourself I’m the best-looking girl or boy in the world.

It’s hard but that’s the way we have to be.

Reported by Thuy Linh