Efraim Grinberg developed a love of watches naturally—he inherited it from his father, Gedalio “Gerry” Grinberg. The elder Grinberg founded the North American Watch Corporation, the US distributor for Piaget, which was the precursor to today’s Movado Group.
“I grew up in watches, thanks to my father,” Grinberg says. “I knew you could do a lot of things to make a living, but there were very few jobs where I could make products that I loved and have an emotional connection to the consumer.
“Watches are one of the great accessories that both men and women can wear,” he continues. “I am often asked if cell phones and smart phones will replace watches, and my answer is that there always have been more convenient and less expensive ways to tell time, yet people gravitate towards fine watches and it will continue to be this way. There are trends that come and go, but fine watches are here to stay.”
Grinberg looks forward to going to work each day, anxious to continue to work on the Movado Group brands (Movado, Ebel, Concord and ESQ Movado) and its licensed brands (Scuderia Ferrari, Hugo Boss, Juicy Couture, Tommy Hilfiger and Coach). “I love that I get to work with great brands, not just our brands but also our licensed brands, which are tremendous, iconic brands around the world,” Grinberg says. “There is a lot of love for these brands and we are fortunate that we can make their watches. I get inspired by all this and the creative people I get to work with.”
The creation of new products is one of the things Grinberg enjoys the most. “One of my favorite projects is the new Movado Edge collection, because we got to work with one of the world’s greatest industrial designers, Yves Béhar,” Grinberg details. “Béhar took the original Museum watch and figured out how to evolve it using the original as inspiration. I saw Béhar on a panel at the Aspen Ideas Festival talking about design in the 21st century. I knew he grew up in Lausanne, Switzerland, so I introduced myself after the panel, and asked him if he ever thought about designing a watch. He said ‘yes’ with such enthusiasm, we started working on the project right away.”
Grinberg is bullish on the future of the watch industry, while acknowledging the challenges facing global brands. “There are always regions and countries that are growing and others that aren’t,” he says. “You can really see the instability in parts of the world – some areas have been very volatile. What we try to do is offer the consumer a tremendous amount of innovation.
“It’s important to me that people know that we have a long-term vision and we are very consumer focused,” he adds. “We listen to our consumers and we try to deliver products that they will love and have an emotional connection with. At a time when you are seeing a lot of utility in the watch category, it’s important for fine watches to have an emotional connection.”
—Keith W. Strandberg
