My Métier d’Excellence
I’m a Watchmaking Instructor at the Hublot École d’Horlogerie. My primary activity is teaching the métier of watchmaking to our apprentices. They are on a four-year course during which they learn the fundamentals of watchmaking and then apply them while working at the Maison.
Passing on the métier to new generations
Throughout my career I’ve been involved in training young people, so this is definitely something that really motivates me. In addition to my personal interest in this métier, I think it’s extremely important, because if nobody takes the time to teach these unique skills, the savoir-faire will simply disappear. Ensuring the future of this expertise is the raison d’être of the Hublot École d’Horlogerie.
My advice for someone starting out in this profession
Be passionate. These are very complex métiers that take quite some time to master, so if you aren’t totally motivated and have a real taste for small components and precision, it would be hard to succeed. Watchmaking métiers are applied arts, which is why I think passion is essential to succeed.
The most important things you need for this métier
You have to be patient and meticulous to be a watchmaker. A single piece can require nearly 100 days to craft and contain a multitude of very small components that must be assembled in sometimes very complicated ways. As for my role as an instructor, you must of course be generous and share what you know with students with real passion.
An anecdote
I was recruited by Hublot to set up the École d’Horlogerie in 2016. So seeing our first apprentices receive their degrees in 2020 was a very moving experience, creating a feeling of having accomplished something important after having been given a blank page to create the school. When their parents said “Congratulations and thank you for having taught my child a métier”, it was an absolutely marvelous reward.