Nicolas Hayek

Time is Money: The 26 Richest Swiss Watch Barons

Each year the respected Swiss business magazine, Bilan, publishes a list of the 300 richest Swiss with a rough estimate of their fortunes. For this article we examined the list for you to see which members of the watch industry made the ranking. Here they are:

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Dec 3, 2014 by Jay Deshpande

Sponsored: Gerald Charles Introduces Maestro 9.0 Tourbillon

Introducing a new age of technical aestheticism, Gerald Charles debuts its Maestro 9.0 Tourbillon. With a unique design created with the expert oversight of the brand’s creative director, Octavio Garcia, the timepiece is a return to the original Maestro flying tourbillon released in 2005. Taking hints from the brand’s rich history, the new release is...

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Mar 21, 2023 by WatchTime

Exclusive: Watch Insider Interviews Swatch Group CEO Nick Hayek, Jr.

Nick Hayek, Jr., CEO of the Swatch Group, is the conductor of Switzerland’s biggest horological orchestra, with 29,600 employees and a turnover in 2012 of 8.143 billion Swiss francs. I invite you to listen to our conversation, taped yesterday at the Swatch Group HQ, and appearing on my blog, Watch-Insider.com.

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Jul 11, 2013 by Alexander Linz

Omega Unveils Seamaster 15,000 Gauss, the World’s Most Antimagnetic Watch

Omega, which pioneered the use of innovative new materials and technologies in watchmaking, has introduced perhaps its most impressive technological accomplishment in recent years, the development of a wristwatch that is resistant to magnetic fields greater than 15,000 gauss, a level far exceeding that of any other watch.

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Mar 18, 2013 by Mark Bernardo

Comco Opens New Swatch Group Investigation

The Swiss Competition Commission (Comco) has announced that it is opening an investigation against Swatch Group arising out of the Group’s plan to stop supplying mechanical watch movements and components to third parties. Comco said yesterday that the purpose of the investigation is to determine whether Swatch Group’s decision is an abuse of its dominant...

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Jun 9, 2011 by WatchTime

2010: The Year in Review Quiz, Part I

Have you been following the news for the past 12 months? Say goodbye to 2010 with this quiz that focuses on some of the year’s most (and least) important stories. As always, the answers appear at the end. Good luck!

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Dec 25, 2010 by WatchTime

Swatch Group First Half Sales and Profits Jump to Record Levels

Swatch Group’s gross sales for the first half of 2010 exceeded SFr.3 billion for the first time ever, topping the 2008 record, and the future looks bright, thanks largely to China and Russia. The Group’s Chief Executive Nick Hayek told Reuters “We do not see what could keep us from achieving record sales and profit...

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Aug 4, 2010 by WatchTime

Swatch Group Takes Over Swiss Movement Maker Tanzarella Ltd.

Swatch Group announced today that it will take over Swiss-based watch movement maker Tanzarella Ltd. The takeover, effective July 12, will be achieved by transferring Tanzarella assets to a newly-founded Swatch Group company called Assemti Ltd. The new company will operate from Tanzarella’s present location in Riazzino / Locarno. The Swatch Group Ltd. will acquire...

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Jul 5, 2010 by WatchTime

Nayla Hayek Named Swatch Group Chairwoman

Nayla Hayek has been named chairwoman of the Swatch Group Ltd., succeeding her father, Nicolas G. Hayek, who died of heart failure at Swatch Group headquarters in Bienne, Switzerland on June 28. She was elected by a unanimous vote of the board of directors on June 30. Previously, she was vice-chairman of the board.

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Jul 2, 2010 by Joe Thompson

Switzerland Mourns Its Watch “Messiah”

Switzerland has responded to the sudden death of Swatch Group Chairman Nicolas G. Hayek on June 28 with a rare outpouring of grief, praise, and appreciation. Hayek, 82, was born in Beirut, Lebanon, but grew up in Switzerland and spent his entire professional life there. Hayek has been a prominent public figure in the country...

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Jul 1, 2010 by Joe Thompson

Swatch Group Chairman Nicolas G. Hayek Dies at Age 82

Swatch Group AG founder and chairman Nicolas Hayek died unexpectedly from heart failure at his office earlier today. He was 82. Hayek, a colorful entrepreneur and one of Switzerland’s leading businessmen, was credited with saving the Swiss watch industry.

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Jun 28, 2010 by WatchTime

Breguet Manuscript Brings Over $2 Million at Patrizzi Auction

Patrizzi & Co. sold a manuscript by Abraham-Louis Breguet for a record 2.3 million Swiss Francs (approx. $2,078,000) on Friday, May 7, in Geneva. Nicolas G. Hayek, president and CEO of Montres Breguet S.A. purchased the 354-page document on behalf of the Breguet Museum in Paris. Dictated by Breguet to his assistant over the last...

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May 12, 2010 by WatchTime

Swatch Group Chairman Wants to Stop Deliveries to Competitors

Reuters is reporting that in a recent interview published in the Swiss daily l’agefi, Swatch Group Chairman Nicolas Hayek said the group plans to stop selling watch parts to other brands. Swatch Group supplies movements and crucial components to many brands through its ETA unit. “We no longer intend to produce or deliver to third-party...

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Dec 29, 2009 by WatchTime

Omega President Stephen Urquhart: The WatchTime Interview

With its marketing blitz for the 40th anniversary Moon Watch, the opening of its own boutique on New York’s fashionable Fifth Avenue, and the long-term renewal of its official Olympic timing deal, 2009 has been a big year for Swiss-watch powerhouse Omega. WatchTime recently conducted an exclusive interview with the brand’s president, Stephen Urquhart, in...

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Nov 30, 2009 by Mark Bernardo

Omega to be Official Olympic Timekeeper Through 2020

Omega has signed an agreement with the IOC to be the official timekeeper for the Olympic Games through 2020. The signing ceremony and announcement took place at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. Omega’s relationship with the Olympics dates to the 1932 Los Angeles games, where they became the first company entrusted with the official...

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Oct 2, 2009 by WatchTime

Breguet Marie-Antoinette No. 1160 Coming to LA and NYC

Breguet No. 160 generated two of the greatest mysteries in watchmaking: who ordered it, and who stole it? Commissioned by an unknown admirer of Marie-Antoinette in 1783 as a gift for the queen, it was not completed until 1827, 34 years after her death. In 1983 it was stolen from a Jerusalem museum in a...

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Sep 25, 2009 by WatchTime

Foundation Stone Ceremony for Jaquet Droz

On September 9, 2009, Nicolas G. Hayek, Chairman of the Swatch Group, Nick Hayek, CEO of the Swatch Group, and Manuel Emch, President of Montres Jaquet Droz, laid the foundation stone of the new Jaquet Droz Manufacture located in the small, green valley of Le Crêt-du-Locle in the Neuchâtel Mountains.

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Sep 19, 2009 by WatchTime

Breguet at the Louvre: An Apogee of European Watchmaking

Apogee means culmination or high point. In astronomy, it refers to the point in a heavenly body’s orbit when it is furthest from earth, or, in other words, when it is most out of this world. All of these describe “Breguet at the Louvre,” a retrospective exhibition that runs through September 7.

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Jul 29, 2009 by WatchTime