NEWS: Breitling is the latest member of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, and why it matters

Felix Scholz

If you’re not familiar with the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (AKA the FHH), it’s one of the industry’s peak bodies, founded in 2005 to promote fine watchmaking in Switzerland and across the world. It’s an organisation with 43 partner brands, the most recent being Breitling.

This development should come as no massive surprise if you’ve been following the recent developments around Breitling, spearheaded by Georges Kern, who stepped away from Richemont to take Breitling’s top job. Mr Kern has worked his trademark magic on the blue-chip brand, seriously shaking up the Saint-Imier-based manufacture, including a streamlined product offering.

And while membership of the FHH, and alignment with spreading the message of fine watchmaking seems like a nice symbolic gesture, there’s actually a very tangible reason why it matters. The FHH is the organising body of the SIHH, and many FHH members (in addition to Richemont Group brands that dominate the Salon) also exhibit at the Salon. Does this announcement mean that an announcement about Breitling showing at SIHH is just around the corner?