Raymond Weil celebrates turning 50 in our London Studio

Russell Sheldrake

We love a good party here at Time+Tide, and so when Raymond Weil said they needed somewhere to host the UK leg of their Legacy Tour to celebrate turning 50, we knew it was the perfect excuse to get the canapés out. While 50 doesn’t sound that old in an industry that regularly celebrates anniversaries in triple digits, the big accomplishment here is that Raymond Weil is still owned and run by the same family that founded it. The current CEO, Elie Bernheim, is the third generation of his family to run the company founded by his grandfather, and we had him and his team in our London Studio last night to mark the special occasion with fans of the brand from across the country.

This is just one stop for the Raymond Weil team, who have been travelling the world connecting with their collectors worldwide on this Legacy Tour. And travelling with them this whole time is a collection of 50 watches that represent the 50 years of the brand’s history, showing the breadth and depth of what Raymond Weil has produced over the years. There is everything here from delicately shaped dress watches to chunky sports pieces and complications that don’t appear in the current catalogue.

I’ve been lucky enough to discuss this anniversary with Elie before, when we caught up just before Watches and Wonders this year. So for those in the room, we had a mini version of this chat where Elie gave some extremely personal perspectives of what it’s like to leading his family business through its 50th anniversary. And this is something that I have always struggled to really understand, as he has grown up with this company in his family, having seen it grow with him as a young boy, to now taking it around the world, winning GPHG awards. It has been all encompassing for him, and this acts as a moment for him to step back and reflect on what he and his family have achieved over the last five decades.

You could feel in the room the impact that this brand has had and continues to have to this day, with one gent sharing a story of his mother wearing a Raymond Weil through the airport, being approached by a stranger who then revealed himself to be ‘the’ Raymond Weil. The engagement from the room was clear from the start as well, with the vintage and modern pieces all getting mobbed with attention and questions flying in from collectors curious to know about the brand, its product, and its future.

There was, of course, a lot of focus on the brand’s latest release, the A.R.T. collection, as its first foray into integrated bracelet watches. This would have been everyone’s first chance to get hands on with them and discover what they are really like. And this was a truly unique setting to discover a new watch, surrounded by pretty much the entire brand’s catalogue in our display cases, an incredible collection of vintage pieces, and the entire Raymond Weil team on hand to answer questions and talk it through. You only get that at a Time+Tide event.