Gérard Horlogerie: a family business ticking on Reunion
Since 1978, the family-run shop Gérard Horlogerie has proudly preserved watchmaking know-how on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean.
By Arnaud Thomelin
Before he set foot on Reunion on June 25, 1978, Gérard Montandon had already done his share of gallivanting: Morteau, Brazzaville, Martinique, Le Havre, Ajaccio... He grew up in Pontarlier, Fance, and inherited a love of watchmaking from his Swiss origins. It was a passion that stayed with him all the time. During his military service in Africa in the mid-1950s, for example, he chose aviation, specifically the maintenance of navigational equipment. Back in civvies, he took his skills from town to town, island to island, workshop to workshop, always accompanied by his wife Madeleine and their two children.
In 1978 he landed on Réunion, a French island close to Madagascar and thirty minutes by air from Mauritius, “a place known for its hospitality,” he says. Once established, the Montandons wasted no time in opening a workshop right in the center of Saint-Denis, the capital of Réunion. The workshop was actually one of the rooms of the family apartment on the first floor of a building at 23, rue Pasteur. “At the time, it was quite strange to have the locals climb a flight of stairs and then go through a whole apartment to have a watch repaired,” Gérard’s son Patrick reminisces. Now in his forties, he manages the watchmaker’s workshop called “Gérard Horlogerie,” which was opened in 1979 at 30, rue Pasteur.
Everything new, nothing second hand
The workshop was named after its founder, Gérard Montandon, who passed away in 1997. Patrick, together with his wife Véronique, keeps the old fires burning. He is discreet about, but also proud of, his family business. He shows us his impeccable lair, which they found just a few months after arriving on the island. “It just ten square meters at the time [about 110 square feet],” says Patrick Montandon, “so we extended it in 1984 and again in 2003.” Madeleine, Patrick’s mother, is still very present at the shop. Recalling that early settlement period on Réunion is called to mind, this doyen of the business smiles: “It was an adventure!” To which Patrick adds: “We didn’t even know what a cyclone was…”
From 1983 until the early 1990s, Gérard Montandon tried – like many others – to combine horology and jewelry. “When poor quality jewelry started appearing in malls, he decided to stop producing jewelry and focus again on our core craft: watchmaking,” Patrick says, before stressing: "We are watchmakers, not jewelers!” And indeed they are watchmakers from A to Z, from sales (“everything new, nothing second-hand”), to repairs. “We are not only a workshop,” Patrick points out. “Our clients find added value in our advice, sale expertise and after-sale service… which is why we have so many clients.”
Pinging at €15,000
Another point: they charge mainland prices. At Gérard Horlogerie, transport costs and import taxes are not added to the selling price – a rare phenomenon on Réunion. “We believe that this pricing policy is a must as it attracts and maintains a local clientele that travels often and tends to think it would be easier to compare and find better prices elsewhere”.
Enthusiasts of beautiful watches on Reunion can thus find what they are looking for at normal prices. According to Patrick, watch aficionados in Reunion “are proportionally as numerous on the island as in the rest of the world.” Among the brands he represents we find Breitling, Omega, TAG Heuer, Longines, Bell & Ross, Oris, Hamilton, Seiko and more.
Patrick chooses the brands according to the local market. “Our clientele is diverse, sometimes well-to-do, and we encounter around ten genuine watch fans each month. However, the highest price ranges between €10,000 and €15,000. Any higher than that, demand is rare, so they are special orders. So buying products in the range is of no interest to us … especially in the current economic climate,”he muses. He is careful, even wary, with what he reveals which brands he sells and any other information about them. On the other hand, he quickly gets his gander up whenever the Internet is mentioned. “People buy anything and everything on the web with the excuse that it costs less. Then they come to us to repair their watches even though we do not carry the brand and we don’t have the spare parts. Nor do we want to. So we often refuse that kind of business. I am not the Internet’s repair shop!”
The bond with the symbol
As for clients of the real world, they, too, are sometimes disappointed, but for completely different reasons. Sometimes, Patrick just has to turn down the repair of an older watch. “Here on Réunion, it is difficult to find and import spare parts due to the distance. If we include transport costs and import taxes, the time spent for research, paperwork and repair, the final bill would be ridiculously expensive. I’d rather decline the repair job. However, you need to do with a pedagogical and even psychological touch… It is heart-breaking for some clients to be unable to offer a second (or further) life to a family watch.”
People’s attachment to symbols, to the personal history “that watches represent and will always represent,” gives Patrick reason to believe that watchmaking is not about to become obsolete any time soon. “Besides, if you need reassuring, you only have to look at all the efforts the brands are making towards innovations and perfections.” So there’s no fear that the watchmaking passion will persist with the Montandons as it has for more than a half-century. From one generation to the next. Their history is certainly not over: Nicolas, Patrick’s son, is currently training as a watchmaker.
Gérard Horlogerie
30, rue Pasteur
Saint-Denis de la Réunion
www.ateliergerard.com
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