Lunch with Nicolas Hayek

Yesterday was quite an unusual day for me. I was badly affected by the sudden rise in temperature here. I made me sleepy and lethargic all day long despite my rather heavy schedule. The cups of coffee I gulped down didn't help either.

I also had the longest drive ever to Zurich - two and half hours when it should normally take just over an hour. Friday afternoon traffic! Fortunately I made it in time for a concert which I will write about in my next post.

I attended lunch with some colleagues (I complained to Aisya who organised it why was it held on a Friday when I should be at the mosque!). Our guest of honour, and sitting next to me was Nicolas Hayek. He was the President of Swatch Group AG (also called as Swatch Group Ltd.). He was the one who played a decisive role in the recovery of the Swatch Group with its watch brands Swatch, Blancpain, Omega, Longines, Rado, Tissot, Certina, Mido, Hamilton, Pierre Balmain, Calvin Klein, Brequet and Lanco. Apparently the strategies he developed in the early 1980s led to the success of the entire Swiss watch industry and regained its leading position worldwide since 1984. Hayek is also listed in Forbes list of the world's billionaires!

The Lebanese-born Swiss came across as a pleasant, interesting and articulate man of 81 years old, so full of zest and ideas. He was wearing four watches, two on each hand, complementing two Swatches with two other expensive brand watches. He was quite taken up with my watch - I was wearing a 1966 gold Omega Constellation in leather strap; I bought it in an antique market in Zagreb three years ago. I told him I collect old Omega watches in gold and he liked that, Omega being one of the brands in his stable. He talked about some of the spokesman for Omega like George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. Interesting! I should have asked him about Aiswarya Rai (for Longines) too. We also talked about Roger Federer, whom I thought showed a lot of modesty when he openly cried having lost to Nadal recently but Hayek thought otherwise! Federer was above him in the list of world billionaires and he jokingly said the crying incident should put Federer below him!!!

The man was interesting and knew everything! I threw in a few subjects and he had a view on all of them, very succinct ones too. It was indeed an interesting meeting and I was glad to have met the man and I look forward to meeting him again. I also asked him if I wanted to buy one final watch what brand should I buy (the director of the Watch Museum here told me a " Patek Philippe") and he unhesitatingly said an Omega. But my dear Mr Hayek, I already have five Omegas.....