Remy: Welcome back to Market Movers, the opening bell. In an era where everyone carries a smartphone, nobody buys a watch just to tell time anymore. It's about identity, status, and timeless heritage. Well, few companies know that better than Movado. From its signature single dot museum dial to global fashion powerhouses like Coach, Tommy Hilfiger, and a brand new worldwide deal with Kate Spade, Movado has built an accessible luxury empire across generations of shoppers. Now on Tuesday, Mavado Group chairman and CEO Ephraim Grinberg was up on the podium ringing the opening bell to celebrate 25 years on the big board. Thank you so much for joining us today and congratulations on ringing the bells.
Ephraim Grinberg: Oh, thank you, uh, Remy, for having me. It was, it was fantastic to be up here with my team and to get to celebrate 25 years of Mavado being on the New York Stock Exchange, but also 145 years of our Mavado brand's, uh, heritage. Um, and, um, so it's just a great venue to be able to do that.
Remy: Yeah, and congratulations on the anniversary as well as ringing the opening bell here at the exchange. So in this day and age we are talking about prime real estate on your wrists when we're talking about watches. Just given the advent of technology, smartphones and smart watches, so tell us about why Movado still takes up so much real estate on people's wrists.
Ephraim Grinberg: Well, I think it's, it's, you've always had alternatives of ways to tell time, whether it was the clock in your classrooms. Uh, when you're a kid, or inexpensive, um, watches. But really what watches have become is an emotional connection, uh, to people. They, they mark, um, special life events, um, and people become passionate about it. And what's great to see is a new young generation of consumers, um, involved in, in the heritage of watchmaking, involved in wanting to, um, To wear these products and, and, um, on their wrist, but not necessarily to tell time, um, really to, to get an emotional connection to, to the product and, and the category is seeing growth within young consumers and that's what's fantastic to see, um, and both for men and for women, uh, and I think social media. Uh, and, and the digital environment has really helped, uh, spur, uh, that desire, um, especially as, as Uh, consumers and especially young consumers choose to go analog reading books, um, wearing analog watches that are based on traditional designs.
Remy: Yes, and you bring up such an important point because there are so many trends out there, especially when we're talking about social media, but we all know that. Watches, timepieces aren't just about telling time. So it's really interesting to see the younger generation going analog yet once again. But when it comes to some of the brands, in particular Kate Spade, tell us what you're seeing and why.
Ephraim Grinberg: So Kate Spade is a new partnership that we're we're launching. In, in next spring. Um, and we've had a long, uh, partnership with Tapestry, uh, the parent brand of, of Kate Spade, uh, with their Coach brand, and, and Coach has been a phenomenal, um, brand and, and reaching, um, younger consumers, uh, and, and particularly in the watch category. And, um, so we're excited to partner with, with Kate Spade. We're obviously doing something completely different. Than what we're doing, um, with, with coach, and we think that, um, Kate is at the right time, uh, right now. They've brought in a new, a new design leader in Jonathan Saunders, and, and, uh, we're excited about that partnership.
Remy: And while I have you here, there is an old saying that time is money, and that is indeed true. So when it comes to timepieces, in particular, accessible luxury, tell us what Movato is focused on.
Ephraim Grinberg: So we're really focused on continuing to, to deliver on innovation. And, and, um, and we've seen the consumers are responding to new shapes and new sizes. Uh, but next year we'll be celebrating, uh, the 80th anniversary of our museum watch, which is the iconic design, uh, by, uh, a revolutionary American, uh, industrial designer, uh, at that time, Nathan George Horowitz, uh, was, uh, He was congratulated by Albert Einstein on, on taking, um, time down to its simplest form. Uh, and, and so we'll be celebrating that with a lot of innovation and, and products. Also going back to, uh, Mavado's heritage with the iconic museum lodge.
Remy: And speaking of heritage as well as brands, we know partnerships are very key. So tell us what you're focused on when it comes to some of these celebrity as well as icons out there.
Ephraim Grinberg: So, so we, we work with a, a, a great portfolio of, of what we consider iconic ambassadors, uh, one that I got to see, uh. Uh, play football on Sunday in, uh, Christian McCaffrey and, and had an outstanding game in, in, in, in their victory, uh, but also, uh, Ludacris and, and, uh, and Um, so it's, it's really been a, a fantastic, uh, partnership, um, with Julianne Moore as well to, to reach our, our, uh, uh, a different audience obviously than a Christian McCaffrey. I don't know, maybe they both reached the same audience because, uh, and, and Christian obviously, uh, just had a baby, uh, last week as well with, uh, his wife Olivia.
Remy: Yeah, speaking of celebrating momentous occasions in one's one's life history with timepieces, but of course when we're talking about Wall Street and being listed on the New York Stock Exchange this morning, you rang the opening bell. Your daughter Margaret was there, and 25 years ago you celebrated with your father here. So when we're talking about the importance of generational history with being public and responsible. To shareholders as well as stakeholders, how do you balance that up, Mavato?
Ephraim Grinberg: Um, so, so I think what, what, what having a family, um, involved public company allows us to do is really think long term, OK? Just like I was here 25 years ago and, um, and we've been operating with a long-term vision for our history. Things go up and down, um, markets have Cycles and and and we understand that um and what the capital markets have enabled us to do is have an extremely strong balance sheet to um withstand um cyclical environments and make sure that we continue to invest in in our people and our brands for the future.
Remy: Well, Efram, it was great having you here on FinTech TV. Thank you so much for joining us today here at the New York Stock Exchange.
Ephraim Grinberg: Thank you very much, Rennie. My pleasure.
