Transcript of the interview:
Antoine: Hello and welcome to our podcast on innovation makers. I'm delighted to welcome Xavier today, someone I've been working with for over 20 years. A long adventure, full of innovation. To start, Xavier, I'd love you to briefly introduce yourself, because your background is genuinely quite unique.
Xavier: Well, thank you so much for having me, Antoine. It is indeed a completely atypical path that goes off in all directions, but an interesting one. I started out as a professional footballer, because it was a dream. I had posters of players above my bed — I wanted that life. I lived it, and I was deeply disappointed by that dream. It happens. So I quit very early, at 22. I took over my father's business in metal construction — doors, windows, buildings. I didn't enjoy it at all, so I simply changed what I didn't like. What he did on a large scale, I did on a small scale. Instead of doors and windows, it became display cases — as if you were shrinking a building. And then I moved into watchmaking, partly by circumstance, but certainly because I loved it, and because our regional location means that watchmaking is simply where you have to be.
Antoine: I have another question that has always intrigued me: you're known for having eliminated the green glass domes in watchmaking. I imagine that idea didn't come to you one morning after your shower. How did that innovation come about?
Xavier: I think it's tied to my personality. I can't even tell you how it was born. I think it shows up in everything I do in life. It's simply about saying: "I don't want to follow others. I don't want to follow rules that were written by who knows who." I believe everything can be questioned. You have to give meaning to what you change — that's very important. You mustn't change for the sake of changing. And I find that the tools technology brings are exciting. I want to live in my time. Little by little, I questioned what I felt was worth questioning, and that led to innovation across nearly every area. But I think it comes down to a way of thinking, a curiosity, a personal quest — and the desire to go just a little further than everyone else.
Antoine: When we talk about innovation today, it's a word that's very widely used — even overused. In your view, what does innovation actually mean?
Xavier: First, you need to agree on what innovation actually is. There's innovation and there's improvement — improving a product is not innovating. For me, true innovation is something disruptive. You reinvent something, you unlearn what you've learned. It's genuinely tied to risk, to taking risks, to pursuing something completely new. It's really about asking: what has never been done before? Why would I go in this little direction? Why would I question everything? Einstein said it well: "If you never fail, you're not innovating." It's a staggering level of risk — people don't realise that.
Antoine: Can you tell us a bit about the origin story of the Raptor? Because the Raptor is truly emblematic of you — when it comes up, people immediately think of you.
Xavier: That's great to hear, because we created it together 20 years ago — it's really quite old now — but it perfectly sums up everything I've just said. I found myself in Jean-Claude Bibert's office, and he told me he wanted to create something that had never been seen before, something to present his products in a completely new way. And I said to him: "Are you ready to abandon everything we've seen so far?" The glass domes, the pedestals holding the watches, the side spotlight. He said yes. So I said: let's abandon all of it. We remove the glass dome — and everything that follows from that decision, meaning no more protective glass, suddenly you're faced with problems that need to be solved through technology. I hadn't thought of that beforehand. I thought: "How are we going to protect the product?" The technology came as a response to that problem. It's truly about unlearning what you've learned, with complete humility. You have to reinvent something entirely new, and you face technical and aesthetic challenges — and that's what we solved together.
Antoine: If you had to share an anecdote where you thought: "This is a real challenge, this is genuine innovation" — what would it be?
Xavier: I have plenty. The whole challenge of innovation is knowing how the public will receive something new. There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. You can invent the most extraordinary thing in the world — if the public isn't ready for it, it won't work. You always have to anticipate. But the anecdote that has stayed with me most personally is more emotional. It was at Baselworld, with Mr. Hayek, the CEO of the Swatch Group, who was 80 years old at the time. I had him try the pulsograph, a device that lets you hear the vibrations of each component inside the watch. Suddenly, he called his team over and asked them to bring a double tourbillon — and I watched this 80-year-old man, immensely powerful, get down on his knees and listen to the vibrations of his watches, for minutes and minutes. He turned his head to me and said: "It's extraordinary, monsieur." That day, I told myself: everything I've tried to do — awaken the child within us — here was an 80-year-old, incredibly powerful man who needed to dream. I was exactly where I needed to be.
Antoine: What a beautiful story — I could hear it ten times. For a few years now, you've spoken a lot about the Romanelle Valley and you're a fierce defender of Switzerland. Can you tell us more?
Xavier: That one was a bit provocative — I do enjoy a little provocation. With a photographer friend, we were just below my house in Romanel, 200 metres away, on a piece of wasteland. We were photographing display cases, sunset light, listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, telling ourselves: "We're in Los Angeles!" On social media, I tagged Los Angeles — everyone believed it completely. I played on that because it was actually in Switzerland, it looked very much like Los Angeles, as if we weren't capable of innovating ourselves. Is Silicon Valley better than us? I don't think so. In Switzerland, we are every bit as good. It's time to stop with the snobbery of thinking things are always better elsewhere. All that buzz was shot 200 metres from my house. I use it in all my talks. It's not Los Angeles — it's the Romanelle Valley.
Antoine: And one last question, an important one: if you had to sum up innovation in a single word, what would it be?
Xavier: For me, it's risk. People don't measure that. They think innovating is easy. In every project we've worked on over 20 years, it's an extraordinary act of risk-taking. You don't know if it'll work, if the public will love it, if it'll sell, if you'll be able to produce it. You need a great deal of humility, because you can lose everything — we've put our businesses almost in danger, financially and technologically. But it's an extraordinary mindset. I'm truly glad we've been doing this for 20 years, and that we have 20 more extraordinary years ahead.
Antoine: A huge thank you for your testimony today. You can find all of Xavier's display cases, projects, photos and videos at www.ditelin.ch. Many thanks, and here's to the next 20 years of working together.
Xavier: Thank you so much, Antoine — see you very soon for new projects!