“Eighty per cent of watches are round which means 80 per cent of people look the same,” Laurent Lecamp begins as he explains the DNA of the Geneva-based Cyrus watch brand he launched with his cousin Julien last year.
Cyrus’s spirit of conquest and Croesus’s renowned wealth inspired the Klepcys watch
Just 34, with model looks, Laurent Lecamp’s meticulous attention to detail and obsession with uniqueness and luxury is mirrored in the ambitious project to make distinguished – and distinguishing – timepieces.
Cyrus displays its distinctiveness, novelty and attractiveness in abundance through its two award-winning collections Kuros and Klepcys unveiled only last summer and brought to Malta by Gaba Diamonds in November.
“It is not logical for a watch to be round,” he continues. “The wrist is not round. A round watch means there will be spaces between the watch and the wrist. And the crown will probably hurt. It is not logical, but people accept it because it has been so for 200 years. We decided to create a logical shape. People first consider the movement or the design of a watch, but the shape is extremely important. We started the Cyrus concept from the shape.”
Mr Lecamp says the brand was conceived to fill a void in the watch market. After holding roles at Louis Vuitton Group and later Porsche around Europe, he moved to France and started a venture for fun surrounding musicals while studying at business school.
Back in Switzerland a watchmaker who had experienced a couple of business challenges saw Mr Lecamp had a passion for luxury goods and asked him to join his company. Over three years, Mr Lecamp says he learnt everything about watch-making and studied for a GIA diploma, but in the end preferred to branch out on his own after a clash of ideas.
After four years of research and testing on more than 500 wrists, Cyrus was ready to market its novelty: a design to suit any wrist perfectly. It has since been patented in 158 countries. But at the core of the Cyrus brand is the marriage of historical and mechanical values.
Reluctant to give the project the family name, Mr Lecamp named the brand after Cyrus the Great, the first king of ancient Persia and author of the first known charter of human rights. In 539 BC, Cyrus conquered Babylon, freed the slaves, and gave them the freedom to choose their faith. Some years earlier, Cyrus’s encountered his enemy-turned -advisor Croesus, King of Lydia, creator of the first coin with which to conduct business.
Mr Lecamp’s fascination with these figures – Cyrus’s spirit of conquest and Croesus’s renowned wealth – inspired the Klepcys watch, produced in limited editions in two versions: red gold, and white gold with black titanium DLC.
Its intricate face seals a mechanism with three remarkable features. A retrograde hand moves along a 180-degree axis and changes colour depending on the time of day or night. The minute and second discs are always aligned, no matter the position of the hour hand.
The units digits on the date display rest on top of each other, while the tens digits change before the units digits. Whenever a tens digit reaches nine, it moves in retrograde and rotates 90 degrees to make way for the next tens digit that will be placed before the zero digit.
Meanwhile, lunar phases are indicated by a black patch slowly moving over a full gold moon complete with crater images. The three-part Cyrus logo is revealed when the moon is completely covered.
Family businesses in the watch industry are disappearing
A replica, in gold, of a coin used during Cyrus’s reign 2,500 years ago sits snugly in the case back, almost as a seal of approval. The coin portrays a lion fighting a bull, symbols of Cyrus, Croesus and Babylon. Replica gold coins are also encased on the back of two-tone titanium and red gold versions of models in the Kuros collection.
“We developed certified copies of the coin and we put them on the back of each Cyrus watch,” Mr Lecamp explains. “Once you wear a Cyrus, you are wearing more than a watch. You wear a worldwide patented shape, and a patented design. Every component is Cyrus’s own design and all are Swiss made. The Koros collection bears features in titanium which is polished, brushed and sandblasted. It is very unique to have three types of finish at such a price level. The Koros collection is elaborate and very sophisticated. Every watch is numbered under the crown. Luxury is about detail.”
In a matter of months, the Lecamps have caused ripples on the watchmaker circuit. Cyrus was named Best Independent Brand at the Nuit de l’Horologerie, the exclusive Monaco competition. The Kuros model won third prize in the design category at the Watch Oscars, while the Klepcys model placed fourth in the complications category. Jean Francois Mojon, who designed the watches’ movement, was named Best Watchmaker at the 2010 Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix.
Originally from a village in Nice, the Lecamps are known in Switzerland as the ‘double cousins of the watch industry’ – their mothers are twins, their fathers are brothers.
“Family businesses in the watch industry are disappearing,” Mr Lecamp says. “There are only a few brands with a family business spirit: Julien is the designer, and as chief executive I market the brand myself in most regions. “In China, where I do not speak the language, we have a distributor. I have an agent in South America, because it is too far to travel. Otherwise, I willingly travel to meet customers, even for just one making an enquiry. I have spent the last nine months marketing Cyrus around the world.”
Cyrus has now been carefully entrusted with select retailers in major destinations including London’s New Bond Street, Monaco, Switzerland, and Hong Kong. Cyrus also sells directly to a growing number of private customers.
Mr Laurent says Cyrus prides itself on its capability to sit comfortably alongside long-established brands like Patek Philippe with retailers, and to win prizes in competitions entered into by names such as Audemars Piguet.
“I travel to meet the end customers myself because it gives me the opportunity to explain the passion behind the brand. It is important for brands to be close to their customers. Many large brands cannot do that. My parents were teachers and I lecture about luxury goods at universities and business schools when I can.”
In the medium-term, Cyrus is now looking to establish a presence in Russia, South America and China. Mr Lecamp is also examining the potential of placing the Cyrus name on “some other ideas”.
Meanwhile, the brand is preparing to launch a ladies collection in 2013.