180 YEARS OF

Your father, Nicolas G. Hayek, is cited as the savior of
the Swiss watch industry, as well as a great visionary.
What, from your current perspective, were his most outstanding
achievements?
Yes, my father was truly a visionary who accomplished a
great deal in the watch industry. His most outstanding
achievements are well documented, and they continue to
be fresh in my mind today and will remain with me my
whole life.
e early 1980s was an exciting time. Your father’s decision
to merge the weakened watch groups SSIH and
ASUAG to create SMH (now known as Swatch Group)
was a revolutionary event for the watch industry as well
as for your family. How did you perceive this at the time?
As you say, it was a revolutionary event for us too, and it
demanded a huge amount of personal involvement and
emotion from my father and my mother as well.
What characteristics did you inherit from your father?
And what are among the most important things you
learned from him?
Nayla Hayek with
Pius Schwizer, winner
of the Longines
Trophy, at the CSIO
Switzerland 2011 in
St. Gallen
at is very dicult for me to judge. You would have to
ask the people who know me best. What I did learn from
him is most of all to be myself, and to believe in myself,
and remain true to myself.
You have been a successful horse breeder for many
years. Can you tell us exactly what you do?
Yes, I do breed horses. When I am with the horses I do
what all horse owners do – I look aer them, feed them,
I care …
What is it about horses that fascinates you?
Just like with people. Not every horse fascinates me to the
same extent. Each breed, and each horse within that
breed is so very dierent.
How do you coordinate this work with your responsibilities
as Chair of the Board of Directors at Swatch Group?
Sometimes it is dicult to keep everything under one
umbrella. But I try my best.
What characteristics does a successful breeder need to
bring to the table?
Patience and imagination are rst and foremost, along
with the courage to make decisions.
Are there parallels to the watch business?
Well, you can see for yourself …
Longines sponsors many dierent equestrian sports.
Does this give you a stronger emotional connection to
Longines?
I have a strong emotional connection to all the Swatch
Group watch brands. Watches are fascinating objects in
themselves. And naturally the equestrian world is very
close to my heart and is the reason why I’m oen present
at equestrian sporting events, especially when Longines
is responsible for ocial timekeeping.
Longines oers most of its watches in the price class that
ranges between 1000 and 4000 Swiss francs. Will that
remain so in the future?
is market position has proven itself to be very successful
for Longines and will most certainly remain so. But just like
most of the Swatch Group watch brands, Longines also
oers exclusive timepieces that cost a great deal more.
LONGINES SPECIAL WatchTime | 35