Image courtesy of Roger DubuisRecently, received news that longtime Roger Dubuis CEO,?Jean-Marc Pontroue, would be leaving his post in order to take on the role of CEO at Panerai starting in April of 2018. Before becoming CEO at Roger Dubuis,?Jean-Marc Pontroue excelled in numerous positions at luxury brands like Givenchy and Montblanc, where he worked as?Vice President of Products Strategy. Also evident is the fact that Richemont is still in the process of restructuring after announcing a major move to abolish their CEO position and several internal CEO shakeups not long ago. For Panerai (a brand that often looks to the past to fuel their current and future successes) this could mean a new era of creative innovation considering how well Jean-Marc Pontroue has been at spearheading creative and consumer-focused efforts in his previous roles.For a while now, Roger Dubuis has been an industry leader in executing designs with interesting materials and techniques that arent necessarily common at other brands. This was evident during SIHH 2017 with watches like the?Excalibur Quatuor Cobalt MicroMelt and the Excalibur Carbon Spider, which utilized carbon for the?movement plate, bridges, and tourbillon upper cage for the first time ever. During his tenure at Roger Dubuis, Jean-Marc Pontroue managed to streamline the brands collections, increase efficiency, set and maintain production figures, and foster meaningful partnerships like the recent connection with Lamborghini. Needless to say, he has also been very vocal about the importance of originality and standing out from other brands, no matter what market youre focusing on. As a result, Roger Dubuis has been constantly pushing bold designs and out-of-the-box collaborations like the?Excalibur Spider Pirelli Automatic Skeleton watch we went hands-on with here. Considering Panerais usual game plan centering on re-releases and heritage pieces, it will be interesting to see what the future holds with a leader like?Jean-Marc Pontroue at the helm. At times, theyve been criticized for drifting far from their roots?as well as?historical inaccuracies. But, weve also seen Panerais ability to experiment with new materials and in some ways, this?Panerai LAB-ID Luminor 1950 Carbotech almost feels like its actually Roger Dubuis-inspired. All things considered, its safe to say that Panerai has much to gain from a focused CEO with experience in product development, streamlining collections, in-house development, and meaningful partnerships. Will we be seeing more interesting releases from Panerai under this new leadership? It might be too early to tell, but the possibility is there and wed actually welcome it. Also, with SIHH 2018 right around the corner, one can only wonder if Mr. Pontroue has already had a hand in any?soon-to-be releases or new Panerai initiatives. spoke with a very enthusiastic Mr. Jean-Marc Pontroue about the new role at his favorite Italian watch brand. It is standard protocol for many watch brand CEOs to take a few months prior to giving formal interviews. Jean-Marc will be sharing more about his plans and ambitions at Panerai with in the spring or summer of 2018. [...]