Seth Semilof

Seth Semilof, Publisher of Haute Living magazine, has been a devoted watch enthusiast since he can remember. It was out of this passion that, last year, Semilof and business partner Kamal Hotchandani launched luxury timepiece website Haute Time. The two curate the site, hand-selecting all content that goes live. Semilof highlights his favorite—and the most sought-after—watch brands through weekly five-question interviews with the CEOs and Presidents of these top-tier companies. Finally, he curates the site on a daily basis, including three or more updates on newsworthy topics every day.

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Basel World Update: Inside Maximilian Büsser & Friends with Maximilian Büsser

During Basel World I got the chance to sit down with another powerful man in the watch industry, Maximilian Büsser. Maximilian Büsser is the creator of Maximilian Büsser & Friends, also known as the MB&F watch brand. My meeting with him was one of the most exciting all week. His company is very unique and all his watches, priced at $100,000 and up, are designed “outside the box.” On the MB&F website, the brand refers to itself as a “creative label.” Maximilian says it is not actually a brand at all, but a loose collective of artists that get together every READ MORE

Haute Time Sits Down With Sowind Group CEO, Michele Sofisti At Basel World For An Exclusive Interview

At Basel World, I got the opportunity to sit with Michele Sofisti, CEO of Sowind Group. As Haute Time readers know, PPR recently purchased a controlling stake of Sowind Group and Michele is now in charge of running the brands Girard-Perregaux, JeanRichard, and Gucci Timepieces. Haute Time wanted to take the opportunity to sit down with such a esteemed leader who has a great eye on the luxury watch market. There are also some very interesting things going on at Girard Perragaux that I wanted to discuss with him, including the hiring of Mike Margolis from Hublot as their North READ MORE

As the Pound Strengthens Breitling Reduce Prices

To counteract the escalating strength of the pound against the Swiss Franc, Breitling has reduced the price of their watches by 10%. On March 1st the price drop was applied to new and existing stock with recommended retail prices and trade prices both being reduced. Breitling stockholders will lose margin on the watches already in stores as the price drops, but the hit should not be to major, as it comes in the aftermath of three prices increases in the past 18 months. Breitling UK managing director Franz La Rosee has said that although retailers will seem some losses in READ MORE

Swiss Watchmakers Move Onto The Fragrance And Smartphone Industries

High end traditional makers of haute horlogerie are expanding their luxury goods lines, according to the New York Times. Broadening the brands give their followers the chance to become repeat customers without having to pay four or five figures for a watch. A few examples of these innovative spin-offs created by the luxury watchmakers include; Swiss watctmaker Bovet releasing their new fragrance at Basel World, Ulysse Nardin introducing an Android phone, and Girard-Perregaux released a watch-inspired pen along with a Tourbillon cuff-link resembling the1889 version of their tourbillon watch. Another example would be Omega, who traditionally sells jewelry and leather READ MORE

Basel World: Inside Tour Of The Ulysse Nardin Chairman Phones With Creator Bobby Yampolsky And Ulysse Nardin CEO Patrik P. Hoffmann

I was very excited to see Bobby Yampolsky and his team in the Ulysse Nardin Chairman Phone Booth during Basel World. For the past three years they have been investing a lot of time and money into launching one of the most sophisticated and truly fine timepiece phones on the market. Well, hard work pays off. I can tell you first hand these phone are amazing and work well with the Android Touchtone software. The night before our interview, I had the luxury of going out to dinner with the whole Ulysse Nardin team. From the CEO to the sales reps, everyone had READ MORE

Neglected Female Market Is The New Target of Watchmakers Reuters

The Swiss watchmaking industry is starting to design complex watch movements for the discarded female market that has customarily been dominated by timepieces for men looking to show off their position with a Rolex or Omega, In recent times the women’s market has mostly focused on simple, low-cost quartz watches or luxury diamond pieces with mind-blowing price tags. But Swiss watchmakers at the Baselworld fair announced they are now taking steps to create new collections of mechanical watches for women, especially since they are seen as a lucrative customer base as they will often buy more pieces than men as READ MORE