his special relationship began as a solid friendship between two men: Raymond Weil and Gilbert Maillard. The pair met in the 1940s, as business students in Geneva. Gilbert was Swiss, Fribourg born-and-bred. Raymond and his family had fled the nazis, crossing the border on foot through the snow to find refuge in Switzerland.

Raymond made a career in the watch industry and by the mid-1970s was managing Camy, then a thriving concern. Gilbert, meanwhile, was at the head of Europa Star, founded in 1927 by his father-in-law, Hugo Buchser.

A gifted salesman, Raymond maintained a global network of loyal contacts and kept his ear to the ground as he travelled to markets around the world. Unhappy with the direction Camy’s owners, the Stroun family, wanted to take, he resigned his position to set up his own company. But this was the mid-70s and watchmaking was an industry in turmoil, its fundamentals challenged by quartz. For many, Raymond’s idea was doomed to failure.

Raymond Weil’s first appearance in Europa Star Eastern Jeweler and Watchmaker, 1975/02

©Archives Europa Star

Naturally, he confided in his friend. What did he think? Gilbert, who knew the watch industry better than anyone, encouraged him to put his plan into action, promising Raymond editorial and advertising support to help build his brand - a then secondary notion. At that time, Europa Star (still officially Hugo Buchser SA) was also an advertising agency which had developed the Royal Oak launch campaign for Audemars Piguet in 1972 (Gilbert and Gérald Genta had been schoolfriends, but that’s another story).

Raymond Weil planned to propose a large choice of elegant, affordable, Swiss-made watches and to release new models on a regular basis. He was confident there would be no shortage of distributors, agents or retailers interested in such an offering but before producing his first watch, or even officially launching his brand, and having reached out to his connections, his priority was to build a network - an international one. Raymond Weil placed his first advert in Europa Star (which was still personally addressed to professionals in more than 120 countries). The year was 1975. His company was poised for takeoff and Raymond sat down to talk business at the Basel fair where else but on the Europa Star booth.

Raymond Weil’s first cover, Europa Star Eastern Jeweler and Watchmaker, 1978/02

©Archives Europa Star

Quality and choice

The new brand had plenty to offer in terms of products and positioning - a wide range of stylish, on-trend designs, affordable prices and rapid delivery times - but Raymond’s contemporaries remained convinced that launching in the current ultra-competitive, complex environment was madness. The markets thought otherwise. Raymond Weil SA was established in 1976 and two years later featured on the front cover of Europa Star.

Many more adverts followed, intended to show the range and diversity of the watches on offer. Quartz-powered and Made in Switzerland, they were well-designed with something for all tastes, from traditional to fashionable. Not to mention a value proposition that was hard to beat.

Europa Star Eastern Jeweler and Watchmaker, 1979/04

©Archives Europa Star

Defining a brand image

The company went from strength to strength, building on sales in a large number of markets across several continents. With success came the question of brand image. Beyond the watches themselves, what was the identity of Raymond Weil?

The first unified image and the first actual collection, the Golden Eagle, saw daylight in 1980. Whereas previously the focus had been on maintaining a multiplicity of models, the new strategy was to build collections that boasted a strong, recognisable identity, with greater added value. At the same time, the brand stepped up its international development, expanding into the Middle East, United States and United Kingdom, soon followed by India, the USSR, Australia, Northern Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mexico, Chile and Morocco.

Europa Star Eastern Jeweler and Watchmaker, 1980/064

©Archives Europa Star

The red triangle

Communication was still heavily focused on the products themselves, while brand name and image took a back seat. The Raymond Weil signature was the guarantee of quality and value, but it wasn’t at the core of the brand.

Olivier Bernheim, Raymond Weil’s son-in-law, joined the company in 1982. His arrival coincided with a change of pace in the watch world, marked by the emergence of global brands. Olivier, who was familiar with the workings of multinational corporations, sensed that the combination of design, quality, value and Swiss identity formed a unique selling point and that now was the time to move to the next level and establish Raymond Weil as a brand.

The inflection point came shortly after when - still in the pages of Europa Star - the red triangle (an unusual colour in watchmaking) made its first appearance.

The famous Amadeus campaign, Europa Star, 1982-1983

©Archives Europa Star

With the campaign still fresh, the planets aligned. In 1983 the brand had introduced the Amadeus collection, named after Peter Shaffer’s play about the young Mozart which this family of music-lovers had seen in Paris.

In Zurich for a promotional screening, the team behind Milos Forman’s film adaptation of the stage production spotted the Amadeus watch in Europa Star and reached out to Olivier Bernheim. The film was a triumph and Raymond Weil watches would travel the world, worn by cast and crew, from Zurich and Geneva to Buenos Aires, Helsinki, Sydney, Prague and London, laying the foundations for a global presence.

Fidelio, Othello, Traviata, Parsifal... every subsequent collection would be given a name inspired by music and opera.

Europa Star 2/1988

©Archives Europa Star

What time is it? An eternity

In 1987-1988, the brand refined its groundbreaking platform and introduced a smaller red triangle, which it incorporated into the brand’s signature. Through successive iterations of this long-running campaign, the red triangle evolved into a defining symbol of the Raymond Weil brand.

Europa Star 2/1989

©Archives Europa Star

Developed by Europa Star, the Time as Creation concept debuted in 1989. A film and photography crew travelled to Iceland to produce print ads and a commercial at locations across the country, in summer and winter. The red triangle took on a life of its own, planted in stunning landscapes suggesting the infinity of time. Or its origins.

The message was simple: What time is it? An eternity. A metaphor for what a watch can represent.

Europa Star 4/1989

Europa Star 5/1989

©Archives Europa Star

As intended, the Time as Creation campaign established the brand at an institutional level. However, as the 1994 Europa Star article reproduced below explains, this new image no longer aligned with the world of music - bearing in mind that Raymond Weil had invested considerably as a sponsor and named its collections after operas. It was time to turn the page once again and unite the brand’s two “poles” behind a single message.

An article from Europa Star 3/1994

©Archives Europa Star

This would be the next challenge - brilliantly met - in the Raymond Weil story, discussed at length in an interview with Olivier and Elie Bernheim. As for Europa Star, after almost two decades providing advertising agency services to Raymond Weil and other watchmakers, it would go on to concentrate on its own brand.

The Fifty, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Raymond Weil in 2026, limited to 50 pieces with a fully restored and hand-decorated historic Valjoux 23-6 movement

To mark its 50th anniversary, Raymond Weil has also just opened a boutique in Geneva’s Old Town. Here, Elie Bernheim stands in front of number 11 Rue de l’Hôtel-de-Ville.