It must be the dream of every businessman to be able to incorporate a personal passion with commercial enterprise and be eminently successful in doing so. One such fortunate entrepreneur is self-made Frenchman, Emile Pequignet, who, in creating beautiful modern watches of precision design and elegant casings, reflects the vitality and style of his passion for the sporting life.

A keen horseman himself with a stable of over twenty prize jumpers, Emile Pequignet invests thirty percent of his communications budget in sponsoring equestrian events most notably the Olympics, which has seen the French team bring home the bronze medal in the obstacle jumping events. Montres Emile Pequignet were also selected to produce the satch for the French Olympic Team, a limited edition of which was released for commercial sale. Sporty, yet elegant and exquisitely crafted, Pequignet watches are the product of fine craftsmanship and fine sportsmanship, the two spurs which have fuelled M. Pequignet, Founder and Chairman of the company which bears his name, to become one of the leaders in watch design in just over twenty years.

The sixth sponsor in the Club of Ten of the Ecurie de France - a non-profit organisation sponsored by the French Equestrian Federation to preserve France's finest racing horses and promote breeding activities on a international level Emile Pequignet devotes as much of his time and energies to these interests as to his company, and where possible, combines the two.

"Horsemanship had always been a fascination for me: a dream of mine since I was a small boy," he says. "After I had established Pequignet, I revived my interest in the horse market. I talked with many people in the industry and discovered that I had a lot in common with them, and so I decided to communicate my feelings both professionally, with the watches and personally, with the horses, in creating a special line of sporting watches.

"Since the early eighties, I have been a sponsor of the Ecurie de France, and we were particularly concerned with protecting French horses with a view to the Olympics. There were many people from other countries wishing to purchase these horses and we were intent on keeping them in France; so, Pequignet became a sponsor of the Olympic Games. I am pleased to say that now, anyone who is involved with show-jumping knows the name of Pequignet."

The design of the watches themselves is a particularly important facet of the industry to M. Pequignet, who, prior to setting out on his own, became the head of casing design at a watchmaking company at the prodigious age of twenty. Today, established in his own company, M. Pequignet shuns the input of outside designers, preferring to maintain a familiar image in his range over 200 models by executing the designs himself. It is in the element of the revered art of watchmaking that the sporting life becomes much more than personal passion for Emile Pequignet, it is in fact a thematic consideration in styling design. From the esprit de sport comes the production of exquisite ornaments created for those who enjoy not simply the active life but an elegant lifestyle. Created from elaborate mixes of gold and steel, and Chinese lacquer, Pequignet watches are hand-crafted with precision by consummate craftsman at one of two plants in Moreau in the Jura area of France, sharing a common border with Switzerland.

The first of these manufacturing facilities is concerned with the mounting and assemblage of quartz watches, whilst the second manufacturers bracelets and straps. Established in 1983, the bracelet division enables the company to excerise control over design and maintain complete self-sufficiency in regards to the decorative elements. As one of the few remaining companies who make their own bracelets, this department ensures greater styling, flexibility and design. Bracelets are also created to accompany the watches or to be worn separately with a coordinating piece of jewellery. Emile is aware of the fact that watches are pieces of jewellery and as such subject to the dictates of fashion, a consideration quite foremost in his mind when gathering ideas for design.

"There is always a main line, a direction or trend which I can ascertain through as diverse as influences as functions or gatherings of people and it is through conversations with people in like industries that I can often generate ideas for new designs," says Emile." But like most creative professions, inspiration is very unpredictable: ideas can occur today or tomorrow and then one may have a dry period when nothing happens, only to have a new idea again next week.

"When I am initially creating a new design, my first considerations always quality because that is absolutely essential, and then I consider styling design. Obviously, due to the fact that I do not use any external designers, there is a distinct familiarity, a similarity to each watch and thus people can tell that what they are looking at is a Pequignet watch or belongs to the Pequignet collection."

Whereas the monikers, 'Swiss-made' or 'Swiss Movement' are well accepted as indications of quality in watches, the actual differences between the Swiss model and its French counterpart seem to be founded in history rather than discrepancies in superior mechanics and style, according to Emile.

"The label 'Swiss-Made' is mainly linked to the industry," says Emile. "In the early part of the century, Switzerland was a small country of only 5 million people compared to France with a population of 50 million. The Swiss, therefore, began to promote their product throughout Europe and later beyond the continent from the earliest times and the result is the established reputation of the Swiss label and image. The French, who were just across the border, had population enough to sustain a local market; so essentially, the main difference is that the Swiss were firmly established abroad before the French began to contemplate exporting their watches. In the technology itself, there is really no difference between the two and infact, the Jura area is just across the mountains from Switzerland.

"In terms of aesthetics, the Swiss were ahead of us, again due to their wide overseas exposure from the earliest periods in the history of the industry. They were looking to adapt their designs to the preferences of the different marketplaces, so they began very early to incorporate Swiss technology with the aesthetics of design - designing cases with matching dials and hands. The French, on the other hand, concentrated on creating excellent movement and precision but in general, were not that concerned with the external finishes initially. It was only a comparatively few years ago that several French watchmakers developed the idea to create stylish watches using a design with a very French flavour."

For this particular French watchmaker there was never any doubt as to what profession he would enter. Born into a farming family, he soon decided that life on the land held little attraction and by the age of sixteen and already chosen his livelihood. "The fascination for me with watches in particular was the whole nature of time; the actual movement of the piece - the second hand going around, the precision, the cleanliness and pristine uniforms of the watchmakers, I felt had a affinity with my nature," he says. "I decided very early that I wished to do something else besides farming. I was fond of music and art and so I turned to industry with an emphasis on craftsmanship, the fine art of creation and precision in design: watchmaking was an obvious choice for me. I learned my trade essentially through my experience in the watchmaking company with whom I worked after I had done my military service. I gradually worked my way up, building both my reputation and my skills.

"I was head of casing design at this company when the Japanese began to flood the marketplace with quartz models in the early seventies. I saw the possibilities of making a style of watch that was more upmarket, more fashionable. I could predict the opportunities for growth and development in this area but the company I was with could not afford to expand on this level and this is what prompted me to establish my own concern. So, on New Years day 1973, I founded MONTRES EMILE PEQUIGNET to fight the flood of Japanese models." From such a courageous business decision, Emile heads a company that today produces in excess of 65,000 watches per annum and records sales hovering around the fifty million francs mark.

At present however, with France constituting approximately 55% of sales, Emile feels that expanding the export market is of prime concern. "For the time being, the fame of an Emile Pequignet watch is not extraordinarily great overseas and so I would say that the 45% of the export market who choose a Pequignet model over another watch brand do so exclusively due to their design," says Emile. "It is very difficult to say what the basic line will be overseas, but the whole objective is to find a foundation, a universal model which will advertise the name of Pequignet worldwide. There is great potential for export with a special line, or perhaps I can derive inspiration from an existing line and present it as representative of Pequignet to the world. The importance of consumer taste must also be monitored carefully as a barometer of fashion acceptance."

As highbrow technology has permeated so many aspects of our society only to have found consumer taste ever so carefully nudging a return to the comfort of tradition, Emile predicts that watch technology will also come full circle. "Again it is very difficult to tell what will happen twenty years for now", he says, "but we can feel through the market that automatic and mechanical movements are making a return. Quartz was introduced in the early seventies and now we can see, twenty years later, that people are looking to the more traditional movements. Within the industry, the evolution that will occur technologically, seems to be a movement that combines batteries, quartz and automatics. But really, advances in this area are so incredible that you may have a watch in ten years time that is linked directly to a satellite and will be able to tell you the time of day exactly where you stand.

"It is extremely difficult to predict what will occur in watch design, but I can say with certainty that whatever occurs technologically there will alway be a watch with the basic design of face and hands that corresponds with the fashion of the time. One must remember that due to its design, a watch is a piece of jewellery and in fact is probably the only piece of jewellery that most men will wear. It is part of fashion and an indication of personal achievement, so the watch will always be a part of fashion design as a jewellery piece." For M. Pequignet, time itself is indeed the greatest innovator.