THE LIFE AND CAREER OF GÜNTER BLÜMLEIN
By Simon de Burton
The internet age has helped to turn a few key figures of the watch world, who might once have been recognised only by die-hard enthusiasts, into horological superstars, whose influence transcends their immediate roles.
While such people haven't exactly become household names, their individual success has occasionally seen them catapulted from the pages of specialist publications, websites and the circle of 'those in the know' to a higher plane of influence.
Günter Blümlein became a key figure of the industry, turning around the prospects of three companies, courtesy of IWC.
An obvious example is Jean-Claude Biver, the industry doyen whose genius as a marketeer and reviver of brands has brought him to prominence as a man who clearly knows about business. So much so, that when high-brow UK news station BBC Radio 4 wanted someone to predict the global effects of the unpinning of the Swiss franc in January 2015, it was not to a professor of economics or a treasury adviser that they turned, but to Biver – who spoke eloquently on the subject, non-stop, for the best part of 10 minutes.
Had he been alive today, one Günter Blümlein might well have been approached to give his opinion in a similar way. As it was, he died 20 years ago, at the young age of 58, before the World Wide Web had helped to bring the once esoteric world of Swiss watchmaking into the homes of millions – but to those who were already part of the scene, Blümlein was legend, as one of the main movers behind the revival of not one noble dial name, but three: Jaeger-LeCoultre, IWC and, perhaps most famously, A. Lange & Söhne.
Günter Blümlein with Henri-John Belmont, Jaeger-LeCoultre CEO, admiring the newly released Reverso courtesy of Jaeger-LeCoultre.