In late 2019, Oceanographic Magazine visited Blancpain’s understated headquarters on the northern shore of Lake Geneva to speak with CEO Mr Marc Hayek. To the uninitiated this might seem like an interview more suited to a business magazine, but Mr Hayek, a passionate ocean conservationist and underwater photographer, is not your average CEO, and Blancpain, through its hugely influential Ocean Commitment programme, is not your typical Swiss watchmaker. There is something unique happening in the sleepy town of Paudex. We wanted to speak with the man spearheading that movement…

Oceanographic Magazine (OM): When did you first connect with the ocean?

Mr Marc Hayek (MH): For as long as I can remember, I’ve spent my springs and summers on the coast of the Mediterranean. As a child I was a big fan of Cousteau and spent lots of time freediving and snorkelling. I couldn’t wait to turn 12 and learn to scuba dive. I was particularly interested in fish life. I enjoyed being on boats or on shore, but it was the underwater world that fascinated me. That is how it has been for as long as I can remember.

OM: Did that passion for the ocean continue unabated into adulthood?

MH: The passion, yes. My interaction with the underwater world, not until I reached my twenties. During my teenage years my friends didn’t enjoy scuba diving like I did, they just didn’t share that fascination with the underwater world. We spent our time doing other things. Then during my twenties, I met some people who shared the same ocean interests and so I started diving more. Some of those people are still dive buddies today. Since then, the ocean has been ever-present. I’ve not stopped diving since!

OM: Blancpain’s ocean connection began with the Fifty Fathoms dive watch in 1953. In the years since, that connection has evolved significantly to become Blancpain’s Ocean Commitment. How did that transition evolve?

MH: When I arrived at Blancpain I wasn’t fully aware of its history and its deep connection with the ocean through the Fifty Fathoms watch. It was only when I met Mr Jean-Jacques Fiechter, Blancpain CEO at the time of the creation of the Fifty Fathoms, that I realised that both he and the watch were diving pioneers. When I first started properly diving, dive computers were just starting to appear on the market, but in the 1950s, it was obviously very different. That was fascinating to me, the story behind the Fifty Fathoms, how it came to be – it came from a place of pure diver’s need.

At the beginning, I was very careful. At the time, Blancpain’s focus was mainly classic watches. I knew my love for the ocean, but I needed to see what our clients thought before we reembraced the brand’s ocean heritage fully. We did a small series in 2003 for the Fifty Fathoms’ 50th anniversary. There was huge hype! I can be a little stubborn though, and I felt we needed another movement for the watch, a brand new calibre featuring Blancpain’s latest innovations. That took us four years to develop, with work finishing in 2007. I simply didn’t want to take a shortcut.

During the same period, my passion for underwater photography was developing. I was diving lots and personally saw a huge change in the ocean environment. Reefs beset by shark finning where after two or three years, there was nothing left. Those sorts of interactions are what inspired me to do something. Photography seemed like the most powerful tool at our disposal. At the time, the internet wasn’t what it is today and most dive magazines weren’t too high a quality, so together with editor Dietmar Fuchs we started connecting with photographers such as Ernie Brooks and Mark Strickland to create something of real quality that effectively connected the beauty of the ocean to people – images that made them go ‘wow’. By the time the new Fifty Fathoms was ready in 2007, our relationship with those photographers and the books we were publishing had already begun. Our commitment to the ocean – our Ocean Commitment – had started.