Prior to Hublot, Biver had very successful stints leading watch brands Blancpain and Omega.

FORBES: Jean Claude Biver Resigns as Hublot CEO

It would control 18 leading brands, including Blancpain, Breguet, Longines, Omega and Rado.

FORBES

Through its Breguet, Longines, Blancpain, Omega and other brands, Swatch has about 15% of the market for expensive watches, trailing only Rolex and lvmh.

FORBES: On his watch

Blancpain had pretty much stopped making watches in the 1970s--it had once supplied diving watches to the U.S. Navy--and hadn't been much of a factor in the industry for a long time before that.

FORBES: Time Is Money

Loiseau has worked at the highest levels of complex horology for more than 30 years and is the creator of several remarkable timepieces, including six Montres de Sables, the Rose de Temps clock, the Renaissance or Capriccio pocket watches and the famed Blancpain 1735 wristwatch.

FORBES: Legendary Watchmaker Dominique Loiseau Joins Girard-Perregaux

Keeping inventories tight is a strategy Mr Biver refined in 1981 after he and a friend bought the rights to the name Blancpain all that was left of a firm that had once supplied watches to divers in the American navy but had gone out of business in the 1970s.

ECONOMIST: Face value