Not Just Watches – An Experience 

Syrian-born entrepreneur Bassam Abou Watfa, with a background of business education in Switzerland (Geneva, Lausanne), is the representative of several high-end Swiss brands in Hungary. He talked to Diplomacy&Trade in the elegant Hublot Boutique in Budapest about his career from his family business in Syria to ventures in Budapest.

Bassam Abou Watfa’s family business was started by his father in Syria in 1960, representing many of the big Swiss watch brands like Patek, Rolex, Audemars Piguet or Cartier. In 1983, he went to study in Switzerland where he completed secondary school and then graduated from university. “As you know, Switzerland is known for watches, chocolate and banks. I like chocolate but businesswise, I opted for watches, taking advantage of having very good relations with one of the companies in this field. I used to go there sometimes for training during my university studies. Then in 1992, I finished the university and went back to Syria where I further developed our family business. As a result, we had like 12 shops for luxury items in Syria and the venture was doing really well till the start of a civil war in the country in 2011,” he said.

The Hungarian connection
It was in the meantime, in 2007, that he was travelling from Damascus to Geneva with a stopover in Budapest. “It was then that my love for Hungary started. The general manager of the Four Seasons hotel here proposed that I should open a boutique inside that hotel. So, we opened a small boutique there resulting in me regularly coming back to this city,” he recalled.

With the conflict starting in Syria in 2011, he had to find an alternative to continue the business. “The following year, I bought a boutique here and named it Marquise, which was a name that we had in Damascus and that is why it was important for me to keep it. In addition, it was also a little bit of a European name. We began to work with our old suppliers who had not present in Hungary until that time. Brands we are working with at Marquise today include Marli, Messika, Chopard, Akillis, Bvlgari, Jeager-LeCoultre, Piaget, Cvstos, Djula, Ulysee Nardin and Hublot. In 2012, we developed and opened this Hublot boutique. The Hungarian market has seen a progress since then – it is more and more people coming to us. In fact, there are now more local than international clients visiting, which is a very good thing for the Hungarian market, being a good sign and a big potential for the future. So, this is how we started our business activities in Hungary. In 2014, I moved with my family to Hungary to work and we opened another boutique here. In 2022, after modernization and image refresh, we re-opened this mono-brand Hublot boutique, which is run by Montres Prestige Ltd., here at Andrássy Avenue, which has now been a UNESCO World Heritage Site for over two decades. We consider the Hungarian market very good and honest, we see it as a prospering market. It developed slowly as people came to love this brand of high-end craftsmanship. We are lucky not to have so many mono-brand competitors, and thus, I believe that Hublot is between the top three Swiss brands in Hungary,” the businessman pointed out.

Hublot is like family
In 2008, LVMH group acquired Hublot. Prior to the acquisition, Hublot was a relatively small brand, but it quickly rose to international prominence and became recognized among the world's top luxury watchmakers. Since then, the brand has experienced remarkable growth. Julien Tornare, the current CEO, has been dedicated to expanding Hublot's global presence and influence. Under his leadership, the brand continues to grow significantly in both popularity and market stature. At the opening of the Hublot Boutique in Budapest 13 years ago, Hublot Chairman Jean-Claude Biver, said they wanted to present "the know-how of Swiss watchmaking art, expressed through our watch collections." As to what this art represents to him and how that is conveyed to his clients, Bassam Abou Watfa remarked that he has a historical relationship with Jean-Claude Biver. “He was a real gentleman who I think, in the last 50 years, was one of the three greatest businessmen in the world of luxury watches. I was lucky to experience Hublot’s growth. For me, Hublot is like a family. I represent this brand not only in Hungary but also in the Middle East, in Jordan, where I also have a mono-brand boutique. Earlier, I had a distribution venture for three other countries in Middle East: Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan.”

He voiced his opinion that Chairman Jean-Claude Biver, the former CEO Ricardo Guadalupe and the current CEO Julien Tornare created the art of fusion at the company. In its 'Art of Fusion', Hublot carries out a perfect symbiosis between functionality, architecture and design. Hublot is the first brand to have dared to combine gold and rubber in the same watch, becoming a master of the ‘Art of Fusion’: the fusion of past and present in a futuristic watch; the fusion of traditional, modern and pioneering materials; the fusion between the craftsmanship of watchmaking and the power of an innovative design identity.

Not just a watch, an experience
Bassam Abou Watfa operates several stores in Budapest, representing other major Swiss brands in Hungary, in addition to Hublot. “We have Zenith, Marli, Bvlgari and others. The latest news is that we are venturing into fashion. We are going to open a mono-brand boutique for the Italian brand Missoni here on Andrássy Avenue. We have already a pop-up store and we're going to open a proper representation by Missoni, a high-end brand for ladies and sporty clothes, in early 2026.”

It is an important Swiss value to provide not just a product, but an experience. Explaining how that works in connection with his ventures, the businessman brought up the example of buying a watch. “It's like marriage, it is for long term, so, it's very important that when you buy a watch, you have all that quality right from the day you come into the boutique to buy it all the way until you keep it. We provide a service that covers instances when you may have a problem with that watch, an entire after-sale service, we provide also events, provide everything, all the experience for that.”

Optimism on the Hungarian market
“Today, we are very happy in Hungary. You know, this is a great country where we can see development, we can see things are going in a positive way. We need more and more luxury brands to come to Hungary. As I mentioned, we are a part of the LVMH Group, which is a great company that has many other brands in fashion and in watches and wine and all that. And I think there is a great potential in the next few years for Hungary and we see more tourists coming. We see more and more people with a desire for luxury. Even if their number went down a bit in the last few years, I'm still optimistic for the future in this country,” Bassam Abou Watfa concluded.