The new head of Swatch, the Swiss watchmaker with the cult worldwide following, presented the company’s first automatic watch at what was for her an extraordinary location – Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport. The legendary airport, which was closed to flights just a year ago, was the venue for the Freestyle Berlin Festival and Swatch CEO Arlette-Elsa Emch was surrounded by some of the world’s best in Snowboard, Freeskiing and Motocross Freestyle. Switzerland’s Emch, who followed in the footsteps of Swatch’s legendary founder Nicolas G. Hayek just six months ago, admitted she felt a bit of a “culture shock” at the event sponsored by her company. “One of the tricks here was called ‘rodeo five’,” she said with a laugh. “Before I’d only heard of ‘Rodeo Drive’. There was another trick called ‘Back Side Air’. Someone had to explain to me what that was all about.“

Emch was in Germany to present the first automatic watch in Swatch’s history. She is confident the watch will be a great success because it is to be offered at a steep discount to watches of comparable quality thanks to the high volumes. Emch said she was pleased with her first six months leading the world-famous company: “It’s a great challenge because it seems I’m pretty much the only woman whereever I go.”

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