To use a seasonal metaphor, the Charity Sale we held earlier this month for Terre des hommes was a perfect example of the snowball effect. What spruced last year from a random conversation with my friend Luigi Bonifacio turned into a successful first sale a few weeks later, with the spontaneous help from generous donors and a dedicated watchmaker, Dario Ratti.
This year, we more than doubled the funds raised. A few days after, I received a lovely letter from Stephanie Simpson, the Terre des hommes Communications & Resource Mobilization Director I’d interviewed earlier this year. She explained that with the funds collected, over 50 children facing severe malnutrition could be saved and benefit from long term treatment until full recovery. Basically, from near-death to sustainable life. That certainly felt like a good use of our Sunday.
Yet, at 14:50 that day, I was pretty nervous. The doors were set to open ten minutes later. We’d mobilized 15 volunteers, received over a hundred watch donations. And yet, Saly, my wife, had only handed out seven order-of-arrival tickets. Last year, we had about 30 people waiting at the same time. Saly told me not to worry. People are coming, she said, they’re just taking their time. As often, not that I like to admit it, she was right. The number had doubled by the time we opened. Fifteen minutes later, the venue was packed.
Because it truly took a village, I want to tell you a bit about those who helped us raise over 53,000 CHF, and how they did.
The advisory committee
This is the group at the heart of the organization. I’ll admit the term advisory can sound a bit pompous, but “committee” alone kept reminding me of Phyllis and the Party Planning Committee in The Office.
Isabel Zbinden, Content Strategist at Terre des hommes, has been the pillar of my relationship with the organization since we first met almost three years ago. A “biennoise”, she has always gone above and beyond to support the event, including during her weekends, while on maternity leave and pulling in Nathan, her husband, to help. She is my partner in crime and I can’t wait for us to expand our criminal activity in 2026.
Dario Ratti, whom I also interviewed on this blog, is another one without whom none of this would have been possible. In 2024 and again this time, the young watchmaker in the old town inspected the watches coming in and repaired at no charge the ones that needed it. He also ran the fixed price sale, which, as I realized last year, is incredibly difficult and stressful when you don’t have the experience: with dozens of valuable watches and money changing hands in a matter of seconds seconds, I have no idea how it would have worked out without him. In fact, I was in a total panic at first. Dario also sourced the displays and donated a significant number of watches this year.
Another founding member, as mentioned earlier, is Luigi Bonifacio. He’s the one who said to me, in the early fall of 2024, “I have too many watches. If only there was a charity I could usefully donate a bunch to.” He since has not only become a significant donor of both editions, but also our de facto ambassador in Zurich, promoting the catalogue and finding a home for many of the watches on sale. A lawyer by trade, he was also our super-accountant this year, ensuring that despite the scrappy set up every penny coming in was adequately captured.
Those of you who saw last year’s catalogue probably will know what I’m talking about: without Lamine Ndiaye, this year’s experience would have been quite different. Lamine is the other Zurich-based committee member. He’s also a colleague, and a friend. By far the person I have the most lunch with at the office, even though we work in completely different sides of the company. As a software developer, Lamine probably couldn’t stand my Google Slides-based patchwork from 2024. So, over a weekend, he created the site that got us so many compliments this year, with all sorts of filters and nifty features. Lamine also contributed pieces that sold particularly fast, both years.
Without Julien Steiner, this blog probably wouldn’t still exist. In 2021, I was almost embarrassed to show it to anyone, afraid people would wonder who does this foreigner knowing nothing about Bienne and watchmaking think he is, writing about both. As a historian, Julien not only encouraged me to continue but also helped me discover some of the more interesting aspects of the trade, through a lens most brands don’t want us to see: the grind of the thousands of men and women who made the watches and their parts over the past two centuries, in often harsh, painful, unhealthy conditions. A harsh contrast with the romantic eyes I typically lay on vintage pieces. If you were there on Sunday, you will have seen Julien selling the fixed price watches with Dario and Lamine, but also his wife, Anna, who kindly joined us to help Isabel collect payments.
Julien Devaux was introduced to me by Julien Steiner, along with another friend of theirs named Julien. I’ll (almost) respect his wish to remain anonymous, but trust me, without his major contributions behind the scenes, the outcome of our event last year and this year would have been very, very different – and not in a good way.
The last-but-not-least committee member of our second edition was Cédric Schiess. Also interviewed on this blog, Cédric is a well known figure in Bienne. Art du Temps has changed the local watch retail landscape. By far more used to talking about unique timepieces than any of us, it became obvious he was the ideal person to take on the role of auctioneer, especially as he’s perfectly bilingual in both of Bienne’s languages, German and French. While he actually ended up running the auction in English, every other assumption was vindicated. Cédric did a stellar job, raising over three quarters of the funds collected that day from the edge of his hammer. He also provided much needed transportation for our large displays and the podium, and donated one of my favorite pieces from the auction.
The venue
Hopefully by now, you’ve realized I was the opposite of alone. But even the “official” committee above only covers part of the collective effort behind the event. Starting with the venue. Last year, Charlotte Ernandez, owner of the eponymous pâtisserie and tea-room had gifted a huge quantity of chouquettes for the sale. This year, when we were looking for a larger and more central place than my wife’s fabric showroom, she immediately offered making her entire venue available. The place was perfect. Spacious but cosy, warm but vibrant. The watches on display and brochures about the critical work Terre des hommes does across the globe blended wonderfully with the warm smell of coffee and chocolate served by Charlotte’s friendly staff.
Speaking of coffee, I can’t thank enough Kealan and Coralie, the founders of CoffeeUP. Opened less than a year ago, the horologically themed coffee bar quickly became the best place to meet the city’s enthusiasts and professionals over a perfectly executed espresso. Following an introduction from our common friend Marc Montagne, the couple tirelessly promoted the event on site and through social media. The venue, conveniently located near the central train station, also served as a drop-off point for Geneva-based watch donors.
More key people
Because of the increased value in watches and the number, organizing the day was a lot more complicated than initially expected. Probably influenced by my visit the day before of the Geneva UN headquarters with my kids, I started overthinking it, as you can see in the chart below.
Still, despite the fairly extensive committee, it became clear we’d need even more help on the day. I’m extremely grateful to those who proactively offered to volunteer, and played a key part in the event’s success. Carlo Colombo, who reached out on Instagram although we’d never properly met, and ended up in charge of selling accessories on the day. Jones Sellier, the closest I have to a watch twin (our tastes are ridiculously similar and we each have watches that used to belong to the other), who smoothly kept an eye on everything from a security perspective. Maxime Dolla, a younger friend and (remember you read it here first) future watch industry leader, was all over the place, greeting visitors, moving furniture, and selling watches. Jennifer Allegre, a strong supporter of the event behind the scenes since last year, was there lending her watch industry-leading communications skills to present the pieces to potential bidders before the auction.
Finally, beyond Isabel, several Terre des hommes team members played an important role. Martin Restelli and Valentina Scariati were on site, both helping us raise funds and explaining to visitors how those funds would be used. Prior to the event, Cyril Schaub got the word out to the press, which brings me to our next section.
Media and more
The regional media also played a key part, like last year, providing coverage before (Le Journal du Jura) as well as during and after the event (Telebielingue, Canal3). We’ll make sure to keep things interesting so that they come back again in 2026.
One media coverage I was totally not expecting was HODINKEE, the New York publication created in 2008 that forever changed the watch game. It was a great boost for all of us working on the event to see their article two days before. For that, we owe a special thanks to Cole Pennington. A former HODINKEE editor, now working on very cool projects at Tudor, Cole has been supportive of the charity sale ever since he found out about it earlier this year. It’s through Cole that we got the introduction to the team at HODINKEE. What suprised me even more is that despite just returning from a work trip abroad the day before, Cole made the effort of coming all the way from Geneva for the event, along with his wife Katie who had also just returned from the other side of the Atlantic. Considering the watch world is work for him, and it was a Sunday, I think I can safely say I would not have done the same.
Speaking of HODINKEE, another one of its previous editors played an important role in the event’s success. A former Rwanda war reporter turned watch writer turned Director at Philips and now co-founder of Marteau & Co, the independent-focused auction house, Arthur Touchot has one of the coolest resumes I know. He’s also been among the behind-the-scenes supporters of the sale for Terre des hommes since the first edition. It’s in fact following his suggestion that we introduced an auction this year. Not only that, during the weeks before the event, he walked me through the endless list on the auction playbook of things I was clueless about: estimates, written offers, catalogue presentation, you name it. Finally, he coached Cédric on how to run the actual auction, keeping it fun while optimizing for the best fundraising outcome. It was all not only incredibly helpful but also quite fascinating.
Donors
None of the amazing collective efforts described above would have mattered much if we didn’t have a wonderful catalogue of watches to sell. And for that, we obviously owe a huge thanks to the many individuals and companies who donated the more than 100 watches we received. Among the individuals, special shout out to Marco Stefanoni: we never met, he simply messaged me on Instagram, and sent two great watches through the post. That was a first. Ultimately, ever single contribution made a difference. A huge thanks to each one of you who took a piece of their collection and chose to convert it into support for children in need. That’s what this project is all about.
To my great surprise, we also received donations from 11 watch brands. Here they are in alphabetical order: Certina, Christopher Ward, Cimier, Dennison, Formex, Horage, Peren, Pierre Junod, Klokers, TAG Heuer, Tissot and Zodiac. It was a great feeling to witness all those highly respected names, mostly from the streets and hills around us in Bienne, not hesitating to donate their timepieces for a great cause. While the 13 watches represented 12% of the total number of pieces, the revenue they generated corresponds to 27% of the total we raised through the sale. Another company I’d like to express gratitude towards is Toumi AG. Its founder, Jonathan Toumi, spontaneously decided at the event that in lieu of traditional holiday gifts this year, the environmental diagnostics firm would make a significant donation to Terre des hommes on behalf of its staff and clients.
What to expect in 2026
In a way, I have not idea. But we also have many ideas already. The committee is getting together in January to start to pan things out. In the meantime, any thoughts, suggestions or offers to support are more than welcome. Please don’t hesitate to reach out. As you can tell from the above, raising funds for the children supported by Terre des hommes is all about team work, and every effort counts. Until then, I wish you all a healthy and happy 2026.
