The story about the mountain top: life of a businessman

"I now only work part-time, i.e. twelve hours a day and only six days a week, but fortunately my wife also works 60 hours, which means we are always one step ahead of the competition." Robert Goeres looks at his mobile phone for the – it's not a lie – tenth time. "Very briefly, " says the entrepreneur and quickly makes a call – at least the fifth during the conversation. He calmly sips his freshly squeezed juice at Gino, the Italian bar just around the corner from his Rolex shop in the city's rue Philippe II, waves to well-known passers-by and answers questions, some professional, some personal – just like the businessman he is.

Since 2001, Goeres has been at the helm of the company whose foundations were laid by his father. In 1956, Raymond Goeres opened a small shop in Belair, the family's home town, where he sold well-known Swiss watches. Robert Goeres grew up in the world of chic accessories from an early age. "Somewhere I still have a photo of me leafing through a Rolex catalogue in my cradle, " recalls the now 52-year-old. Although Goeres does not believe in fate per se, he does believe that the place and year in which you are born define everything that follows, "you just have to know how to use the opportunities that are offered to you in the course of your life".

Being able to switch off sometimes

His "work balance", as Goeres calls it, consists of three commandments: work – "nothing comes from nothing" -, creativity – "if you have everything, you become sluggish" -, and teamwork – "because you're only as fast as the slowest person in the team". But there are actually four commandments, because even a busy businessman needs a break from time to time. "I do at least 30 minutes of outdoor sports every morning, which gives me the balance I need, " says Goeres. At his home in the Éislek, he is surrounded by nature, and the 52-year-old also regularly cycles to work, whatever the weather. "You have to be able to switch off, no matter when or where. If you can manage to become completely calm within two minutes, then you've got the hang of it."

Goeres learnt the "knack" as a young boy, as his family had always been the source of his interest in business, especially his father. However, he always had a very complex relationship with the latter one. "If my father loved playing tennis, I could do everything except tennis. If he loved golf, I hated it and only played with him once to beat him." After Goeres turned his back on the family business at the end of the 1990s and founded his own company called Synchrone, his path led him back to Goeres Horlogerie a few years later – but not without a few hurdles along the way. "My father was a one-man business and after school I thought I knew everything better than him. There was the typical generational conflict between the two of us, there were discussions and clashes, but we never slammed doors and later my father became my best advisor."