{2020, May 20} And now you have left to join Nicolas Hayek Senior, to whom you had the attention and the friendship…! May you rest in peace, dear colleague and companion.

Joël A. Grandjean, Editor-in-Chief JSH Magazine & Swiss Watch Passport
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It was a great pleasure to have you on board with me when I was Editor in Chief of Watchonista. Rest in peace. So, I’m updating and posting the few lines I wrote about you, so that the younger ones can learn what a great person you were.

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Born in the mountains of Neuchâtel, one of the cradles of world watchmaking, his voice is definitely part of the national collective subconscious: Eric Othenin-Girard will be editor-in-chief for the French-speaking Swiss radio station after having worked as a reporter in South-East Asia, Vietnam and the Middle East. His first Baselworld – he won’t miss one, except for the one in 2020 – was in 1971!

This master of risky live reports knew how to make difficult subjects accessible and moving. At the beginning of the editorial guidelines of Movment or The Watches Magazine, this venerable journalist founded the Federal Watch Sales Certificate as well as the Watch Sales Academy. From then on, he travelled the world as a coach, without sparing a few well-written articles here and there, when he was in the mood.