Watching Chopard’s Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and award-winning climber, author and motivational speaker Thomas Bubendorfer converse in German – I say watching, because I don’t understand a word – you instantly get a sense that they really enjoy each other’s company. Recently introduced to each other by their mutual friend and racing driver Jacky Ickx, you could be forgiven for thinking they had been friends forever.
A Natural Connection
The connection occurred when Bubendorfer stumbled across the Chopard Alpine Eagle Collection in a shop window in Zurich and instantly fell in love with the watch. The mountains are his playground and he had witnessed Golden eagles close up when climbing in Pakistan, so the dial of the Alpine Eagle collection naturally caught his eye. He was fascinated by the watch and when he found out that his friend Jacky Ickx had connections with Chopard, he was excited to learn more.
Thomas Bubendorfer has had a fascinating career that started early with solo climbing but also includes writing books and motivational speaking. Listening to him talk about his climbs, you quickly realize that, unlike many athletes who practice dangerous sports, he is no adrenalin junkie. Every climb is meticulously studied, thought out, and planned to avoid anything going wrong. He is acutely aware of the risks, but lets the fear protect him, rather than take him towards danger. One of his favourite topics is how to manage risk and it is something that Scheufele also knows a lot about: “It is similar for me, I always do the groundwork, the homework, asking myself if a new project is going to be feasible, worthwhile, and a success. Like this, you have a better chance, but in the end, you still have to jump into the water and start swimming”.
Letting Life Come to You
Another topic that they agree on is how life often finds you. Growing up, Bubendorfer excelled in numerous sports. His grandfather was keen for him to pursue tennis and then skiing, but this wasn’t his destiny. “When I was around 10 years old, my grandfather was running a hotel with tennis courts and at lunch time, when the sun was its hottest, he would chase me around the court. I hated it! Then I became a very good skier, becoming high school champion, and he said ‘why not become a skier? It is better than climbing’. The skiing was entertaining, but my heart was for climbing. It wasn’t a choice. It chose me.”
Listening attentively, Scheufele agrees that some of his projects have also found him rather than the other way around. He recently opened a hotel above Chopard’s Parisian boutique at 1 Place Vendôme. “We had no intention of owning a hotel. It was not on the plan but an opportunity arose to buy the building where our shop was in Paris, along with the obligation to run the hotel. So, the question was, do we want to leave the shop? Take the risk that someone else would buy the hotel and ask us to leave the shop? Or did we want to give it a try and run a hotel? That’s where life finds you again. The hotel found us.”
A Love for the Mountains
The more they chat, the more they realize how much they have in common. From their work ethic to finding inspiration in nature, and their leadership to their love for watches. When asked what each other respected in the other, they both mentioned how they had each been impressed by how much work goes into the other’s work.
What Comes Next
Bubendorfer was visiting the manufacture to speak to the Chopard employees at their headquarters in Meyrin, Geneva, a speech that was a huge success. Scheufele hopes to organize more so that others in the Chopard family can also benefit from Bubendorfer’s philosophy. They also have something else cooking, but it was too early to share details, but let’s just say that the way their eyes sparkled indicated that it was going to be something amazing.
