What happens when a 136-year-old Swiss watch brand meets the age of AI?
I sat down with Jacque O., executive at Doxa USA & Caribbean, to talk about one of the hardest questions leaders face right now: how do you stay true to your craft when everyone around you is automating everything?
Jacqueline brought 16 years of luxury retail experience and some of the sharpest thinking I’ve heard on balancing heritage with innovation. Here are the highlights:
Key Moments
1:21 — Jacqueline’s background: 16 years in luxury retail, PADI-certified diver, built an aquaculture business
3:57 — Doxa’s origin: founded in 1889 by George Ducamon, who started watchmaking at age 12
5:16 — How watch movements work and why Doxa keeps prices at 1/4 to 1/5 of competitors with the same quality movements
7:05 — Why Doxa dug in on heritage: no AI in the watches, staying about watchmaking
8:48 — The leadership tension: how do you meet a new generation’s demand for efficiency without losing what makes you valuable?
11:02 — The stat: maybe 5% of Doxa watches actually make it to the ocean for scuba diving. Most buyers choose it for the craft, not the function
11:56 — What Doxa clients actually love about AI: making their own content, building community, not automating the product
13:05 — “There’s no replacement for what is real and tangible and human”
14:55 — “It loses its magic” — what happens when you automate the thing people love about you
15:53 — The Navy SEAL story: how Jacqueline used ChatGPT as a collaborator (not a replacement) to craft deeper interview questions
18:28 — The grocery store self-checkout example: voting with your money
22:08 — AI isn’t the Bible: the dangers of trusting AI output without critical thinking
23:20 — How to use AI smart so it complements you instead of replacing you
24:22 — The prediction: we’ll soon see a “100% human-made” seal on content and products, and people will pay a premium for it
32:04 — The “Missed Sales List”: the report that changed an entire company’s strategy by tracking what didn’t sell
33:49 — Why your KPIs might be lying to you: measuring what sold vs. what you missed
34:34 — Retail psychology debunked: how Jacqueline proved the conventional wisdom wrong by testing rack placement
37:50 — “I’m not a salesperson. I’m a human first.” Why 4-hour conversations outsell pressure tactics
39:26 — Telling a customer to buy the competitor’s watch instead, and why that builds loyalty
41:58 — The core takeaway: focus on the people you want to serve, not their wallets. The sales will come.
45:15 — Book recommendations: Mind Hacking by Sir John Hargrave + The Body Ecology Diet
The Big Takeaways
Know what to protect. Your craft is your craft. Automate the things around it, not the thing itself.
AI is a collaborator, not a replacement. Use it to push your thinking deeper, then rewrite in your own voice.
AI isn’t always right. It’s a prediction engine built largely on Reddit. Verify everything.
Measure what you’re missing, not just what you’re hitting. The biggest opportunities hide in what you never tracked.
We’re still people dealing with people. That hasn’t changed and won’t.
