That moment just before dinner, when the day draws to a close and you look back on what you’ve accomplished. That is Julien Tornare’s favorite time of day. It is a tranquil hour – though tranquil is not really the best way to describe the Zenith CEO. The fifty-year-old has been at the helm of the Swiss watchmaker, a company with a rich and eventful history, since 2017. He has been called an innovator who, with remarkable energy, revitalized the venerable brand. For a complete picture of the man, it doesn’t hurt to know that the father of three children was a champion water skier in his youth. Or that he began walking dogs for pay when he was eleven years old. “I did it well,” Tornare recounts, “and at one point I had six dogs to take care of. At the time, I was making way too much money for my age and had to save a lot of it. But that influenced me enormously from an entrepreneurial point of view. If you’re going to do something, do it well – and push it to the limits.”
