Charlize Theron is being sued by watch maker Raymond Weil for breach of contract. Back in 1995, the watchmaker paid Chalize Theron to promote their watches. Part of that contract was that Charlize would only wear Raymond Weil watches, but she broke that contract by wearing a Christian Dior watch at an event.
It looks like Charlize could be ordered to pay up $20 million for simply wearing a Christian Dior watch. That seems crazy, but then again it seems crazy someone would pay anyone that much money to wear their watch in the first place.
What I really don’t understand about this though is the logic behind Oliver Bernheim. Oliver Bernheim is the CEO of Raymond Weil. Back in 1995, Bernheim was quite excited about rebranding Raymond Weil, and Theron was a big part of that campaign. Why throw that away by making such a public specticle? Before I thought of Raymond Weil as a very high end watchmaker, but now I look at them as the watch so crappy that you can’t even pay someone $20 million to wear.
You would think they would just want to settle this with Theron and have her make a statement about not having any other watch to wear that day or something. Maybe even have her extend her contract for a year.
But I guess they would rather just have the bad publicity of being the watch no one will wear. Considering they recognized the popularity of Theron being an oscar winning, incredibly beautiful activist, it seems crazy to be known as the company that sued her for dissing their product. But what do I know?
If they want to pay me 20 mil, I won’t ever take the watch off.
It’s a bad move for Raymond Weil. I see their point, but they should not have let this become so public. I thin their brand is seriously damaged by taking such an aggressive stance against such a popular and talented person. Bad idea.