Babette Keller Liechti is the Founder and President of Keller Trading SA et KT Home SA. She is responsible for developing the microfibre cleansing cloths and gloves that she provides to the majority of the watch industry.

1. Describe briefly your childhood.

Youngest of 2 daughters, mother was a shoe saleswoman, father was selling watchmaking products

2. As a child did you have any driving ambition?

From a very young I wanted to be a decorator but my father didn’t I was smart enough to study, "You will be a shoe saleswoman like your mother" he would say. And at 15 I did an apprenticeship as a shoe saleswoman at 17 I left the home to take a year-long trip "the Trans-Siberian".

3. What is your first significant memory as a child?

The church in my village where I sat every Sunday from the age of 9. I felt what I would call today love. My meeting with the Big Boss, he never left my side.

4. Have you ever had another profession?

At 10 years old, I was an assistant janitor in the school of my village to make some pocket money, then a saleswoman ;)

5. What made you decide to go in the direction you are currently in?

My passion, passion for watchmaking mechanics, passion for sewing. At 9 years old I also accompanied my father to the sample fair "now called Baselworld" couture. These 2 passions have remained intact they push me and fill my life.

6. What’s the worst job you’ve had to do?

There is none, I have done everything and I know how to do everything, from the lowest tasks to the most chic. I take every activity with joy when someone is needed to do them.

But what struck me the most was going as a little girl, alone to pick up my father from the local bistro, he was often heavily under the influence of alcohol and I remember the look of criticism from the other consumers.

7. What’s been the hardest moment in your life so far, and how did you overcome it?

Now! My battle is to protect people from this virus with an exceptional fibre. My battle! so that politicians hear me and recognise our skills!

8. Who has had the strongest influence on you?

Madiba (Nelson Mandela), my illness (Cluster Heachache)

My illness is my best life partner, I have learned more from it in ten years than anything else in my entire life. Humility, wisdom, gratitude, listening, the list is far too long to list here.

9. What are you most proud of?

Of my 4 children and my 5 grandchildren, of the collaborators who surround me and of having kept my faith.

10. What advice would you give to a 20 something someone thinking of taking a similar path as you?

I would say that I was born a Leader, the job of an entrepreneur cannot be learned, it is discovered at a very young age. If at 8 years old I didn't go looking for my father, no one in my family would have done so. You have to have a burning sensation from the inside with a desire to do, it's in our genes, like a pianist who has a gift, or an artist to play.

Being an entrepreneur cannot be learned, it is an additional sense that we develop over the years.

11. Name three things on your bucket list.

1) Through my work, to instigate and to be part of the change, that brings about a global conscientiousness.

2) Speak with world leaders.

3) Become an author

12. Where do you think the watch industry is going to be in 10 years’ time?

The watch industry will not disappear, it will adapt to this new world that is emerging. The question is what will this new world be like and what will be the consequences of this pandemic that we are going through and which is not looking to stop, on watchmaking. Today I believe that no one can predict it.

Learn more about Keller Trading SA, KT-Home