Morgan Bourc’his is a truly inspiring individual.
Born in 1978 in Touraine, France, he excelled at swimming from an early age. At 22, he gave in to “the call of the sea” and settled in Marseille, devoting himself to freediving.
As part of the French national team, he became CNF (constant weight without fins) World Champion in 2008 and 2013, where he broke the French record with a depth of -89 metres (and soon after became a TUDOR ambassador in 2014). Bourc’his improved on this record in 2017 with -90m and won his third CNF World Champion title in 2019 with a depth of -91m.
On top of this, he worked for 12 years as a sports teacher in institutions for children with behavioural difficulties. He is also the protagonist of The Quest for Nature, a documentary film made by undersea director Jean-Charles Granjon, to raise ecological awareness, following Bourc’his’s last world championship title in 2019.
“The question is, ‘From what world am I the champion?’” Bourc’his explains today. “A planet where our human activity has become a geological force that transforms our environment to the point of precipitating it into unprecedented biochemical imbalances. A world where the history of Earth and the history of Man diverged. I travel to the far north to discover territories where nature is omnipresent, and where encounters with wildlife are still daily life for some inhabitants.”
Bourc’his himself has had some extraordinary encounters with wildlife. “Swimming with killer whales near a trawler in Norway left the biggest mark on me,” he says. “This session in the company of the greatest ocean predators remains ingrained in my psyche. I agreed to go to the meeting with an open heart and I was accepted by the killer whales, it was surreal.”
The ecological impact of these encounters is deeply felt. “Our world is extraordinary and every living being has a place in the global balance of our biosphere, from bacteria to the largest marine mammal,” Bourc’his says. “These moments have bought me both fascination and anxiety. All of our wildlife is at risk.”
TUDOR Watches (stocked at Goldsmiths Jewellers, the UK’s largest purveyor of luxury watches) is proud to call Morgan Bourc’his a brand ambassador. TUDOR’s reliable timepieces have adorned the wrists of barrier breakers for almost 100 years – from US Air Force para rescue teams to French and US Navy frogmen.
“TUDOR has an incredible history and heritage in all respects, not just diving” he says. “The story continues with every watch launch. The Ranger watch has a great history of the British North Greenland Exhibition story behind it. The Black Bay S&G range is robust and technically brilliant. And the Pelagos 39 model, a smaller version of the classic Pelagos Black, which are perfect diving watches. The brand is constantly innovating.”
One might say the same of Bourc’his, who has moved between roles as effortlessly as he has dived the ocean. This, he says, is a matter of forging your own path in life.
“When I decided to become ‘freediving champion’, it was a job I had to invent!” he says. “There was no business model. Taking the plunge and starting to create any new life project is, for me, daring. More than my -91m breaststroke.”
Not all of us have the mental and athletic prowess to match Bourc’his and his achievements but, Bourc’his says, we all have the potential to achieve more.
“The human being has exceptional capabilities that we exploit very little,” he says. “Hard work and patience make it possible to undertake bold projects. I have worked hard, but I am no bolder than anyone else.”
Shop the TUDOR Watches collection at goldsmiths.co.uk, in showrooms or in a selection of Tudor mono-brand boutiques.
