HH Jobs, the first step to a career in watchmaking

Training

Christophe Roulet - Over the past two years, the Swiss watch industry has been hiring new staff in droves. The Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie has responded with a new and exhaustive feature on its website. It lists current vacancies in the sector, training opportunities, and proposes the first-ever directory of the professions and métiers d’art involved in watchmaking.

Over the past two years, the Swiss watch industry has been hiring new staff in droves. The Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie has responded with a new and exhaustive feature on its website. It lists current vacancies in the sector, training opportunities, and proposes the first-ever directory of the professions and métiers d’art involved in watchmaking.

Christophe Roulet

According to the latest statistics from the Convention Patronale de l’Industrie Horlogère Suisse (CPIH), published in June 2007, the number of persons employed in watchmaking grew 6.5% last year: an additional 2,700 staff joined the workforce in a branch that now employs 44,444 people overall. Unsurprisingly, the majority of these new recruits were in production, with over 2,100 professionals swelling the ranks of the 823 specialist companies, including subsidiaries. Taking on new staff has become one of the branch’s major preoccupations since 2005, as the arrival of 4,500 new professionals between 2005 and 2006 shows. Furthermore, these newcomers are increasingly well-qualified.

A thriving environment

As Swiss watches move ever higher up the market spectrum, increasingly targeting an audience of luxury-buyers, hiring highly-qualified staff becomes a key priority, as statistics from the CPIH survey show: 10.4% of production staff have been through higher education and 39.6% hold a vocational diploma; a further 1.8% are taking an apprenticeship. Semi-skilled or unskilled staff now represent less than half (40%) the branch’s total workforce. Watchmaking is also a newly attractive sector of activity for young people. Again according to CPIH figures, there were 30% more new apprenticeship contracts in 2007 than in 2006 (383 vs. 294). An equally impressive change has been observed at the other end of the scale, with a 14% leap in the number of people obtaining their Certificat Fédéral de Capacité (CFC).

The Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) is keeping pace with this fast-moving working environment with a new feature on its website (hautehorlogerie.org). Entirely focused on jobs and employment, it has a deliberately international scope, in particular by listing vacancies to be filled in the Fine Watch sector (HH Jobs) in Switzerland and throughout the world. This new feature also covers training with a complete list of the different schools (currently in Switzerland and shortly internationally) that dispense training in the 50 or so watchmaking-related professions, from gemmology and micromechanics to watch exteriors and human resources, among others. And for a clear understanding of what these jobs entail, the FHH has posted the first-ever jobs directory to list and describe the full range of watchmaking professions under the headings inventory, management and production.

Paying tribute to the métiers d’art

While Swiss watchmaking is seen first and foremost as an industry, it has always called on the talent of many different métiers d’art, such as engravers, goldsmiths, miniaturists, stone-setters and sculptors. Watchmaking is one of the rare sectors of activity in which these professions not only continue to exist but also find new scope for expression. The Métiers d’Art feature on the Foundation’s website shines the spotlight on these artists and professionals, including films that introduce some of the most talented names in this very special field.

To conclude, the "Jobs" feature is the latest addition to a unique database on watchmaking, developed by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie to guide, inform and now train the public in every aspect of a professional environment that offers many promising opportunities. ■

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