The watch making industrial fabric, the object of everyone’s desire

HH Journal - When Chinese investors took over STM Holding a few weeks ago, a group sold off by Léman Capital that specialises in producing quartz movements and recently mechanical ones, a number of people rebelled against this foreign incursion on Swiss soil.

When Chinese investors took over STM Holding a few weeks ago, a group sold off by Léman Capital that specialises in producing quartz movements and recently mechanical ones (Read the column the expert’s view), a number of people rebelled against this foreign incursion on Swiss soil. Why didn’t the industry’s major Swiss groups pounce on this industrial flagship capable of offering a real alternative to Eta deliveries today as far as finished mechanical movements are concerned, all the more so since watch making Houses are in the process of looking to develop their production tool? Yet the offer was open to all interested companies with no restrictions.

At first glance you might believe that the Swatch Group has no need to pad out its factory network seeing that it holds a leading position on the market (read the Economy column). Also at first glance, Richemont, which has just acquired Roger Dubuis’ industrial capacities, prefers to leave the brands within its area the task of investing by themselves, as Piaget is currently doing in its manufacture in Plan-les-Ouates near Geneva (read Wath’s their view column) and Jaeger-LeCoultre in its heritage gallery and by extending its production surface area (read the Interview column). But are these good enough reasons, all the more so since other influential watch making companies could very well have been in the running. The answer probably lies in the subtle balance that characterises the supply flow between watch makers and subcontractors today, any breakdown in which could prove to be disastrous for whoever contrives to challenge it. That being the case, STM Holding’s acquisition became a highly strategic operation that, solved in that way, allowed the "major" watch makers to sleep soundly in their beds.

But the most surprising piece of watch making news in the past few weeks probably comes from the alleged reappearance of the Marie-Antoinette watch made by Breguet for the Queen of France (read the Collection column) and stolen from the Islamic Art Museum in Jerusalem in 1983. The news barely made the headlines despite all the symbolism that surrounds this legendary timekeeper and for a good reason as nobody has yet seen or authenticated the watch. The mystery therefore remains unresolved; maybe the Swatch Group will have the last word as it is in charge of reconstructing this collector’s piece exactly as it was. ■

HH Journal

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