Swiss horology

Origins in Geneva

Watchmaking took root in Geneva in the 16th century, when Calvin's sumptuary laws discouraged goldsmiths from making jewellery and Huguenot refugees brought clock and watch skills from France. The Geneva watchmakers' guild was founded in 1601. The 'Fabrique' that followed divided work among specialist workshops — case makers, engravers, enamellers and finishers — many of them in the attic workshops known as cabinets.

The Jura and the établissage system

From the late 17th century the craft spread into the Jura mountains. Tradition credits Daniel JeanRichard with establishing watchmaking in Le Locle; farming families made parts in winter, and merchant-assemblers (établisseurs) coordinated a cottage industry of extraordinary specialisation. Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds, rebuilt on grid plans around watchmaking, are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Industrialisation and competition

American machine-made watches shown at Philadelphia in 1876 shocked the Swiss into mechanising. Interchangeable parts, ébauche factories and specialised component makers followed, and by the early 20th century Swiss firms dominated world exports. The industry was organised through cartels and, from the 1930s, the ASUAG holding (ébauches and components).

Quartz crisis and renaissance

Although Swiss engineers produced some of the first quartz wristwatches (the Beta 21 of 1967–70), Japanese mass production and the strong franc cut Swiss employment dramatically in the 1970s. The merger of ASUAG and SSIH, the Swatch (1983) and a revival of mechanical luxury watches from the late 1980s restored the industry, now concentrated on high-value mechanical watches.

Timeline

1. c. 1776Self-winding 'perpétuelle' watches appear in Switzerland (Perrelet) and France — Self-winding (automatic) mechanism
2. 1839Georges-Auguste Leschot's pantograph mechanises parts-making at Vacheron Constantin — Vacheron Constantin
3. 1839Patek, Czapek & Cie founded in Geneva — Patek Philippe
4. 1842Adrien Philippe invents crown winding and setting (patented 1845) — Keyless (stem) winding
5. 1844Adolphe Nicole's heart cam lets a chronograph hand return to zero — Chronograph
6. 1867Georges Frédéric Roskopf shows his inexpensive pin-lever 'proletarian watch' — Pin-pallet escapement
7. 1896Charles-Édouard Guillaume discovers Invar, a nickel steel almost unaffected by heat
8. 1910A Rolex wristwatch receives a Swiss official chronometer rating — Rolex
9. 1926Screw-down crown patent behind the Rolex Oyster waterproof case — Rolex Oyster (1926)
10. 1931Rolex introduces the Perpetual rotor self-winding movement — Rolex
11. 1967CEH Beta 21 quartz wristwatch prototypes set records at Neuchâtel Observatory — Quartz crystal oscillator
12. 1969First automatic chronographs: Zenith El Primero and the Chronomatic Calibre 11 — Zenith El Primero 3019 PHC
13. 1974Valjoux launches the 7750 automatic chronograph calibre — Valjoux 7750
14. 1983Swatch launched: a plastic quartz watch with a movement of 51 parts — ETA
15. 1999Co-axial escapement enters serial production — Co-axial escapement
16. 2001Ulysse Nardin's Freak uses silicon escapement components — Ulysse Nardin
17. 2006Patek Philippe's Spiromax silicon balance spring — Patek Philippe
18. 2015METAS Master Chronometer certification introduced with Omega — Omega