Mark SUR s on the popularity o the big shows sports

Nicolas Hayek sa e a second time the Swiss watch industry That which had already drawn it rom stagnation in the 1980s by launching the Swatch is now shaking the pro ession. Last December, he announced his intention to stop supplying components (mo ements, needles...) its competitors, on the grounds that a majority o them "used here as in a supermarket. O ten made, the threat is taken seriously by the Swiss authorities, who requested him to continue to deli er at least... until the end o the year ("Les Echos" o January 11, 2010). "In est in marketing and the aesthetics o the product, as too many brands to are slapping to these past ten years, is not su icient." "The uture o Swiss watchmaking is in the hands o those who are also in esting in the motor o the watch and watch inno ation is geared," decrypts Richard Piras, Ladoire co- ounder, watch start-up launched in 2008 that de elops its own mo ements. This training engineer sees the words o Nicolas Hayek a salutary de elopment warning to all o his corporation.

In act, the warning had already been heard, by marks group Richemont, owner o Cartier, Montblanc, Piaget, Jaeger-LeCoultre... or a decade, it began to de elop an industrial tool to de elop and produce the main watch components, including purchased pre iously rom major suppliers such as Swatch Group. A "standing", pushed to the extreme, with including the control o critical components such as the spiral, loaded to store the energy and the return to the mo ement, allows to claim the status o manu acture. Prestigious title a ailable today some giants such as Swatch and Rolex, or independents such as Patek Philippe and Girard-Perregaux.

This strategy requires in estment totalling hundreds o millions o euros. An incenti e to the concentration o the sector, a little image o what happens in the car. As is the need to pool part o the costs, R & D in particular, through the establishment o common production plat orms.

"Concept watch" in Cartier

Bringing together the Richemont group marks and a ew other specialists handpicked, the twentieth Edition o the Salon o haute horlogerie in Gene a, last month, to con irm this trend. In Cartier, to begin. The number one global jewellery began to become also in watchmaking. Proo with ID One, or the time being a simple "concept watch", but including the CEO, Bernard ornas, ensures that the mo ement will equip three years mechanical watches o the House. eature He makes a series o adjustments in assembling the components o the watch. "It is to watch that direct injection made the car", it don't hesitate to say o this inno ation. Shorter term, lagship o Richemont has presented, alongside its no elties or emale customers, a new men's 100 Watch called caliber and equipped with an automatic mo ement "o -road". Such a "tractor" (the term enshrined in the pro ession) which adapt arious tools, it will ser e as base or the de elopment o uture models. Hence sa ing time and money. "last but not least" in the category high watchmaking, Cartier announces the release o 6 mo ements to complications or 2016.

MONTBLANC he also plays the rise in line with the de elopment o his own mo ements. At the manu acture in le Locle, where the mark is 95 o its production or prices ranging up to 30,000 euros. And to manu acture illeret (renamed Institut de recherche en haute horlogerie) or parts o exception, manu actured at a rate o 150-200 units per year. The Institute also plays the role o "incubator" o inno ati e projects by young watchmakers. Example with the Metamorphosis, real Tower o strength with its two dials that substitute to the other. A single click, the irst classic in Roman numerals, clears to re eal the second, more sports, with time. As explained in Jean-Marc Pontroué, executi e ice-president responsible or the de elopment and strategy products, Montblanc applies to watch (and jewellery) strategy that has so ar succeeded in pens: on the one hand, the Meisterstuck lines, produced in large series, and, on the other, limited series and unique parts manu actured by hand in Hamburg workshops.

The tendency to integration is General. Example in window, bought year last by L MH (owner o the " oices"). Mark SUR s on the popularity o the big shows sports. His boss, Jean-Claude Bi er, who has orchestrated his reco ery through o ensi e marketing, is also interested in what happens within the enclosures. The new plant o 6,000 square metres opened last spring, produces mo ements and boxes. "Needles and dials are purchased rom outside, as the"clock", they are produced in a consortium that we ha e mounted with se eral other brands," said.