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2008-04-30 10:40:38
The Develpment of
The Swiss watches and clock industry appeared in Geneva in the middle of the 16th century. In 1541, reforms implemented by Jean Calvin and banning the wear of jewels, forced the goldsmiths and other jewellers to turn into a new, independent craft : watchmaking. By the end of the century, Swiss watches were already reputed for their high quality, and watchmakers created in 1601 the Watchmakers' Guild of Geneva, the first to be established anywhere.
One century later and because Swiss was already crowded with watchmakers, many of them decided to leave the city for the receptive region of the Jura Mountains.
Making Swiss watches in the Jura remains indebted to a young goldsmith called Daniel Jeanrichard (1665-1741), who, for the first time, introduced the division of labour in watchmaking. In 1790, Geneva was already exporting more than 60,000 watches.
The centuries were rich in inventions and new developements. In 1770, Abraham-Louis Perrelet created the "perpetual" watch (in French "Montre à secousses"), the forerunner of the modern self-winding watch. In 1842, Swiss watches were invented by Adrien Philippe, one of the founders of the famous Patek Philippe watch company. At the same time began the production of complicated watches and the introduction of special features such as the perpetual calendar, the fly-back hand and chronographs.
The mass production of Swiss watches began at the turn of the 20th century, thanks to the researches and new technologies introduced by reputed watchmakers such as Frédéric Ingold and Georges Léchot. The increase of the productivity, the interchangeability of parts and the standardization progressively led the Swiss watch industry to its world supremacy.
The end of World War I corresponds to the introduction of the Swiss watches which soon became very popular. Its traditional round shape was generally adopted in 1960. In 1926, the first self-winding wristwatch was produced in Grenchen, the first electrical watches being introduced later in 1952.
In 1967, the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) in Neuchatel developed the world first quartz wristwatch - the famous Beta 21. Since then, major technical developments followed without interruption: LED and LCD displays, Swatch, quartz wristwatch without battery, etc.
Since more than four centuries now, tradition, craftmanship, high technologies and permanent innovation have allowed Swiss watches' making industry to keep its leadership in the world watch market. Because or thanks to the different crisis it had to go through, Swiss watchmaking industry has always been in a position to answer the many technological, economical and structural challenges it was confronted with. Swiss watches' making exceptional dynamism and creative power have made it a state-of-the-art industry, and the many inventions or world records in its possession are so many evidences : the first wristwatch, the first quartz watch, the first water resistant wristwatch, the thinnest wristwatch in the world, the smallest or the most expensive watch in the world, etc.
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