The Watchmaking Hub
In addition to its well-established image on the Swiss fine watchmaking scene, Parmigiani Fleurier today occupies a predominant place in the economy and industry of the Val-de-Travers region. The history of Parmigiani Fleurier is closely tied to that valley, as shown by the fact that Michel Parmigiani chose Fleurier as the location for his first workshop in 1976, when the area had been declared a disaster area, hard hit by the grim years that saw the disappearance of the most prominent mechanical watchmaking companies as the industry moved towards the electronic movement. His confidence in a revitalization of the region’s industrial potential is shared by the Sandoz Family Foundation, which in 1996 decided to support him in creating the Parmigiani Fleurier brand. Since then the watchmaking industry has been reemerging, attracting other prestigious brands to the region. Parmigiani Fleurier was the first to breathe new life into the region’s age-old watchmaking potential, and through its industrial hub it has created over 350 jobs in Fleurier. To perpetuate the exceptional know-how that it has revived, the factory trains apprentices in virtually every sector.
Since 2000, great industrial challenges have been taken up, supported by the Sandoz Family Foundation, an undisputed guarantor of Swiss expertise. A complete industrial and crafts hub has been built up (MHF: the Manufactures Horlogères de la Fondation), bringing together all types of expertise. From the balance spring to the gears, from the case to the dial, all the links are united to form a complete manufacturing complex; fully verticalized and painstaking in its drive for excellence. Supplementing the existing factory, the various units acquired in La Chaux-de-Fonds and in the Jura play a dominant role in ensuring the industrial autonomy that is the company’s goal: atokalpa (Alle, December 2000), a bar turning enterprise producing all movement components; Elwin (Moutier, January 2001), specializing in bar turning and machine equipment; and Les Artisans Boîtiers (La Chaux-de-Fonds, May 2000), which makes watch cases. In twelve years the factory’s workforce has increased tenfold. The complete industrial hub today comprises 450 craftsmen, 50 trades, four production sites and as many regional watchmaking cultures.