Petitpierre, H2i and R&D under one roof

Petitpierre
A jewel in the crown of the microtechnology watchmaking industry, Petitpierre SA was founded in 1973 by Freddy Petitpierre, father of Boris, the current head of the company. Formerly specialising in metrology, the firm has expanded its areas of activity and today excels in the development and manufacture of watchmaking tools as well as in the assembly and testing of microtechnical components.

Boris Petitpierre, who is passionate about perfection, has been at the head of the company since 1998. He loves to pepper his conversation with quotes such as this one by Hegel: “Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion”. This native of Cortaillod is passionate about everything he does. His passion for beautiful objects – noble materials, perfect finishes, luxurious presentations – and perfect workmanship is conveyed in the products offered by the Neuchâtel company. Torque screwdrivers, microphones, watchmaking tool cases and toolboxes... All these items reflect the quality of workmanship and the great care that has been taken in making them. A simple professional tool becomes a precious asset where colour, touch and presentation are of the utmost importance.

Following a request from one of its historical partners, Petitpierre began designing automated or semi-automated equipment more than 30 years ago. When a product is made up of several components and it proves both feasible and profitable to assemble the elements automatically, it is wise to look for a reliable and high-quality assembly system. Petitpierre’s engineers have a wealth of experience in the assembly of components of all kinds, featuring complicated shapes, low weight and very small dimensions, and are dedicated to serving watchmaking customers. From design to delivery, including training and after-sales service, this sector of activity offers a complete range of services with guaranteed follow-up.

Petitpierre currently works mainly for the watchmaking industry (90%), to which it devotes 50% of its activities for assembly machines, 30% for tooling intended for production and 20% for after-sales services (watchmakers’ magnifiers, date pushers, date correctors, control gauges, work positioning, etc.). At the same time, the firm is also active in the space industry (5%) for which it has, for example, produced an atomic clock support for Galileo, the European GPS system. The last five percent relates to the medical sector, which is currently expanding rapidly. For example, the Neuchâtel company has already designed a titanium ring which, when placed on the aorta, relieves heart failure patients. Petitpierre carried out the machining of the parts in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). The production of these highly technical components whose purpose leaves no room for error, clearly illustrates the high quality of the work carried out in the Cortaillod workshops.

Since 2016, Petitpierre, which currently employs around 50 people, has been part of the Acrotec Group. Despite the health crisis, it is looking serenely to the future and is considering expanding in order to develop its activities more widely, particularly in the medtech sector.

H2i
Created in 2015 by Jean-Charles Rousset and Emmanuel Baudet, H2i – a company name standing for Horology, Innovation and Instrumentation – joined Petitpierre three years ago and now occupies the same premises. Keenly aware that the world of Swiss watchmaking is intimately bound up with the notion of quality, a criterion reinforced by customers who are ever more well-informed, particularly through social media, the two founders decided to develop new-generation measuring tools. Quickly checking the timekeeping accuracy of a watch, demagnetising a timepiece: such are two objectives of the young start-up which has brought them within reach of both watch enthusiasts and boutique sales advisors. This new generation of equipment also makes it possible to considerably reduce the workload of after-sales service centres and to offer customers extremely swift time-setting of their models. And because an object must not only be efficient, but also beautiful, H2i creates measuring devices that are compact, easy to use, high-performance and aesthetically pleasing.

To achieve this, the Neuchâtel-based company deliberately ignored existing solutions and opted to create from scratch technologies adapted to the needs of its customers, even managing, in many cases, to anticipate them. Thus, by placing the customer at the centre of its concerns and developments, the young company quickly became a special partner for large companies sharing the same values.
It has thus launched a whole range of products – Oneof Accuracy – enabling watch enthusiasts and shop assistants to measure the precision of timepieces. However, the latter is very often affected by magnetic fields, which are increasingly omnipresent in many everyday objects. That’s why H2i has developed a device designed for retailers to demagnetise watches in two minutes. Happy customers can now leave home with their watches on time and without having to leave them for several weeks or even months as would be involved in returning them to after-sales service.

The Oneof Accuracy range is also enhanced by state-of-the-art devices, designed for watchmaking companies, which measure timekeeping precision in several positions. These contemporary instruments can be connected to a tablet using a single USB cable, thus maintaining a clean workspace. Dedicated apps perfectly meet the current needs of the industry and have all the technical information useful to watchmakers. Whether in the six traditional positions or in 32,400 positions delivering far higher performance, these measuring devices offer unprecedented prospects for manufacturers who can thus create new test processes.

H2i goes even further by also offering an HMS – standing for Hour, Minute, Second – module which tests the daily rate of a timepiece using high-performance vision-based technology. This module is indeed capable of detecting the angular position of the hands of a finished watch “head”. Audible precision control tests on a watch are very eloquent and simple to carry out. Supplementing them with a daily rate measurement of a finished watch head adds considerable value to the final tests carried out on a watch.

Consistently on the cutting edge of technology, H2i will soon be launching a new 2,000G magnetic module, a device developed mainly for the laboratories of watch manufacturers and enabling the measurement of movements’ daily rate as well as the residual effects of a magnetic field on a watch in real time.

H2i has already won over a number of watchmakers which have come to appreciate its contemporary design and advanced technologies. Today, out of the approximately eight million mechanical watches produced each year by Swiss brands, many of them are placed on the market after having been checked and tested by means of the solutions that the Cortaillod-based firm has to offer.

Acrotec R&D
The Acrotec group, which comprises some 20 companies, set up an R&D centre at the beginning of this year. Located in the heart of the Petitpierre building in Cortaillod, this centre is staffed by six high-level engineers with extensive industrial and managerial experience and in R&D positions. Their task is to encourage, stimulate and develop innovations within each company of the group, as well as transversal innovations between entities. The group is also at the disposal of subcontracting companies wishing to optimise certain manufacturing processes in order to modernise them. Finally, it intends in the future to develop links with universities and institutes of technology.

The Acrotec Group currently achieves a turnover of around 300 million francs. Its activities are 50% dedicated to watchmaking and jewellery, 25% to Medtech and 25% to High-Tech Precision. It continues to establish itself as a strategic partner for its customers, open to all demands and ready to take on major challenges.

Although the group is always open to the acquisition of new companies, it is in the medtech sector that it would currently like to develop. This field holds great potential and the fact of working on Swiss soil is synonymous with precision, reliability and rigorous standards. While the current health situation could prove conducive to the acquisition of firms in difficulty, the group is nevertheless looking for healthy firms whose managers are motivated to continue their activities and to perpetuate the holding company.

The Acrotec Group is active in three sectors:

• Watchmaking (Butech, Décovi, Générale Ressorts, H2i, Kif Parechoc, mu-DEC, Mimotec, Precipro, Petitpierre, Pierhor-Gasser, STSand WatchDec);
• Medtech (AFT Micromécanique, Décovi, Diener Precision Machining, Diener Precision Pumps, Pierhor-Gasser, Tectri and WatchDec);
• High-Tech Precision (Butech, Décovi, Diener Machining Precision, Diener Precision Pumps, DJC, Roch mécanique de précision, Tectriand Vardeco).
  
  

November 12, 2020