www.fhs.swissThe Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH is adopting the address "www.fhs.swiss" to strengthen its Swiss image and highlight the importance that it attaches to the "Swiss made" label and to Switzerland as a home of industry.
The domain name ".swiss" has been available to public and private enterprises since September 2015. The FH therefore filed an application and obtained the address "fhs.swiss" for its presence on the web. With effect from today, its Internet site is identified by "www.fhs.swiss" and the e-mail addresses of staff members have also been changed accordingly (first name.surname@fhs.swiss).
The FH has always been keen to defend the "Swiss made" label both in Switzerland and across the world. For the past ten years it has been committed to strengthening protection of this label as part of the Swissness project and the review of the watch industry ordinance concerning the name "Swiss". That makes it perfectly logical to associate the FH with the name "Swiss".
Few other industries are so closely identified with Switzerland as the watch industry. When people speak of watches they think of Switzerland and when they speak of Switzerland they have its watches in mind. Associating the name “Swiss” with the watch industry is therefore a self-evident step. The FH also owns the generic address "watch.swiss" which it has chosen as the name of its new international exhibition dedicated to Swiss watches.
Last but not least, the domain ".swiss" is much better known than ".ch". All the studies conducted in relation to the Swissness project show how well known the name "Swiss" is all over the world and the sympathy which it elicits. On the other hand, the foreign public does not automatically recognise “ch” as a reference to Switzerland. Few people associate “ch” with the “Swiss Confederation”.
The old addresses will remain in force during a transitional phase.