News Since 1996, the achievements of Chopard Manufacture include creating five calibres, earning its ISO certification, taking on over 100 members of staff and investing 30 million francs!
The idea of creating a Manufacture, representing the only means of acquiring genuine legitimacy in the field of Haute Horlogerie, had long been on the mind of Chopard Co-President Karl-Friedrich Scheufele. Three fundamental considerations had led him this conclusion: balance out the collections; highlight and enhance the brand’s horological expertise within a dedicated and technically well-equipped entity; achieve greater independence and more vertical integration of production, just like in the Meyrin and Pforzheim sites.
The beginnings of this adventure date back to 1993. It was at this time that the first steps towards creating a mechanical movement was undertaken. Little by little, the project took shape and on January 19th 1996, Chopard Manufacture was founded in Fleurier. It was installed in a building that had undergone several construction stages since 1903, located at Rue des Moulins 20, in Fleurier. The West-East wing was extended in 1947, and the South wing enlarged in 1966. This building is an important symbolic landmark in the region, since it has always been dedicated to the production of watches. While Chopard Manufacture currently develops and produces the famous LUC movements there, in the past it was used to make movement blanks and was indeed called the “Fabrique d’ébauches de Fleurier” and was one of the jewels in the crown of the Ebauches SA company. Today, Chopard Manufacture comprises 3,300 square metres of floor space. Acquired in its entirety in 2000, the entity has been completely renovated and refurbished to ensure a comfortable working environment and facilities meeting current requirements. Finally, in order to comply with the quality criteria demanded by Chopard, it was ISO-certified in 1998.
It is worth recalling that Chopard, as a company, has been in uninterrupted activity for almost 150 years. Chopard Manufacture in Fleurier, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2006, thus represents the quintessence of the brand’s horological expertise patiently built up since the founding of the Chopard brand in 1860 by Louis Ulysse Chopard. Chopard Manufacture is also a watchmaking competence centrefor the group, particularly in terms of purchasing, Research & Development, and logistics. Moreover, it operates as an ASS repair centre and performs subcontracting work for Chopard Genève, including the production and casing up of various collections, such as the Mille Miglia and certain Happy Sport models. Around 25,000 watches emerge each year from the workshops of the Manufacture, including those carrying the LUC label. Finally, providing further proof of the competence of the specialists within the Manufacture, the 3,000 movements carrying the LUC label are all COSC-certified.
Over the past decade, Chopard Manufacture has grown from a tiny three-person unit to a modern and efficient company. It currently employs 108 people exercising around fifteen different professions. These include engineers specialising in research and development, methods technicians, watchmakers, including laboratory specialists and others responsible for assembling grand complication models, along with customer care specialists, mechanical technicians, polymechanics, movement decorators, electroplating operators, polishers, case-fitters and finally testing inspectors.
Chopard Manufacture is also concerned with maintaining the watchmaking know-how in the region. It thus enables young people to serve apprenticeships as watchmakers and polymechanics, training courses leading to a Federal Certificate of Capacity. Finally, it provides systematic in-house training of all the new personnel working as movement decorators and mechanical operators.
The company is a founding member of the Fleurier Quality Foundation, which was established on August 27th 2004. Moreover, it plays a major economic role in the Val-de-Travers, since it has invested over 30 million francs there over the past 10 years and maintained jobs in the region, thus ensuring favourable spin-off effects for both the private economy and the local authorities.
According to Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, the man who has forged the group’s Manufacture-oriented adventure, the most important emphasis in the immediate future must be placed on the Research & Development department. As he points out: “We have felt the need to refocus this activity. It is with this in mind that we have created a new company called Chopard Technologies, which we will house in the a building we have purchased in Fleurier, at Rue du Temple 1. This new entity will enable us to concentrate everything relating to technical creation in one place, since this activity is not always compatible with the demands and stress of actual production. We are thus crossing a new threshold. In the past, we had a small unit, which was not subject to any pressure from the production sector. This is no longer the case. Personally, I feel it is essential to give the personnel in this division the freedom to think, because in the field of research it is vital to allow oneself time, to be able to proceed by trial and error, to backtrack or even to explore an entirely new path if the one taken turns out to be a dead end. Creating this new division will thus provide scope for this indispensable exercise.”
Finally, to mark its tenth anniversary, Chopard Manufacture inaugurated a museum called "LUCeum – Footprints of time" on its premises; pride of place is given here to the company’s own products and historical timepieces from 1500 to the present day. The fifth calibre made in-house, the LUC 10 CF, fitted in the LUC Chrono One Chronograph, is also on display.
October 04, 2006
