News At an official ceremony held on 30 September last in Bienne, Bruno Meier, Rolex CEO, and Joël Bellec, senior director of the Manufacture des Montres Rolex, laid the foundation stone of the brand’s new production building in Bienne, in the presence of Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard, Councillor of State for the Canton of Berne Andreas Rickenbacher, the Mayor of Bienne Hans Stöckli and many guests. Work on this industrial building, dedicated to movement production, began last July and the whole complex is scheduled for completion in 2012.
In compliance with Minergie specifications, the new production building comprising four floors over three basements and with a volume in excess of 230,000 m3 will be an extension of the two existing production units. In particular, it will accommodate an important storage and automatic distribution system which will enable components and finished products to be routed to the production workshops entirely under robot control. The new production facility established in this way with a volume of more than 400,000 m3, will bring together all the activities needed for production of the Rolex movement, as well as the provisioning areas, a sewage treatment station, a big restaurant and several cafeterias. It will provide an exceptional working environment for the 2000 or so Rolex employees in Bienne.
Before unveiling the foundation stone of the building (a block of raw stone from the region fashioned by the Bienne artist Felice Bottinelli), Bruno Meier commented: “Despite the present economic crisis, Rolex is actively preparing the recovery in a spirit of complete confidence. The start of work on this site in Bienne is the finest proof that could be given of that fact. We share this confidence with the City of Bienne, the Canton of Berne and the Confederation which have always supported us in this project.”
To round off the official ceremony, a parchment was signed by the company management and the representatives of the public authorities who were present. It was placed in a cylinder, accompanied by the front pages of the local and national newspapers published on that day and a watch movement. The cylinder was then hermetically sealed into the foundation stone which will take its place at the entrance to the future building.
October 13, 2009
