News Four months after the acquisition of Artecad, a major Swiss dial manufacturer based in Tramelan (Canton of Bern), TAG Heuer has announced further significant capital investments, this time in mechanical chronograph movements. At the moment, these calibres are manufactured by the company at its Cornol and La Chaux-de-Fonds plants. TAG Heuer also buys high-end Swiss mechanical movements from Sellita, ETA, Dubois-Dépraz, Soprod and Zenith. Given the reduction in supply announced by ETA and the additional volumes needed to meet its growth targets, TAG Heuer must manufacture more and more mechanical movements in-house as well as intensify its cooperation with other traditional partners in Switzerland and abroad.
In a few weeks’ time, the construction of a 2,400 square meters facility will start at the Chevenez site (Canton of Jura) where the key components of the TAG Heuer mechanical chronographs will be produced and finished, as well as assembled, in addition to the existing capacity at La Chaux-de-Fonds. In total, over 100 new jobs will be created and the site as a whole will employ over 150 staff. The mechanical movement component factory currently based at the Cortech facility in Cornol will be transferred to the new Chevenez site. This will enable TAG Heuer to concentrate the manufacturing of Cortech on cases, while significantly increasing its production capacity.
As far as the assortments are concerned, given TAG Heuer’s strong development and the non-renewal of a supply contract with Nivarox-FAR SA, TAG Heuer has decided to obtain the high assortments volumes it needs to satisfy its movement production capability by combining supplies from Swiss companies together with high-end assortments that will be specifically developed and manufactured by Seiko Instruments Inc (SII). SII is a manufacturer known for the quality of its components, its production processes and quality insurance and is a member of the Swiss Chronometry Society (SSC), where it actively contributes to improving assortment knowledge and know-how.
All these developments are consistent with TAG Heuer's full support of the Swissness and subsequent Swiss made reinforcement proposals.
March 22, 2012