News To support a sustained growth, TAG Heuer continues to develop its production capacity. Inauguration of a new movement manufactory in the heart of the Jura.
On 5 November in Chevenez, the brand, owned by the LVMH group and based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, opened a new manufactory dedicated to production of its 1887 and 1969 movements, the latter being the latest in line unveiled to the public on this occasion.
TAG Heuer is enjoying a 20% spike in growth in a country that no longer produces the quantity of components required by its watch industry. Increased demand, too few components: to counter this two-pronged dilemma, and stay true to its 153 years of proud heritage, TAG Heuer has invested large amounts of capital and ingenuity into the expansion of its production capacity in Switzerland.
Chronology
In 1860, Edouard Heuer, the 20-year-old son of a shoemaker, founded a watchmaker’s workshop in Saint-Imier, a remote village in the Jura mountains of Switzerland. Today, the company he created, TAG Heuer, is a flagship brand in the LVMH Group and one of the biggest chronograph producers in Switzerland, with the second largest worldwide network of retail outlets in the watchmaking industry.
In 2004, the brand opened the Cortech manufacture on a new site in the Jura commune of Cornol. Here, 150 technicians make, by hand and machine, TAG Heuer watch cases in stainless steel or gold. In 2009, a movement workshop was added, producing main plates and bridges for mechanical movements.
In 2010, TAG Heuer added two movement workshops to its main site at La Chaux-de-Fonds, one for award-winning «haute horlogerie» mechanical movements like the Mikrograph, Mikrotimer, V4, MikrotourbillonS, and the other for its mechanical Chronograph Calibre 1887. Perfected after three years of intense R&D the Calibre 1887 oscillates at 28,800 beats per hour and has 320 working parts, including a column wheel and an audaciously re-engineered version of the brand’s 1887 patented oscillating pinion. At our T1 facility, more than 1,000 calibres are produced each week, or one every two minutes.
In 2011, TAG Heuer acquired ArteCad. Established in Tramelan in 1885, it is one of Switzerland’s top producing and most highly integrated dial manufactures.
In 2012, TAG Heuer began construction of the fourth TAG Heuer manufacture in Chevenez, in the Swiss Jura. Like the Chaux-de-Fonds firm, it produces the Calibre 1887 and a brand new integrated mechanical chronograph movement, the 100% in-house developed Calibre 1969. The new 2,600 m2 facility will create more than 100 new jobs, bringing the total number of people employed by TAG Heuer in Switzerland to about 800.
Total expenditure to date for the Calibre 1887 and 1969 is over 40 millions Swiss Francs. Production volume of the innovative movements has outpaced expectations: started in 2010, it will surpass 50,000 units in 2013 and reach a projected target capacity of 100,000 by 2016.
In-house manufactured movements, cases and dials: TAG Heuer is one of a very small handful of Swiss manufactures that can boast such comprehensive production capacities. This exceptional level of watchmaking excellence has earned the company membership in the most exclusive circle of the Swiss watchmaking elite, the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH).
TAG Heuer downstream
TAG Heuer’s rapid retail growth - 20% of total sales in 2012, up from 15% in 2011 - is due to an ambitious strategy of ever-increasing brand presence on the most high-profile addresses of luxury retail. Today, TAG Heuer products are available in 4,000 outlets and 180 TAG Heuer boutiques in 57 countries. No fewer than 52 of these exclusive shops opened in the last two years.
This has been the most impactful year to date, with TAG Heuer openings in major destinations around the world: the Champs-Elysées, Fifth Avenue (New York), Frankfurt, Paris Opera, Paris Bon Marché, Istanbul, Hong Kong (Time Square and Ocean Terminal) and Macau. The «200» mark will be reached in 2014, with flagships set to open in London, Milan, Madrid, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Macau, Singapore and Beijing. Within three to five years, the projected total is set for 250.
Meanwhile, the brand also opened its first online boutiques this year, in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. It also launched a major renovation campaign, with complete overhauls of existing stores throughout its retail empire.
TAG Heuer Calibre 1969
From drawing board to production it took two years to complete and launch production of the new 1969 calibre, revealed to the public at the inauguration of the new Chevenez manufactory. At a cost of around twenty million francs, development of this project represents a real breakthrough in timing, comparable to that achieved by Jack Heuer and his team in 1969 with the Calibre 11, the movement which provided inspiration for the name TAG Heuer Calibre 1969 given to this latest design. Production of the new movement is expected to total 500 units in 2013, a figure set to rise to 5,000 in 2014.
The high quality of the movement 1969 is the direct result of key lessons learned in the design and production of TAG Heuer’s Calibre 1887 and award-winning «haute horlogerie» movements. A benchmark of prestige chronograph design, the vertical-clutch system is exceptionally powerful and precise: 28,800 vibrations per hour (4 Hertz), with an extended 70 hour power reserve and a difference of time adjustment after 24 hours of minus 4 to 6 seconds. The very thin movement (6.5 mm) houses 200 components. The assortment is an Atokalpa, as is the four-spoked balance, which is KIF auto-shock adjusted. The dial’s counter layout, like the original Calibre 11, is classic «tri-compax»: central chronograph hand with chronograph minutes at 3 o’clock, chronograph hour at 9 o’clock and small second at 6 o’clock. The caliber 1969 also features a date window at 9 o’clock. The decoration is equally outstanding, with «Côte de Genève» and snailing on the black tungsten oscillating weight and the minute and automatic bridges, which are nickel plated and angle polished, with shiny beveled edges. The bridges, plates and ébauches are all produced at Chevenez.
In conclusion, this new movement better combines maximum thinness with a larger power reserve and a significant volume potential».
November 21, 2013
