The new requirements established by Swissness

Swissness refers to the revision of the Federal Act on the Protection of Trade Marks and Indications of Source. Because the conditions governing the use of such indications in general, and the Swiss designation in particular, had not previously been regulated in detail, the Swiss Parliament adopted this revision on 21 June 2013.

Swissness introduces new criteria for determining the geographical origin of a product or service more precisely. In other words, the law defines the conditions under which a product may claim to be of Swiss origin.

Above all, this new legal framework also responds to the expectations of consumers around the world who are willing to pay more for products bearing the Swiss made label and rightly expect them to be predominantly manufactured in Switzerland.

For all these reasons, and from the outset of the legislative process, the watch industry firmly supported the principle of strengthening the criteria defining the Swiss made label.

The new criteria differ according to the category of product or service. For industrial products, including watches, Swissness sets the minimum proportion of Swiss value at 60%.

For watchmaking, the adoption of Swissness led to amendments to the existing implementing ordinance, namely the 1971 Ordinance regulating the use of the name 'Swiss' for watches. The criteria that watches must meet to qualify for the Swiss made label were also revised and strengthened under that ordinance. Watchmaking and the cosmetics industry are the only two Swiss industrial sectors with a specific implementing ordinance.