The Swiss watch industry has had a specialized horizontal structure in which producers of movements and producers external parts supply their products to assemblers, called "etablisseurs", who put them together and make complete watches and clocks. However, to a lesser extent, the industry has also developed a vertically integrated structure in which watches and clocks are sometimes made entirely A to Z by the same company, in this case they are called "manufacture".

 

Number of company and employee

During the 1970s and early 1980s, appearance of quartz technology and the difficult economic situation resulted in a reduction in the size of the industry : the number of employees fell from 90,000 in 1970 to 30,000 in 1984. It remained stable over the next 15 years, and back to 40,000 in 2001. It was 48,835 in 2007, which was increasing since 2005

 

The number of companies decreased from about 1600 in 1970 to 600 at present. The average number of employees per company has remained constant, at just under 70 people per company at present, as in 1970. The great majority of watch companies in Switzerland are small sized, employing less than 100 people, while a very little number (less than 10) are each employing over 500 people.

 

Watchmaking Area

Watch manufacturers are mostly sited in Jura, which is the mountain range lying from the West along the border between France.

(October 2008)