Pursuits
Swiss Watchmakers May Not All Be Swiss Enough to Scale Barriers
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Mondaine, the maker of Official Swiss Railways watches, may have to shut a two-year-old factory because its timepieces aren’t Swiss enough.
The future of the 10 million-franc ($11 million) plant in Solothurn and its 110 workers would be jeopardized should larger rivals such as Swatch Group AG succeed in calls for fewer non-Swiss components to be allowed in Swiss-made timepieces, according to Mondaine co-owner Ronnie Bernheim. Mondaine, which has been making watches modelled on the nation’s train-station clocks for 25 years, uses imported dials and cases.