July 12th, 2007 - Use of the Term Swiss-Made to be More Tightly Regulated
The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH) has proposed stricter regulation of the term “Swiss Made”. The proposal was agreed upon by 87% of its members during the general meeting held last June 28 at the Hôtel Elite in Biel.
While Swiss watches are known worldwide for their quality and beauty the industry has been criticised for years due to the lax regulations, which they deem could result in the lowering of the value of the the watches in terms of credibility in the eyes of consumers worldwide. Currently a watch can be called a Swiss watch with only a rate of 50% of its movements actually being Swiss-made. As for acceptable rate for production cost there isn’t even a set standard as to how much of the actual production cost should have been incurred by operations done in Switzerland. The proposal now states that for mechanical watches 80% be the minimum requirement for both production cost and overall cost for all the parts. For electronic watches this is 60%. The production cost to be computed will not include the raw materials to be used as well as the precious stones and batteries. Aside from these they are proposing that the majority of technical construction as well as the development of the prototypes be made in Switzerland.
The new proposals are expected by the FH to ruffle some feathers especially with regards to the supply of watch components. However, they realize that if they want to keep up the prestige that comes with the appellation “Swiss Watch” then they really do need to have stricter regulations.