Nivarox-FAR: Cornerstone laid for new factory in Fontaines

Fontaines (Switzerland), November 6, 2008 – Nivarox-FAR celebrated the beginning of construction of its new factory today with a cornerstone-laying ceremony at its site in Fontaines, Switzerland.

Nick Hayek (CEO Swatch Group), Roland Debély (Président du Conseil de l’Etat de Neuchâtel), Nicolas G. Hayek (Chairman Swatch Group) and Thierry Straehl (Direction Nivarox-FAR).

Nivarox-FAR – Cornerstone laid in Fontaines

The company is investing in the extensive new production facility in order to develop its new products for the watchmaking industry. The new plant will bring together under one roof a number of new professions and advanced Nivarox-FAR technologies currently distributed across five different facilities, thus enabling the concentration of the firm’s unique areas of expertise for the purpose of future development projects.

The project

The new factory will provide approximately 6,000 square meters of workspace and is due to be completed in June 2009. It will accommodate around one hundred people currently working at different sites belonging to Swatch Group companies or at the current facility in Fontaines. The investment will amount to several million Swiss francs.

The new facility in Fontaines will accommodate the following:

Production of barrel springs and their assembly into finished barrels
Production of appliques and apertures for high-end gold watch dials
A foundry for the production of the alloys necessary to manufacture balance springs and barrel springs
Development of silicon and the manufacture of balance springs and escapements in silicon, destined primarily for the Breguet and Omega watch brands
Development and application of the technology known as LIGA (from the German «Lithographie-Galvano-Abformung»), a method used to produce metallic microstructures exhibiting a high degree of geometric complexity, based on the association of photolithography (photo-structuration using resins) and galvanoplasty (electroplating of metals).

The building site

About Nivarox-FAR SA

The result of a number of mergers since 1850 of companies specialised in the manufacture of components at the heart of mechanical watches, Nivarox-FAR today is not only the sum of numerous unique areas of expertise, but is also a continuously evolving research and development laboratory.

Operations are coordinated from company headquarters at Le Locle and carried forward across four separate sites in the heart of the Jura Mountains. The 1,100 employees who make up the company work every day on a 22,600 square meter industrial site equipped with approximately 3,000 traditional and digital machines.

Contacts

Media

Béatrice Howald
Head of Media Relations, Spokesperson
The Swatch Group Ltd
CH-2500 Biel / Bienne
Phone: +41 32 343 68 33 – Fax: +41 32 343 69 22
E-mail: use our «Contact Form», please.

Media Kit (PDF Document) (45 KB)

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Nivarox-FAR: Cornerstone laid for new factory in Fontaines