HIGHLIGHTS OF 2011 2011 was an excellent year for ETA, both in terms of results and volume. Swatch Group invested heavily in production methods, involving staff recruitment, implementation of infrastructure and industrialization processes as well as logistic and management systems that will enable an increase in the capacity available to the brands for the next few years. In the area of mechanical products, activity linked to new developments once more increased, as demonstrated by the production of the A07.l31 movement, a retro longines moonphase; the A05.h31 movement, a personalized chronograph for Hamilton; and the omega A14, A16 and A22 automatic calibers. Omega’s exclusive A22 chronograph necessitated the creation of a new ultramodern line in Grenchen, ensuring the mastery and reliability of the assembly process.
Swatch Watch Group Assembly In 2011, the activities of swatch Group Assembly focused on increasing the capacity available to the brands and the development of new lines and flexible production cells, as well as on the company’s expansion. The introduction of this additional capacity and these new processes has made it possible to enhance flexibility and greatly increase production. Swatch Group Assembly is on the point of finalizing the extension of its surface area, in order to continue offering its clients new services and an ever greater assembly capacity. The extra floor space will enable the company to offer the brands additional services in terms of component storage and logistics. A continuous education division was also created, providing additional options. The list of actions undertaken by the company in 2011 also includes the integration of bracelet fitting into the production cells. Thanks to these transformations, swatch Group Assembly has become the biggest finisher in Switzerland in the mid-range product segment. With these various activities impacting the working environment and the assembly process and tools, as well as the human resource measures taken, swatch Group Assembly has managed to achieve the versatility and level of maturity that enables it to assemble all sorts of watches – from quartz models to chrono- graphs and mechanical timepieces, as well as Tissot’s t-touch models – and to offer them an identical transit time no matter what their level of complexity.
“Thanks to these transformations, swatch Group Assembly has become the biggest finisher in Switzerland in the mid-range product segment.�
Dress Your Body (DYB) Responsible for developing jewellery and artistic crafts within swatch Group, Dress your Body (DYB) continued to integrate its activities and hired several specialized employees in 2011. Consisting of jewellers, polishers and lost wax casting specialists, DYB’s jewellery and high jewellery department pursued its design, development and production activities for its jewellery lines and jewellery watches. the company worked extensively for Breguet on pieces called Rose de la Reine, petite Rose and lune, as well as the petite Fleur watch that will be part of the crazy Flower collec- tion. Following a recent development focusing on mechanical activities, operations involving the high jewelry decoration of watch cases were reinforced and implemented with the new petite Fleur line.
Manufacture Ruedin 2011 proved to be a pivotal year for Manufacture Ruedin which was able to respond to its clients’ exacting needs in terms of both quantity and quality, while engaging in an important phase of the mod- ernization and rejuvenation of its production facility. In terms of human resources, these activities led the company to consolidate its skill base, although the workforce actually grew considerably. Manufacture Ruedin rose to all the challenges confronting it, responding to strong demand from swatch Group brands and achieving double-digit growth for 2011. Product development in collaboration with the brands also represented an essential activity for the company, which specializes in watch cases that combine metal with hard materials – ceramics, hard metals and sapphire crystal. Key clients were successfully partnered in the creation of new products, such as the seamaster planet ocean and the seamaster 300 m for omega.
Swiss Timing www.swisstiming.com
For Swiss timing, 2011 was filled with events and innovations underscoring its mission to: – serve Swatch Group’s brands; – guarantee excellent state-of-the-art service, performed with competence and reliability; – act as a driving force for innovation in the measurement of time and the management, presentation and distribution of results. 2011 started with two multisport games. In January, the 7th Asian Winter Games in Almaty and Astana (Kazakhstan) brought together 1500 athletes from 45 nations. In February, athletes from 57 nations competed in eleven disciplines at the 25th university Winter Games in Erzurum (turkey). From June onwards, Swiss timing technicians were in London to participate in test events for the 2012 London Olympic Games for omega. In July, they participated on behalf of Tissot at eurobasket in Poland. Afterwards, Swiss timing officiated at the 26th university Summer Games in Shenzhen (China), and they finished the year at the World Mind Games with Rado, in peking (China) in December. Significant multi-year contracts were re-signed in 2011 including, among others, longines’ agreement with the International Ski Federation for downhill skiing, and Tissot’s with the International Cycling union. Three distinct products earned mention in the area of timekeeping innovation: – the new arrival gate for swimming in open water used for the first time during the Final world championships in Shanghai (China); – the e-gun – a completely electronic starting pistol designed to replace the old cartridge-type pistols, and already in use in speed skating and athletics; – A GPS localization system, initially developed with virtual 2D images, evolved to images, making it possible to see the positions of yachts in real time. There is no doubt that Swiss timing is prepared to meet the challenge of the coming Olympic year.
Scilloquartz
www.oscilloquartz.com Electronic Systems Specialising in time-frequency, oscilloquartz supplies fixed and mobile telecommunication operators in over a hundred countries with network synchronization systems and provides time- frequency oscillators based on GNSS systems (GPS GLONASS, soon to be Galileo) to base stations. Additionally, oscilloquartz manufactures clocks based on caesium, the new generation EUDICS (European Digital Caesium Source), used as frequency and time references for metrology and localization applications. Despite a reduction in turnover during the first nine months of the year due to the economic climate and the strength of the Swiss franc, oscilloquartz maintained its operating results thanks to continued improvements in its operational efficiencies. Meeting the drop in international industrial activity and increased competition from American manufacturers head on, oscilloquartz continued its geographical and technical expansion, thus strengthening its position. Following the opening of new sales channels, the leader in timefrequency and network synchronization has enjoyed major successes in India, the united States and Central America – compensating for stagnation in certain traditional markets. Wireless activities are focusing on the LTE (long term evolution) infrastructure which requires microsecond synchronization, notably to support MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services) protocol used by mobile television. The MBSFn function (Multi- media Broadcast Single Frequency network) is based on a network synchronized with the base station (ENBS), providing an opportunity for oscilloquartz, which is equipped with high-performance oscillator technology and compensatory technologies for the effects of thermal resistance and aging. Based on holdover mode, these products ensure the maintenance of external frequency or the timing modules using GNSS or PTP (precision time protocol) signals. The main issue with the different applications – fixed or mobile net- works, radio-communication, metrology and time and frequency distribution – is the stability of the source of frequency to ensure enough capacity to maintain clock performance over several days. 2011 saw the birth of the first clocks with micromachined caesium vapour cells based on CPT (Coherent population trapping) techno- logy which, associated with micro-assembly technologies (MEMS), achieve the objective of ensuring the stability of an atomic watch the size of a quartz oscillator, thereby confirming great perspectives ahead.