A new manufacture to celebrate ninety years of existence

After nine months of design and twelve months of construction work, inauguration of the new building took place in the presence of client and supplier representatives, as well as all partners involved in the project. The new manufacture located in Le Crêt-du-Locle has a surface area of 6,000 m2. A plot adjacent to the building has also been acquired with a view to possible future expansion.

Founded in 1924 in La Chaux-de-Fonds by Arnold Fehr, the company Fehr et Cie has over the decades successfully navigated wars and crises and has managed to avoid falling into the clutches of large watchmaking groups. Resolutely independent and firmly rooted in the Neuchâtel Mountains, the firm has consistently followed the dictates of discretion. Expertise, professional knowledge and close relations with clients are its most admired trademark. It currently produces around 200,000 dials a year for leading watch manufacturers, some of which have been customers for many years.

Operating three production sites in the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds up to the start of last summer, Fehr et Cie, together with Technofrap (a company acquired by Fehr et Cie) decided to pool their activities and one hundred-strong workforce in a new building capable of fulfilling their ambitions and meeting the expectations of their respective clients.

The rationalisation of production on a single site represents an important strategic choice in the history of the business. With a resolutely contemporary architecture and adapted to the firm’s requirements, the new building has an interior organisation that reflects this strategy, bringing together around a logistical core all activities involved in the manufacture of dials. The ultra-modern premises are home to both cutting-edge equipment and traditional machines – rose engines, stamps – testifying to the company’s long and extensive experience and its need to be at the cutting edge of technology in order to serve its clients in optimal fashion.

With this large-scale project, Fehr et Cie intends to optimise production processes, improve its performance and sustain growth on a long-term basis. The new manufacture sends out a strong signal: the dial-maker not only points up its determination to remain independent, but also reaffirms its ability to face the future with exceptional production facilities.

One chapter in the company’s ninety-year history deserves special mention, being an uncommon occurrence in the world of watchmaking of bygone times: in the 1940s, the firm was run by two women. In 1942, the founder Arnold Fehr lost his son André who was an active partner in the firm. Indeed the family was dogged by bad luck, since a year later Arnold in turn met his death. The company, effectively deprived of leadership, needed to find a solution immediately. Arnold’s widow, Hélène, stepped into the breach initially. She quickly realised however that the solution was not ideal and decided to call on her daughter-in-law, the widow of André, who had a good knowledge of watchmaking through her work as a balance-spring fitter. Nelly Fehr agreed to take up the torch. She showed strength and courage in mastering the many facets of her new role and asserting her presence in a predominantly masculine world. She remained at the helm of the business for nineteen years.  

September 18, 2014