The Business Of Swissness

This year, watch companies will have to meet stricter requirements to label their watches “Swiss Made”. Here’s what it means and how much it matters.

- Lynette Koh

At this year’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) watch fair in Geneva, several interesting new spins on watch-case materials were introduced: Richard Mille’s ultra-light carbon-based graphene; Audemars Piguet’s hammered Frosted Gold… and H. Moser’s cheese.

Yes, that’s right. One of the key highlights for the independent luxury watchmaker was the Swiss Mad, a watch made from a composite containing Swiss cheese. And not just any cheese, but Vacherin Mont d’Or, which comes from the same village as H. Moser CEO Edouard Meylan. It also has a cowhide strap. The watch’s raison d’etre: To make a satirical statement against the criteria that companies have to meet in order to label their watches as “Swiss Made”.

At the beginning of this year, new laws kicked in, requiring 60 per cent – instead of the former 50 per cent – of the value of a “Swiss Made” product to be of Swiss origin. For Meylan, these standards still remain far too lax. Speaking to us at the SIHH, he elaborated on the Swiss Mad timepiece: “It’s an absurd idea. We wanted to open people’s eyes to this issue, and the best way to do that is to be extreme, provocative and a little absurd.”

WHAT’S IN A NAME? 

Why does Swissness matter? The actual name of a Bill passed in 2013 to protect products of Swiss origin, the term is more than a matter of semantics – it’s big business. Studies have shown that people are willing to pay more for watches from the Alpine nation. While figures vary, a 2016 survey by the University of St Gallen found that respondents were willing to pay up to 100 per cent more for a Swiss luxury watch, as compared to one with no known origin. That’s a lot of Swiss francs.