Watchmaking’s first Campus

Speaking at the inauguration of the Campus Genevois de Haute Horlogerie – a vast project launched in 2010 by Richemont International at an investment of well over CHF 100 million – Chief Executive Richard Lepeu had every reason to be satisfied. Construction had been completed in record time, and the site was already filling up as a thousand staff (of the 1,200 who will ultimately work there by 2020) from the campus’s nine residents moved to their new address: a 45,000 square-metre site in Meyrin, next to Geneva airport. This gigantic, eco-friendly project is more than simply an office development or a new production site as it brings together a training centre, a library, and craft workshops alongside manufacturing facilities and administrative buildings, making it the first of its kind in the watch industry.

“As you know, Richemont’s decentralised corporate culture allows its Maisons a great deal of autonomy,” declared Richard Lepeu. “When developing this campus, we were guided by an altogether different concept. We set out to create an incubator that would foster synergies and interactions. By concentrating the expertise of various entities in the group within a pleasant environment, we are creating conditions for this expertise to circulate. In a word, we are planning for the future.” The guided tour of the Campus that followed provided several examples of this concept in practice.

From balance springs to vegetal leather

In one of the three new buildings, for production facilities, Vacheron Constantin will manufacture components for its 5100, 5200 and 5300 calibres, which are central to its new Overseas range. They all carry the Poinçon de Genève hallmark. The company now produces 95% of its movements, including escapements. Given that Vacheron Constantin didn’t previously make its own balance springs – which combine with the balance wheel to form the regulating organ – whereas Roger Dubuis, the site’s very first occupant, did, the extent of this knowledge transfer becomes clear. As well as its own production, Vacheron Constantin is supplying other Campus brands with these strategic assemblies as special orders.

Atelier de Maroquinerie is another Richemont entity to have taken up residence on the Campus. Less well-known, it specialises in strap production. This leather workshop opened in Geneva in 2014, though only after the five years of careful preparation required for a watchmaker entering this parallel segment. This included a collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) to develop an intelligent system that optimises the leather cutting process so as to minimise defects and waste. The hides, all Alligator mississippiensis, a non-endangered species, are 100% traceable. In a similar vein of innovation, certain straps are made using 3D printers and… corn! Is vegetal leather the way ahead? Confirmation of Richemont’s forward thinking, the answer might well come out of this Campus Genevois.

Residents of the Campus Genevois de Haute Horlogerie

Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Roger Dubuis, Vacheron Constantin, Van Cleef & Arpels, Atelier de Maroquinerie, Ecole des Métiers et Artisans de Haute Horlogerie, Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, Richemont Luxury Group Europe.