In this era, widely considered to be a Golden Age of watchmaking, companies are growing at rates unheard of, getting too big for the places in which they were founded. This is what recently happened to DeWitt, which moved from the grounds of Jérôme de Witt’s residence in Geneva, near the French border, to a larger, rented facility in the Vernier area of Geneva.

The growth
DeWitt has been growing faster than even the company’s founder, Jérôme de Witt, could have foreseen. Caught a little off guard, and having watchmakers working in the garage of his family property outside of Geneva, de Witt decided to move into a new building with more space for the operations that he wants to do in-house.
"If I want to work properly, I really should integrate everything,” de Witt says. “We have new machinery coming and new departments on the way. We have started the production of our own wheels, for example, because delays from suppliers are very long, so now we have our own production and we can guarantee the quality.”
In 2003, the DeWitt brand could count the number of its employees on one hand, now the total adds up to 48 and more employees are coming.
“The main reason for moving the factory to Vernier was that we increased the number of people - we had the opportunity to hire some very good watchmakers,” de Witt explains. “These people came to work on development and we needed space for our machinery. To produce small pieces, you need huge machines, so we have CNC machines, lasers and things like that. We have started to be more independent and our goal is to develop our own movement. We want a simple movement, which we will build as a platform. We will start with hand wound movements, then automatic ones, chronographs, and more. "
Now, I have to have my own research and development inside,” he continues. “The market is strong. I will continue with BNB Concept, but I will also develop movements inside my own production facility.”




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The new facility
The building de Witt now calls home is a former Rolex manufacturing facility. He is the first to admit that the building is not perfect, but it is set up well and it is working...for now.
The DeWitt company is no longer a small, family enterprise. It has grown so large that it now needs, and has, a structure and a long-term plan. Despite this change in organizational structure, decisions are still made quite quickly. In order to respond quickly to these new ideas and get them into the marketplace, it’s important to be able to make some critical parts in-house.
“Mr. de Witt has a lot of ideas and to develop all of them doesn't really fit with using outside suppliers,” says Pascal Brandt, Communication Director, DeWitt. “We will make the critical parts. We have lots of room to expand here.
“Mr. de Witt is free, curious and has the means to satisfy his curiosity,” he continues. “Decisions can be made quickly here, rather than waiting six months for several people or a board to make the decision.”
Having the ability to respond by walking down the hall or down the steps is critical to DeWitt staying competitive and cutting edge.
“We have more development, more complications and more control by doing a lot more inside the company,” de Witt says. “The marketing plan has to be the product. My goal is to have a perfect product with zero defects. This is not easy to do because watches are hand made. If we have people working inside the company and we keep to our limits, we have a chance. It's because everything is hand made, which takes a lot of time.”





The market for DeWitt
DeWitt is selling strongly all around the world. The best markets, according to Philippe Boven, World Sales Director, are where DeWitt has its three subsidiaries – Asia (Hong Kong), the United States (Miami) and Italy. The emerging markets look good for DeWitt, as they are typically more willing to embrace new ideas.
“Russia is a big opportunity for us,” Boven says. “We are very strong with the Russians outside their country and we want to be strong inside the Russian market. We have agents around the world, and retailers we deal with directly. Right now, we have about 80 points of sale worldwide. We have not yet started in China, and even without China, we increased 50 percent over last year. China is scheduled for 2008.
”In contrast, Europe is a conservative and mature market,” he continues. “Boutiques will come in time. We want to develop our retailers first. We need some time to build up our production as well, to support the boutiques and our retailers. Having our own boutiques is definitely a target in the next couple of years."
Production right now is around 1,000 watches a year, and de Witt is happy to stay around that number. “It's a question of quality,” he explains. “If I could find the solution to increase with the same quality, I would, but the watches take the time they take because of our attention to detail and emphasis on perfection.
“The demand is there for our watches,” he adds. “I have to control the points of sale, because we are so limited. We have to be very selective. We must ask the retailers to really respect our image. We are in the fourth year now, and we have created a very strong image around our quality. We have a very strong relationship with our customers - they have confidence in us and I cannot risk damaging that.”

DeWitt is growing so fast that everyone considers the current facility a temporary solution. “We are renting this facility, and it is right in the flight path of the airport,” de Witt says. “This building is very old, we are not saving energy and we could do it better. I hope to build or buy a new building pretty soon. We must find our roots; it's never good to be renting and not have a solid foundation.”
So, look for DeWitt to move to another, better-suited facility in the next few years. Rest assured, however, that the product will remain the most important part of the equation for DeWitt.


Source: Europa Star August-September 2007 Magazine Issue